Rural Gardening: October On The Homestead, 1 by msrobin

msrobin wrote:
Jay, that baby is huge!

Sounds like we all had challenges with our gardens this year, with weather conditions so much different than what we were used to. Our high temps weren't out of the ordinary for this hilltop, but the lack of night cooling off was definitely a problem. Tomatoes started producing like crazy when the nights finally started dipping to the 60's or less a few weeks ago, with a lot of 40's mixed in there, plus 3 frosts so far. This is our 3rd year of drought conditions. Had almost 10" of rain in May, then less than 5" total since then. About half of the crops did great, while the other half was pretty sorry.

I finally got the 2nd tunnel put up yesterday over 3 rows. It covers most of the peppers. Today I'm going to try and get the last big tunnel put up over the eggplants and other potted plants. Still may put up a couple of single row low tunnels, if those things survived the frost overnight. Still planning on making a greenhouse out of the carport frame with the ripstop vinyl, but decided to wait till Hubby was here to help me.

Had lots of big plans while DH was offsite, but have accomplished very little of the list. One major project, which turned into two, was converting a 2' deep, 7' long closet into a pantry and stocking it. Wish it could have been with mostly homegrown produce....maybe next year. That project neccessitated a second project, which was cleaning out and organizing my little 6' x 8' shed, so I could move some of the stuff from the closet out there, and then some of the stuff from the little shed to the big shed. In the little shed, I lined the walls with plastic shelves filled with clear plastic sweater boxes to hold all of my craft supplies, bird & fish food/ supplies, tools we use most often around the house & backyard, plus DH's grilling supplies. Even have a nice little 3' x 2' little desk for working on craft projects. Now I have a fully stocked pantry and a nicely organized little shed. Pic is with the sliding doors removed.