While the weather is becoming cooler, at least the rains have stopped for awhile. Daily temps are in the low to mid seventies with lots of sunshine. At last I can get back into the garden without becoming mired down.
I managed to get the rest of my garden tilled up when the soil dried out sufficiently. Now I can go to town planting the remainder of my vegetables.
I picked two pounds of Vates collards this week from our first planting of this year. This was the second picking from these plants.
Here are three more rows of collards that I just planted. They're all looking like they're going to do well.
Here are 22 giant marconi peppers that weighed a total of two and a half pounds.
You can see in the following pics that there are lots of blossoms and baby peppers are still on the plants, so we should be getting many more before they finish for the year.
This is the last harvest of the sweet banana peppers for this year. This is 34 of them that weighed two pounds. I removed the plants after picking these to make room for my fall crops.
My heritage raspberries continue to produce very well. This week I picked six ounces of them.
Judging from the green berry buds that are showing in the pics below, there will be a lot more raspberries to ripen this year.
This isn't a harvest, but it was interesting, so I thought I would share it with you. I know I'll be using this method next year and I'll find out if celery will be a productive crop for me.
I've heard about sprouting plants from the roots of packaged celery, and I decided I had to try it. I bought a two-pack of organic celery and cut off the stalks so I could put the bottoms of them into bowls of water to see if they would grow. I used bottled water to avoid having chemicals impact the growth. In just three days they grew this much! It surprised me that it would do so well so fast.
Here they are planted in a container so I can move it around when harsh weather is coming. I'm not sure if it will grow inside the house or not.
Our fig tree has a lot of figs on it. I sure hope they ripen in time to harvest before the cold weather gets here!
I was surprised to see a second crop of figs on the tree. I planted it because I like figs. I didn't know it would give two crops in a single year.
The okra plants in the barrel are still growing nicely. I can't help but wonder what the harvests will be like with the plants going into their second year this coming spring.
The container of Swiss chard is doing well. I'll probably be picking that next week.
The sorrel is continuing to grow vigorously in the planter as well as the barrel.
I think I'm going to transplant the ones in the planter into the ground along the driveway. Then they can spread all they want to. That would be fine with me.
The three jalapeno pepper plants didn't do much of anything this year. I got two small peppers so far, with a couple more still on the plants. Perhaps they will winter-over in my shop in an out of the way corner. The plants do seem small to produce the usual large peppers I have seen. Maybe next year they will be more productive.
The Cherokee purple tomatoes had three harvested this week, but no picture. They weighed a total of thirteen ounces.
Last but not least, my Park's Whoppers are almost ready to pick. There are several that are not quite red enough. Another day or two and they'll be picked. Any remainders will be picked for the window sill or for green tomato relish.
That completes another update on my back yard organic vegetable garden.
Visit daphnesdandelions for wonderful pictures of delicious food and a great source of gardening information.
Have a great vegetable gardening day!
Veggie PAK
Making great progress on getting your garden transitioned to fall/winter crops. You have a lot of bounty currently and lots more on the way.
ReplyDeleteI'll be very interested to see if the celery-growing experiment works well. That way you could get two crops: cut off 80% of the stalks and eat them straight away, while planting-up the root ends for growing-on.
ReplyDeleteYour raspberries are continuing to fruit very late in the year. I wonder what variety they are. I have "Autumn Bliss", which is just finishing now.
That's a great idea with the celery! I never have much luck growing celery from seeds. Do you think it would do well in a cold frame through the winter?
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you are going to have some nice fall/winter veggies to enjoy! Great celery experiment! I planted 3 small side shoots in the cold frame beds from celery that I harvested at the plots. They are doing great!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy this warm weather. It has been in the 80's here for five days...crazy weather! The daffodils are coming up!
I read about the celery thing on the web this year somewhere and tried it. They did grow for awhile and then petered out. I think I started them too late in the season, maybe.
ReplyDeletekitsapFG, After it's all planted, I'll feel a great deal of satisfaction knowing that I'll have some delicious green veggies through the winter... if Mother Nature cooperates!
ReplyDeleteMark Willis, I admit that I'll have to read up on the celery growing. I need to find out if it will be better off in the continer or inside a cold frame in the ground. The raspberries are called "Heritage Red Raspberries". They are producing well considering I was having either serious soil problems or a problem with my well water. I need to have each analyzed to see what was going on. The raspberries have pulled through whatever it was and the rest of the plants are beginning to bear fruit. Last year I started with 5 small bushes and this year there was a total of 22 bushes/new canes, so something must be working right for them.
Julie, I'm not sure about the cold frame. In fact, I'm not even sure about the celery! I have to see what will provide the best anticipated results, and I'll go with that option. Regardless, I'm going to have a cold frame this winter. I haven't done that before.
Robin, Do you think I should I plant them in the cold frame then? Would that be a better place than in a container in the house? I have no clue as to which location is more promising. I've never grown celery before. Yeah, I do love this weather!
Karen Anne, I may have started them too late in the season as well. If I find that they still have a good chance of full sized growth during this time of year, I'll get some additional ones going in whatever their preferred location is... container or cold frame. At least we know the method works. Now we just have to get the timing right!
Thanks to all my visitors and to each of you for sharing your personal comments.
Have a great vegetable gardening day!
Veggie PAK
Very nice. Love all your greens. I don't grow collards because Phil says he doesn't like them (I think he just never had them cooked right)but he likes other greens. I have problems with keeping up with watering pots though. Not sure if I am just lazy or have too much going on all the time. I too am interested in the celery experiment but don't have any experience growing celery myself. I love the thought the it might be able to be grown that way --without having to go to seed.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, you have got me moving, think I'll go do a little gardening before work.
Everything looks great! Your garden really seems to be producing a lot of summer veggies still. Mine are pretty much done so I'm a little jealous. Your peppers look great. We tried the giant Marconi this year too and really liked them. I'm sure we will plant them again next year.
ReplyDeletebecky3086, How the greens are cooked definitely makes a difference! When growing in containers I really have to keep up on the watering. With being elevated and having more container surface exposed to the sun, the soil can really dry out quickly. My celery is still doing very well. I'm happy that I was inspirational for doing a little gardening!
ReplyDeleteStoney Acres, Thanks! I don't know why I can't grow nice bell peppers, but the marconi production certainly makes up for that!
Thanks for visiting and sharing your comments!
Have a great vegetable gardening day.
Veggie PAK