Getting Ready for Placing Plants Outside

At the moment there are only a couple of plants that are able to withstand the cool temperatures that have arrived.  It is still a little bit early to put all my plants outside.  With these temperatures only my spinach and lettuce can bear it right now.  I also have broccoli which I started inside that loves cool weather and I will probably be putting them outside soon as well.  For now I will be keeping my lettuce and spinach outside.  I am hoping by the end of the month to be putting them in the ground as long as they can get some sunshine.

I have been planting more seeds inside this season and have recently planted some cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, and even carrots.  My melons and cucumbers are sitting underneath fluorescent lights to get them sprouting quickly. 

I have also used larger peat pots this season for these seeds.  Using larger peat pots will allow for more time for the plants to develop without having to put them in the ground too soon.  If they sit in the peat pots for too long the containers may begin to dissolve and I would have to put them in the garden soil right away when it may not be time to do so.  That is why I chose to use larger ones for my melons.

Carrots on the other hand are not normally put into peat pots and I usually just plant some seeds directly into the garden soil.  Unfortunately this is not very efficient to say the least and I needed to try a different approach to planting this vegetable. 

Using small peat pots for carrots seemed like the obvious and best solution to this problem.  Planting them in plastic containers is something that should not be done because of transplanting problems.  Many times when transplanting carrots from a plastic container into the garden may cause the roots to not grow straight and might crack easily.  This is why I avoided planting them in plastic containers and chose to use small peat pots.

 
I also have tomatoes and broccoli sprouting that have grown beyond the trays that I placed them in and had to move them into larger pots.  I moved all my tomatoes and broccoli and placed them into large cups that I had saved up and this should last them until it is time to transplant them into the garden in the next couple of months or so

Gardening is Out and the Winter Season is In

It is now getting colder and most of my plants are done for this year except for a few peppers and my strawberry plants which will be protected with some straw.  I didn’t think my pepper plants would last through November, but I am still picking the peppers right off the plant until the very first frost which will end the season officially.



Before or when the ground freezes straw needs to be applied to plants that you want to save for next year.  Certain plants don’t need straw especially if they are perennials like blueberries.  Strawberries on the other hand can survive without straw, but you will be taking a risk not covering it with straw.  It is always best to cover them with straw before the real cold weather arrives.



At the moment I am just enjoying the very last of the summer fruit and vegetables.  I had recently started cutting my watermelons which are really tasty and juicy.  I am trying to keep them around for as long as possible in order to enjoy their incredible flavor.  They should be able to last a month or so as long as they are kept in a cool refrigerator.


Carrots are still outside in the ground and they will be ready once Thanksgiving comes around the corner.  In a couple of weeks I will have them up from the ground and they will be cut and ready to be eaten immediately.  With enough of them I could can them and enjoy them all through the cold winter months.  There is only one row, but if they are big enough I will can them for future enjoyment.

Digging Up all My Carrots Today

Just wanted to mention that it was finally time to pick all my carrots that I had planted this year.  Two full rows of carrots is what I dug up today and was able to fill three buckets full of carrots.  I am glad that I planted more than I did last season and I think it definitely is going to pay off this winter.  Once I can them in jars I can then use them throughout the season.

I also wanted to mention about one of the last heads of cabbage that I picked last week.  It was probably one of the best ones that I harvested this season.  It was eaten by cabbage worms and was actually a pretty good size.

Time to Thin Out Those Carrots Along with Harvesting Ruby Glow Lettuce

My garden I had finally given me some good Ruby glow lettuce leaves that I could pick this week.  Picking lettuce leaves is very easy and since I had picked my other iceberg lettuce not that long ago I though it would be very good to pick these leaves to make up from last season.  I am very happy with the 65 leaves I picked and I couldn't ask for anymore from just eight plants that were planted this year.

 Just a little before and after picture of just one of the plants that I harvested.  I did not pick that many leaves because I wanted to make sure that it didn't go to seed early.  If I pick too many leaves it might prematurely go to seed and that would mean only one harvest of these plants which is something I didn't want to happen.  I just stuck to picking the bottom leaves rather than any other leaves on the plant.

The next thing I had to do was make sure that my carrots were thinned out and all the weeds removed.  Removing the weeds from my carrots is one of the more difficult tasks in the garden mainly due to the nature of carrot plants and how small and fragile they are.  Nevertheless I did get it done and it took about an entire day to do it correctly.

Here are just a bunch of carrot sprouts that needed to get thinned out.  They grew throughout the entire row, but some places had more or less plants sprouting.  It all depended on how many seeds I placed and how many of them actually sprouted.

 You can see that there were a bunch of carrot sprouts, but only one in every three to four inches could stay.  All the others needed to be removed.

Here is one of those plants that was able to stay because it was stronger and was probably one of the first sprouts to appear.  Now that the thinning process is over I can now focus on caring for them rather than worrying about them being smothered by weeds or each other.  This is plenty of space for carrots to grow and thrive.

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.

Sowing Seeds Directly into the Garden

Sowing seeds outside is still a great way to start a garden.  I only plant certain seeds indoors that I know I can easily transplant into the soil and can bring large harvests of fruits and vegetables.  There are some seeds that I am not able to transplant or are just not worth the effort because they don't need that much time to mature.

Those seeds that I am talking about are corn, carrots, and beans.  Corn can take some time and might be possible to transplant them, but unfortunately they are not great transplants and are best for planting them into the soil directly. 

Carrots cannot be transplanted because their roots will not grow straight making for really strange looking roots.  Pole beans are simply much more easier to grow directly outside in my opinion.

This is exactly what I did today.  This is the last step in the garden that I take once I complete all my transplants.  I still have some more transplants to go including flowers, some tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant.  Before time ran out I wanted to make certain that I had planted these seeds into the garden.

Two rows of pole beans.

Two rows of corn and one row of carrots on the left.

Before planting these seeds today this past weekend I also collect some spinach that was ready for eating.  Check out the size of these leaves below.

This wasn't the largest leaf that I collected either.  This was probably much more closer to the average size that was growing outside.  With 56 leaves and a weight of 4 pounds means that they were very large and heavy leaves.

Just Finished the Season by Digging Up Carrots and Celery

I wasn't sure if I was going to get that many carrots since the season didn't look very promising in the very beginning of 2014.  It was a relief when I finally dug up my carrots and saw that many of them were large in size as compared to what I had received last season.

Last year I got more carrots, but they were not as big as they were this season.  I would rather have larger carrots of high quality rather than quantity.  This is what organic gardening is all about and is why I subscribe to this particular way of thinking.

Here are some carrots that I took pictures of while digging them out of the ground.

I collected about a basket full of these vegetables.  Once I cut the tops off and placed them on the scale they weighed about 33 pounds.  Very good for a season that didn't look too good.  I was definitely happy with this harvest of carrots.

Two pound carrots were also picked up that I thought I would share with you.

Both of these carrots on the left each weighed over two pounds making them the largest carrots of this season.










Celery was also another vegetable that I collected towards the end of the season when they began to stop growing.  They looked like they were ready for harvest so I picked them just before I did the carrots on Thanksgiving day.

I didn't collect much celery because of the seeds that didn't grow in the garden earlier this year.  I was happy just to collect any celery as you can see from the picture.  These were a couple of the larger ones that I got and totaled six pounds.








This season is now over and nothing is left in the garden except for some flowers that will last through most of December depending on the temperatures that we get during the month.  I will probably be writing less frequently until 2015 rolls around and it is time for another garden season.

Cucumbers are Now Done for the Season

The last cucumber was picked this week and that means once I finish eating this last cucumber I will have to wait till next year to eat delicious, home grown, organic cucumbers.  This happens every single year and this makes me look forward to the next season.

Although the cucumber season is coming to a close that doesn't mean that the entire garden is completely done this year.  I still have plenty of food that needs to be harvested such as eggplants, pole beans, carrots, some celery, pumpkins, peppers, and some regular and Roma tomatoes.  It is not completely over until the first frost comes.

Here is the last cucumber that I was able to harvest today.

Here is a look at the pepper plant that is still growing flowers even right now.

Eggplants are also still growing quite well and I have six of them that should be ripening within the week and I will pick them very soon.  I am not getting flowers on them and if I were it would be too late for the plant to produce another fruit.  Right now I have six and it looks like it is going to stay that way till the end of the season.

The Last Zucchini and Pole Bean Harvest

Today was a nice cool day with bright sunlight and I took a look at my bean plants and saw that it might be time to pick them once again.  Some of the plants were still producing many flowers and it looks like they might be in time before the first frost appears.

I picked as much as I could today and did not get as many as I thought I had.  Many of them were small and not very big which is to be expected since the temperatures are dropping in the area.  The first frost will not probably come until October unless we get one earlier than normal which can definitely happen.

My zucchini plants are well done and most of the plants have died and will not be producing any more fruits or flowers this season.  They did produce much fruit this season so I am not very surprised that they are finished for this year.  I was able to get three of them average size today.  I can still use them for my stuffed zucchini recipe.

Eggplants will probably be the last thing to pick in the garden besides the carrots and the cabbage which happens every year.  I have several eggplants that are growing from a single plant.  I am not sure how or why this happened, but I am not complaining because they are all a decent size and this is all that matters when growing these vegetables.

This is just the latest on the garden and I will let you know when the garden is officially over and the first frost has come.  I will also keep you up to date on the cabbage which I am going to take care of for the fall season as well as digging up the carrots in a couple of months.

Cucumbers and Eggplant Added To The Garden and Sprouting Updates

Today I was able to get my eggplants and cucumbers into the soil and it didn't take that long especially with the rain that I am going to get tonight and tomorrow.  If I know there is going to be rain soon I always try to make certain that most of the important transplants are in the garden as well as all the seeds.  After a good rain they will grow very rapidly.

Corn is another seed that I had to plant in the ground as well.  I have now completed about four or five sections of corn planting.  I only have one left and then all the corn planting will be done for the season.  This means that I can soon start thinning them out and begin feeding them the nitrogen that these plants crave.

I showed you my bush beans that have begun to sprout, now I have discovered that my pole beans are coming through too.  They are pretty much the same as bush beans and there really is no difference in the beginning stages of their growth.  It is only later on when the pole beans begin growing taller before they start to produce flowers.

Carrot sprouts are beginning to come through as well and they are much smaller sprouts than most other plants.  It is important to know what they look like because you may mistake them for a piece of grass.  That is why if you are a beginner to wait until they have more than two leaves to be sure that they are in fact carrot sprouts.

At last I am getting to the end of planting corn seeds and I am left with just one more planting to go.  When this is done I can then focus on taking care of my plants and then remove the net over the garden as well.

The First Planting Outside for 2014

Today I am here to discuss the first seeds that I have started outside this week in order to get the garden season going.  Corn and bush beans are the first that I planted, but I also had enough time to put carrots, celery, and pole beans as well.

I didn't fill the entire two rows with corn seeds because I want them to ripen at different times to prevent them from staying on the stalk and getting tough to eat.  If they ripen at the same time I will have about fifty ears of corn that I will have to eat and this is not something I can do. 

This year I am going to plant them at different times.  Basically once the first set starts sprouting I will then plant some more.  Now each section will ripen at different times and I will be able to eat them when they are good and ready.

I am also using seeds I have collected from previous years because these are heirloom corn seeds that I bought from Burpee.  They have been great and have produce very large and delicious ears that I can plant every single year.  All I do is save at least one ear and have it dry out for a month and then the next year remove the seeds and plant them in the soil.

I used about five feet from the two rows which will end up with corn plants.

I also planted some short rows of bush beans because I prefer pole beans because if done correctly you will have a much larger yield with pole beans than the bush types.  I had some extra room next to the rows where my pole beans are and decided to plant some bush beans anyways.

Celery was something that I decided on doing for the first time this year and it would be a good idea to plant it somewhat early because they are not good with hot weather.  They are similar to lettuce in that they tolerate some hot weather, but cannot withstand too much.

Carrots are very simple and do not need that much work except in the beginning.  When they are small they can be overtaken by many weeds and I will have to make sure that they are not near any weeds.  A good mulch will help out with this.

The two rows on the left have celery and carrots.