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| Red raspberries |
Some of you may remember my raspberry harvest last year - one raspberry! This year has been much better, and I look forward to even more in the future.
Also happy these days is my little Meyers lemon tree.
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| Marigolds and morning glories still blooming. |
Still harvesting
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| Turnips |
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| Two of about six cushaw winter squashes. They weighed about 18# each. |
and
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| Tomatoes |
We've been getting fall greens too.
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| Dan built two more beds in the hoop house. Clockwise from bottom left: transplanted kale, broccoli, spinach, arugula, cabbage and celery, & one bed to be filled. The the turnip bed is to the left. |
So greens plus tomatoes means
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| Dinner (with a side of lasagna & French bread). |
Parting shot
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| Meowy in the corn patch |
Still no frost but Sunday it started raining again. So what's going on at your place?
Just a Few Photos © November 2015
You must have a forgiving climate, to still be able to grow stuff. I've read other areas in the States, have been dealing with frosts. Are you going to bring your lemon inside, or is it already in a greenhouse?
ReplyDeleteOur garden is starting to produce again, after the winter work of preparing the beds. So exciting times as we see how the season progresses. :)
We live in a location where the weather can go either way. We range from terrible hot summers to tolerable summers, and from freezingly cold winters to pleasantly mild winters. And there's no way to predict which is going to be which! We've learned to prepare for extremes rather than averages.
DeleteNo greenhouse yet so the lemon tree will be moved to my unheated back porch soon. My electric cookstove is out there so it gets heated anytime I do large baking projects. Lots of light, so it seems to do very well there.
Rain, rain, and more rain!
ReplyDeleteArgh! We've shifted into that mode too.
DeleteI'm trying not to panic at the realization that my first winter with life stock is here. I have visions of blizzards blowing away outbuildings and having to stuff my small assortment of critters into the basement garage till spring :/.
ReplyDeleteOh my, you'll probably worry about them all winter long!
DeleteLimes growing in my back yard is probably not going to happen up here. We planted some salad greens but got them in too late so I don't think we will get a salad out of them this year. Fortunately it was only about $0.49 down the drain. Up here, a greenhouse still needs supplemental heat to overwinter things so it is rare that anyone grows things over winter. But if they have one (we don't), it does allow you to grow cool season stuff sometimes well into December.
ReplyDeleteEd, you need to read Scott and Helen Nearing's Continuing The Good Life. They lived in Maine and grew fresh food year around. They inspired Eliot Coleman who also lives in Maine, and he grows and harvests fresh food year around as well. He wrote Four-Season Harvest, which is a wonderful how-to on the subject. Highly recommended!
DeleteI forgot to mention, neither of them uses supplemental heat in their greenhouses.
DeleteMy raspberries are early summer harvest and so amazing. I remember the first time I actually got enough for a handful! So exciting. We are on year 7 with ours. I keep them pretty contained so they don't take over our yard. This last year I got so many raspberries, I ended up drying most of them to eat while backpacking. I think next year I'm going to make jam! :)
ReplyDeleteI can only hope my raspberry harvest is as plentiful next year! Dehydrating them is a really good idea, but so is jam, of course. :)
Deletewe "closed" my garden this weekend because the frost had already gotten to it...there are some herbs and carrots still out there that I should harvest quickly...snow on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteSnow already! Oh my. All we're getting at the moment is rain, rain, rain, rain.
DeleteLove the lemon tree & glad you got some raspberries. The only way I like them is fresh. Tomatoes in November, unheard of here, the heat got to them a long time ago. Speaking of heat it is supposed to be close to 90 today! I can't wait for it to cool off....
ReplyDelete90 degrees! That's almost unthinkable. I know folks say tomatoes love heat, but like you, I've found that too much does them in. Mine petered off during the hottest part of summer and rebounded once the weather cooled off a bit.
DeleteWe have been basking in very unusual sunshine, Raspberries are still being harvested too, I am pleased your lemon tree is coming on, I have some coming on great on mine also a few oranges and limes :-)
ReplyDeleteI would love to add some oranges and limes! You've got me wanting to push the greenhouse up a bit on the priority list. :)
DeleteHow wonderful to still be getting all that! Your raspberries are looking delicious!! Wish mine were still bearing. Beautiful day here though. Nancy
ReplyDeleteI guess different varieties of raspberries bear at different times, correct? I'd love to have them all summer long. :)
DeleteGreat pictures and some great produce. although still warm here things are winding down.
ReplyDeleteYour berries look delicious. It's all fall here. We are harvesting walnuts right now.
DeleteThanks Kev! Good to hear from you!
DeleteThanks Lisa! I love walnuts! But pecans do better here. :)
I can taste those raspberries.... one day I will grow some too. The four plants I had died in the heat, so I need to make sure they have shade next time....
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I've learned is that they need plenty of water. I've lost a lot of raspberry plants in the past, and I think it was because it was too hot and they dried out. The ones I have now are in a location better for watering, plus I kept them better mulched! I just have to make sure it stays that way. :)
DeleteMy Appalachian homestead has been going great! In fact, I just got chickens for the first time this weekend. http://livingechoblog.com/
ReplyDeleteLydia, hello, welcome, and congratulations on your new chickens! I look forward to visiting your blog soon!
DeleteLeigh,
ReplyDeleteHappy November 2nd to you! Love all your pictures of the fruit and veggies. You still have stuff to harvest, how cool. My garden has been put to sleep until Spring.
Actually i have quite a bit to harvest: sweet potatoes, cushaws, as well as okra, cowpeas, and tomatoes. The fall garden is coming along too and I have high hopes of prolific veggies in the hoop house this winter. I'm aiming for a year-round harvest!
DeleteThat salad looks simply delicious! I love Meowy in the corn patch. My husband Dan and I live on five acres in the country also, but I'm afraid we haven't turned it into the wonderful place that you have. We left way too many trees. I need a week of free time, there is so much I would like to read on your blog.
ReplyDeleteWell, it looks better on the blog. :) It's a work in progress that still needs a lot of work. Like you, there's never enough time! But you probably feel like I do, thankful that at least we have it.
DeleteYour raspberries look delicious! I guess I haven't come up with the right growing conditions for them yet. Your salad looks nice and colorful too. We are still enjoying volunteer greens out of our garden, but had a frost last week, I managed to pick the few tomatoes and peppers we had as well as dug up the rest of our potato crop.
ReplyDeleteReally enjoy reading your blog, and am looking forward to Critter Tales. Kathy Black
Kathy, this is the first respectable raspberry harvest I've had in five years of trying! I have to love those volunteers in the garden, and envy your potatoes as well. I have sweet potatoes to dig, but my potatoes didn't do very well this year
DeleteThank you for your kind words about my blog! Do you have a blog? I'd love to return the visits. I'm spending most of my computer time trying to get Critter Tales ready to release. I hope it meets expectations. :)
Leigh, No, I don't have a blog - I'm afraid I'm more of a reader than writer!
DeleteI used to get SO discouraged with trying to grow potatoes, didn't work well at all and blamed our heavy clay soil. Somewhere I came across the hint of planting the seed potatoes in a shallow trench, then instead of hilling the with soil, use straw instead. In our area this is a very economical fix! I've grown them this way for 4 years now, so don't think it was a fluke. :)
It's nice knowing that someone besides me uses their back porch for a greenhouse! I have been able to extend my green peppers and cherry tomatoes for a couple more months, and actually have a couple of 2 year old plants from using this method. It's also nice for having a head start on tomatoes in the spring!
That is a good idea for the potatoes. I've done trenches, but never used straw. I should give that a try! I know folks have success in containers, but I haven't tried that either.
DeleteI like that you use your back porch for planting too!
It all looks great! I am especially envious of your raspberries.
ReplyDeleteWe've had nearly ideal fall weather so far. Plenty of rain and warm sunny days. But also a mild frost that kissed and sweetened the greens. So our gardens are producing lots of goodness--chard, turnips, spinach, kale, Asian greens, arugula, broccoli, mustard greens, collards. The trees are glowing with the colors of fall and we have nearly a dozen goat mamas set to kid any day now. It's a beautiful time of year in southern Virginia. :)
Oh my, I'm envious of all those greens! I take it you haven't been getting all this rain! Yesterday I went to the garden to get more raspberries and greens and discovered that the ground is so saturated that my feet sunk even in the grass!
DeleteI hope your kidding goes well. :)
Wow! Still a lot of stuff growing there. We've had two hard frosts and we are done!
ReplyDeleteThose hard frosts are always the saddest, 'cuz they mean the end. We're expecting our first frost any time now, and the hard ones won't be long after that.
DeleteThe produce is looking great! My raspberries were slow the first year, but this year I had enough to make 4 half pints of jelly, and a handful for breakfast almost every morning. Yours will come along soon, I'm sure. :)
ReplyDeleteEverything is winding down in the garden and waiting for me to finish clean up. I did plant a few broccoli an cabbage plants, which I'll put a cover over (still have my hoops up from last year) and hope to harvest leaves from for the winter).
I hope it's the same way for me with raspberries! This is the first year I've gotten more than one or two! I spent several years trying to find a spot they were happy in and I think I've got it. I just should have watered them a bit more during the dry spells.
DeleteThis is our first year with a hoop house. I'm excited to see how it does!