Putting the Garden to Bed

Saturday was a near-perfect autumnal day. I was, sadly, at work (first time in about two weeks), so I was stuck indoors. When I got home, though, the dog and I toured the yard. It's been many days since I've done that, too. I checked on the carrots, the only produce remaining in the garden, and discovered some critters had been noshing, so I figured I might as well harvest what was left.


Some of the carrots were quite robust:


A few were longer, although none would've met grocery store standards:


Hm...yellow carrots? Only had two of these.


One whole bed had been sampled, as mentioned above. Like the critters eating the apples, they took a few bites out of just about every carrot top.


Considering I didn't thin or weed the carrots (or much of the garden, for that matter) this year, I was (and still am) impressed by the size of the majority of the carrots.

Not the largest crop in the world, but enough to keep me busy for a day, scrubbing, peeling, chopping, blanching and freezing.


Sunday dawned equally nice. It was time to put the garden to bed. After all, who knew when we'd have another nice day like this? So, I pulled out posts, and tore down trellises (took down in a couple hours what took several days to put up). Then, because the weeds were overwhelming, and because I probably won't be here next summer, I opted to cover the whole thing with black plastic - take the garden back to the beginning and just kill off everything. This way the next time one goes to put in veg, it will be an easier start - bare ground and no weeds.

The new beds, on the far left, where the white row covers can just be seen, are still under production: pumpkins. Small pumpkins (Baby Pams), but should be good for pies. I'll give them a few more days to finish ripening.

While walking through the garden yesterday afternoon, I noticed some large carrots. Could it be time to harvest them?

Nah - one really should wait for cooler weather, but I did pull the really big ones. Don't want 'em to get too tough and woody. Most will be small - I never got around to thinning them this year.


The last of the onions are in now. Good year for onions and garlic.

Stop Eating My Apples!

UGH! Are those flying ants!?? They were all over my garden and on my lawn!

Hundreds of them! Carpenter ants? Oh no! I stepped on as many as I could, but I'm sure I hardly made a dent. Most disturbing, one large batch was within five feet of my back door!


On the other hand, the tomatoes look like they might actually be starting to ripen!

Of course, the ones with the most color have also been eaten by critters already, or have some metabolic damage.


I didn't get too many flowers planted in the veg. garden this year (for beneficial insects), but those I did plant are only just now starting to bloom.


Okay - something is eating my apples. Here's a small pile collected under the Jonagold. There were more the day before - something ran off with them overnight.

But there! Do you see it? It's not just insects - something is taking BITES out of the apples while still in the tree!

Okay, Ellen...calm down. Who could the culprits be? Deer? Bears? Squirrels? Crows?

The bears are certainly out eating the apples, but not in my yard (no damage to the fence since spring).

Deer might be, but they don't have the right kind of teeth to do this kind of damage.

Squirrels? Maybe - I'm sure they are around and they must know when the dog is trapped inside.

Crows? HM. I've seen them fly off with dropped apples from the yard.


Well, all I can do is hope that some of the apples are left alone and ripen enough for me to eat them.

I was all excited last week to see I actually had a northern spy on the spy tree - I didn't think I had any this year. When I took these photos, though, a day or two later, it was gone. GONE!

LEAVE MY APPLES ALONE!!!

Home Grown Tomatoes

There ain't nothin' in the world that I like better
Than bacon 'n lettuce 'n homegrown tomatoes
Up in the mornin', out in the garden
Get you a ripe one, don't pick a hard 'un
Plant ‘em in the spring, eat ‘em in the summer
All winter without 'em is a culinary bummer
I forget all about the sweatin' and the diggin'
Every time I go out and pick me a big 'un

Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes
What would life be without homegrown tomatoes?
Only two things that money can't buy
That's true love and homegrown tomatoes.

You can go out to eat and that's for sure
But there's nothin' that a homegrown tomato won't cure
Put 'em in a salad, put 'em in a stew
You can make your own, very own tomato juice
You can eat 'em with eggs, eat 'em with gravy
You can eat 'em with beans, pinto or navy
Put 'em on the side, put 'em in the middle
Homegrown tomatoes on a hot cake griddle.

Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes
What would like be without homegrown tomatoes?
Only two things that money can't buy
That's true love and homegrown tomatoes.

If I's to change this life I lead
You could call me Johnny Tomatoseed
Cause I know what this country needs, and that’s
Homegrown tomatoes in every yard you see

When I die don't bury me
In a box in a cold dark cemetery
Out in the garden would be much better
'Cause I could be pushin' up a homegrown tomato.

Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes
What would like be without homegrown tomatoes?
Only two things that money can't buy
That's true love and homegrown tomatoes.

This was one of my favorite John Denver songs. He didn't write it (that may have been a fella named Guy Clark), but he did record it.

I noticed yesterday that some of my green tomatoes are starting to look kinda yellowish...could they actually be ripening? These 40-degree nights (Fahrenheit) aren't speeding them along any, though.

This Just In!

Alert! Join Seed Savers Exchange in helping to save the Pavlovsk Station from development
A Russian court recently ruled that one of the world's most important seed banks near St. Petersburg, Russia may be destroyed in order to make way for a housing development. If allowed to stand, this decision will have a catastrophic impact on global plant diversity. Called a "living library", the Pavlovsk Experimental Station is widely considered the crown jewel of agricultural biodiversity, since 90% of the collection's varieties are not found anywhere else on the planet.


Join scientists and concerned people around the world in petitioning President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin to overrule the court decision. To learn more about this issue and to sign the petition, click on this link to the Global Crop Diversity Trust .

The Hops are Hoppin'

Yes, I grow hops. I have two vines, and this year they are LOADED with flowers:


People ask me why I grow 'em. I don't drink (aside from water and occasionally juices), and therefore have no real interest in brewing. So, why grow the hops? Well...because I think they are pretty nifty looking plants. I love the flowers! And, if I had a pergola, or other structures to surround a formal garden, they'd be great to grow up and over the things. As it is, they are next to the dog fence and grow upon it instead.

I've contemplated doing a harvest and selling them to home brewers, but I don't know where to start. If you live in the Adirondacks and are doing some home-brewing, and you are interested in a local source of hops, let me know!

Roots

This was a mini harvest weekend, and here are the fruits of my labors:

Clockwise from top left: onions, potatoes, beans and peas, garlic.

It all started Saturday evening when I got home from work. On a whim (I tend to work on whims), I decided to get out the spading fork and dig the spuds. After all, the CPB had done their work and the plants were all shriveled twigs. I figured I might as well dig the things up - the odds of them continuing to grow were likely very slim. I planted about 11 pounds of potatoes this spring, and the harvest was about half a bushel. Did I get back my investment? Not this year.

Sunday morning I tackled the garlic and onions. The onions did very well this year, which surprised me. Here's a bushel basket full of onion braids, and I still have one more bed to harvest!

But one can't leave one's onions in a basket...they must be hung to dry. Not having a root celler, or a drying shed, I have to make do with whatever space I can find.

The bundles of garlic have been laid out to dry as well. Some did very well, while others were hardly worth the effort. German white seems to be the strong favorite, with nice large bulbs. Several of the best will be put aside for planting this fall (who knows...I might still be here next year).