updates on my fall garden

Lookin' good McP!! Even the Chiltepins in the background. It was funny - parts of mine froze last week - the higher growth - but the rest of the plant is A-OK! Just cut off the bitten parts;o)

I am really envious- my gardens are under snow- but I am going through my seed catalogs- Park's came today. I always find something I have to try! Vermont bean has a midget corn named Golden Midget-OP- I am going to try. My garden space is so small I just can't do big corn- anyway the earwigs are terrible in corn here. But it will be fun to try.

Thanks for the tips on the chiltepins Kelly. I did not get those bushes in the ground until mid-April (which is why I'm not going to be a tax preparer anymore.....cuts into prime gardening time, Jan - Apr!!!!) so they did not produce this summer. There's been plenty of tiny, hard green fruit, some going to black, virtually none hitting red. I'm nervous about cutting them back in case it gets to the 30's again. Won't that kill off any new growth and cause them still more distress? I hope to get them through winter so they'll be good to go in spring/summer.

Jo, glad you like my JoParrott garden! My bush beans are not doing much. A very few have germinated but are now stalled, look like they got bit by the frost even though the bed was well covered.

McP - I cut off the really dead stuff. They should be fine. Seems we get a couple of really cold days every winter lately and boom - that's it;o) No red ones for me yet either... I think it's too cold for your bush beans - probably won't do much. If I fall plant I do so about mid-August and it's still a gamble.

Oh. I thought the bushies would only germinate in cool soil temps? Looks like I got it backward.

Yep - bean seed will rot in cool soil. If they do sprout they will not grow much until the temps warm up.

Hey guys. Enjoyed checking out your comments and photos. Concrete blocks seem like a good idea. I've build two 2X6 lumber raised beds. One is 3'X6'. The other is 3'X8'. I'm going to try a modified square foot garden. Modified by filling with compost only and no bottoms to my growing beds. I did install the square foot grids. I couldn't stand the idea of leaving them bare. I planted collard, cauliflower, and kohlrobe plants. I planted some spinach and carrot seed also. It's late in the season to plant a winter garden here. No big loss if it's a failure. I'll throw a blanket over them if we have a hard freeze. I look forward to following the threads on vegetable gardening. I'm new to Dave's Garden. It appears to be an awesome site. Good gardening guys.

Welcome Paulie! It is an awesome site, you'll find some good information here as well as new cyber buddies.

Yep, what McP said! There is sooooooooooo much information here and lots of knowledgable folks who love to help out;o)

MaryMcP,
Your broccoli looks amazingly healthy. Way to go!

Thanks GG, everything out there looks really good right now, with the exception of one broccoli plant that I broke some leaves from when setting up the frost protection trellis one night. It probably will not set a head.

I was doing my garden tour yesterday afternoon and pulled up what I thought was going to be a dandelion weed but it was a teeny tiny little radish trying to grow up. Wahhhh. DH and I each had a teeny tiny bite and are very impressed. So peppery tasting. Can't wait till stuff starts coming in good.

Got down to 25* here last nite. Predicted to be in upper 20's tonite. My collards, cauliflower, and kahlrobi tranplants seem to be fine. Covered my lettuces. They should be okay.

Jo, just wanted to let you know my cinder block garden did really well through the winter. I'll let it go dormant in summer, it will be way too hot to grow anything in them but will replant in fall. Mostly I got broccoli and carrots. Here's a pic I took today of the nastursiums in one section. You can see lots of garlic stalks as well.

Mary, that looks really good. I think we have several DG'rs convinced that cinder blocks are good for double purpose edging. So many things grow very well in them-and you can make them look any way you want. If one was really artistic (and had tons of time) you could paint mini murals on them! Let's see what we can get started!

oh yeah, good idea. I have lots of stencils of roadrunners and stuff like that. When time permits........ :-))