Now it is Time to Start Digging Up Carrots

The last thing that I do in the garden is dig up my carrots.  I leave them in the soil until November because although they might not be growing the cold ground makes for perfect storage.  They are safe from frost so I don't have to worry about the plants dying from these types of temperatures.  Usually just before the ground freezes is a good time to start digging them up.

I actually like to pick them up just before Thanksgiving.  I find that since they are able to last this long why not pick them as close to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving as possible?  This way I can have extremely fresh carrots for Thursday that I and everybody can enjoy.  Check out some of the carrots below that I picked this evening.

These are not the best I have grown, but with a little bit more work and fertilizers I can make them much better for next year.

Broccoli is also a late plant that I can harvest all the way until the ground freezes.  The ground is starting to freeze and the cold night temperatures are beginning to slow down the production of broccoli for these plants.  They are most likely done for the year, but I still will go out there and check them out just in case there are some plants that are continuing to produce.  Take a look at some that I harvested this year.

The End of the Season Harvesting

The only plants that are still standing in my garden are my broccoli plants and my carrots.  I always pick carrots during the week of Thanksgiving in order to have the freshest carrots possible.  I will hopefully be harvesting broccoli through this week and maybe into December if I am lucky.

So far I have cleaned up much of the garden and I am continuing to harvest broccoli at the same time.  I wanted to get the larger stuff done first which includes the bean trellis and tomato stakes.  These two take some time because the tomato stakes have the ties on them which I have to remove in order to use them for next season.  This is time consuming but is definitely worth it.  The bean trellis isn't so bad to take down and since it is not being used it is pointless to leave it standing out in the garden.

The garden still looks like a mess, but that is due mainly to much of the debris that I have piled into one of the totes or is just in one large pile.  I will be getting rid of this debris in the course of time, but for now I am leaving it in the garden.  I still have some things that I need to bring in, but I did get the harder stuff done first.

For now check out my broccoli plants and heads below.

I did notice that some peppers were also still hanging onto the dead plants.  Picking them right away after a frost is a good way to save as many peppers as possible.

Broccoli and Peppers Continuing to Grow While Beans are Done

Right now it seems like my pole beans are done for the season.  I did pick the last of what I could find on the vines this week.  Eleven pounds is what I got and is much more than I thought I would be able to pick from them.  They didn't look like there was much left, but I guess I underestimated the growth of my pole beans.  Hopefully I can have a good harvest of beans next year.  Check them out below.

Peppers were next on my list for harvesting and there were many peppers that needed harvesting right away.  Many of them were a real good size.  Most of them were perfect size and I can't wait to start using them in the next couple of weeks.  While I did pick nine of them there are probably the same amount or more still growing on the plants.  I would surmise that there are a few more harvests to come.

Broccoli will last for another couple months or so much longer than my peppers will.  I will rely on my broccoli to give me a good harvest in order to end the year on a good note.  I always like to end the year with a really good harvest.  Whether it would be my cabbage, broccoli, or even my carrots which I will pick just before Thanksgiving.  This year I decided on picking my broccoli to give me the best harvest of the fall season.  Right now the heads are growing on all my plants while the heads I have picked are beginning to see side shoots take over.

My Broccoli Heads Reached Perfect Harvesting Size

I didn't think that I would be picking my broccoli heads this late because normally I would be picking them the beginning of October to the end of September.  Even though it is a little later than usual I am still not worried that I can get much more broccoli this year. 

I have picked about five heads right now and I am waiting to pick some of the side shoots that will produce some more broccoli for me to pick.  These shoots are where the bulk of the broccoli will come from.  It is just a matter of time before I get a day with large amounts of broccoli.

Now that my broccoli harvesting has started my eggplants have now ended the season.  With only two left I didn't want to leave them out there too long because the plants were done growing these vegetables and it was pointless to keep them on the plant.  I picked the last two eggplants that began growing about a month ago or less.

Rain Could Really Help My Broccoli Plants

I guess I should be careful for what I wish for because this past week I got plenty of rain.  It actually rained the entire week and I wasn't able to go outside that much.  I did happen to find some time to pick more peppers during the week.  I wanted to pick the last of my eggplants, but that will have to wait for sometime this week.

My peppers are still growing quite well despite the drop in temperatures over the past week or so.  I am sure that this will help out my broccoli as long as temperatures do not drop too much.  They will last all the way until the ground freezes which happens around late November to December.  Here are the two harvests I got from my pepper plants.

Some pretty good sizes that I could be proud of and hope to have again next year as long as I grow the same kind.  I am not ready to start thinking about next season and that will come around the beginning of July.

My eggplants are doing quite well and as I said earlier I will be picking them sometime this week.  Check out how they look in these photos.

I hope to be picking broccoli soon because this is one of my favorite vegetables.  Although it has a bad reputation of being a hated vegetable I think it is one of the best because of its incredible health benefits.  Plenty of vitamins in minerals can be found in these small vegetables.  I just want to give you an update on my broccoli and how the rain this week has helped them and will help them.

I am almost at that time of the season when I have to clean up close up the garden as least for the summer plants that will die with the first frost.

Just Checking Out the Broccoli That My Plants are Starting to Produce

You read that right my broccoli plants are actually starting to produce fruit right now.  I wasn't sure when they would start producing, but I checked on some of them and they have broccoli right in the center of the stem.  This is where the first broccoli grows and from then on they will grow as shoots on the side throughout the year.

I was a little surprised that they are starting right now, but it is almost October so this is about the right time for them to begin producing.  Take a look at these two plants that I found to be producing broccoli.

The last zucchini and large bean harvest has been completed today.  I actually picked my last zucchini yesterday and now I can say all my squash plants are done for the season.  Since I picked my pumpkins the other day I can now focus on getting some more beans, peppers, and broccoli.

 












My beans are not completely done yet and I still have plenty of pickings to come as long as I keep watering them or we get some rain.  For now the largest harvests are over and my plants are just starting to wind down there production capacity.

Today the Focus is on My Pumpkin Harvest

Yes that is right I ended up picking my pumpkins a little bit earlier than usual.  I love picking them in the month of October because this is when I tend to use them the most between the fall weather and Halloween.  Carving up pumpkins is one of the best things about growing these vegetables, but my favorite part of pumpkins are the seeds. 

I clean off the seeds and place them on a pan with some spices and vegetable oil and bake them in the oven.  They are very delicious and I am looking forward to cutting them for this reason.  Just two of the pumpkins that were picked today need to be cut very soon because they were starting to decay by being outside.  If I got any more rain I am sure the decay would have progressed very fast.  Thankfully no rain came recently.

Another vegetable that I would like to talk about today are my eggplants.  Three eggplants were harvested today and I have only a couple of eggplants left.  I still have quite a few plants, but in terms of fruit there are about three that are still growing.  The weather is definitely getting too cool for them so I am not looking to getting any more of them this season except for the three that are out there right now.

The bad news is that today I also picked the very last cucumber for this season.  I didn't think my cucumber plants would have ended this soon, but with the cooler weather and less sun time I guess it was their time.  I got plenty of cucumbers this season and with all the relish I made I think this will last through the Winter months until next year's harvest.

The Last Cantaloupe and Weeds Infesting My Broccoli Plants

One of the things I did this year for my fall crop especially broccoli was to place mulch (mainly grass clippings) all around the base of the plants.  This is a sure way not only to hold water during dry spells, but to help them with keeping weeds away from the roots.  I only had enough just to place around the plants, but not in between the rows.

This is where the bulks of the weeds appeared.  When it rains and there is a sunny day after the weeds just go crazy and start growing everywhere.  Wherever there is no mulch all the weeds began growing.  Removing them is what I did this week over a couple of days.  I would say it took about eight to nine hours total to remove every weed that I could see.

I think I did a pretty good job weeding and that is how it should look like all the time.  When I get another batch of grass clippings either tomorrow or during the weekend I will place them throughout and make sure that no weeds will grow up for the rest of the year.

No more cantaloupes growing anymore because I just picked the only one left from the summer season.  It had been pollinated later than the others, but it still grew to a good enough size.  I don't mind if my cantaloupes are small because they are not large fruit to begin with.

I had a few peppers that were ready today and plenty are on their way to becoming ripe.  I probably have at least ten more peppers that are growing on all my plants and many of them are continuing to flower.  I have had a good year for peppers and looking to collect many more.  Right now only five were ripe enough to pick.

Last, but not least nine pounds of beans were on the list for harvesting.  I didn't know I had nine pounds until I began picking them from my vines.  I still have plenty left to pick with new ones continuing to grow every day.

Here Come the Eggplant Harvests

Finally I have picked the first of my eggplants this week.  I actually began picking this afternoon because it was nice weather especially after the rain storms we got yesterday.  I would admit that we definitely needed the rain because we were in a small drought.  The rain was definitely a relief especially for much of my garden and plants.

Two eggplants were the final total for today, but there are still some on other plants that I will pick at a later date.  For now I have only two, but this is enough to make a good meal out of them.  I am not sure when the others will be done, but I am sure that it won't be tomorrow and most likely next week is what I am aiming for hopefully.  Check out the eggplants I got below.

Eggplants were not the only thing that was ripe enough to pick because I had beans, peppers, and cucumbers that needed to be harvested.  My peppers were definitely in need of picking because many of them were actually staring to turn red.  I like to pick them just before they overripe because this is as big as they will get.  I did end up getting a bright red one along with some green as well.

Beans are a hot item in the garden and with their incredible ability to produce flowers quickly they are still growing and I have plenty of more harvests to come.  Even though I picked quite a bit this evening I saw that there were many more to come.  Some were real small while others were almost ripe, but not quite ready to be picked.  Hopefully I will do another harvest soon.

Cucumbers are the one plant that is doing quite well although some of the plants are done for the season because they are brown and are pretty much dead.  I still have three to five plants left that are giving me more cucumbers to harvest.  I picked five today and have a couple more outside that I will harvest soon.  There are real tiny ones on a few of the plants that I am hoping will be pollinated so I can have more of them to pick.  Cucumbers I can easily make into a sweet relish.

Picking More Beans Seems to be the Trend

Right now my beans are exploding and they are continuing to get more flowers on them which leads to more beans for me to pick.  Around this time is usually the peak of my bean vines in terms of picking and harvesting.  I do not know if I will have many more harvests to make, but as long as they keep growing I will be there to get all of them.

Some other vegetables were on the ropes of being picked and I wanted to mention those too.  One pepper, a cucumber, and just a couple more zucchinis were picked this past week.

This is all I was able to pick this week.  The beans I picked a few hours ago and everything else happened yesterday.