Rainfall
- 30th: 0.04"
- Total: 0.04 inches
Temperature
- range of nighttime lows: 34 to 64°F (1 to 18°C)
- range of daytime highs: 57 to 85°F (14 to 30°C)
Weather Notes
- The week following Helene was hot, then the temps gradually dropped to pleasantly mild to chilly
- First frost was early: Oct. 17th. But it was scattered so that we lost the winter squash in the garden, but those growing in the pasture survived. Most of our cherry tomatoes made it, but our neighbor's field of kudzu was frost killed.
Garden Notes
- I put several blankets over my sweet pepper plants when frost was expected and they made it without damage.
- Deer devastated the sweet potatoes in the front yard keyhole garden and the bed of okra growing in the front yard. I was saving some nice pods for seeds, but they got eaten! Then I remembered that I still had some Deer-B-Gone, and that saved everything. The okra is still struggling, but at least I'll get some good pods for seed.
- Doing lots of irrigating of the fall garden from our rainwater collection system.
Planted
- parsnips
- lambs quarter
- garlic
Transplanted
- lettuce
- kale
Harvested
- winter squash
- sweet potatoes
- green tomatoes
- green peppers
- cherry tomatoes
- green beans
- greens: dandelion, kale, turnip, daikon, chicory, chickweed
- yamberries
- walking onions
- asparagus
Preserved
- green beans and yamberries, canned
- persimmons, frozen
To-do
- finish getting everything mulched
- water as needed
- pray for rain
Pictures
 |
| I harvested the remaining peppers before the frost, then covered the two plants well. They survived and are producing more. |
 |
| My frost protection obviously worked, because we have more peppers coming on. |
The persimmon tree that Helene knocked over was loaded with persimmons. Persimmons are very astringent, but said to sweeten with frost. Ours are always ripened and dropped before that, so I rarely pay attention to them. Plus, being such a tall tree, there are only smashed ones on the ground anyway. Dan tasted one from the fallen tree and thought it was good. So I collected the soft, translucent skinned ones.
 |
| Over the course of a week, I managed to collect 2 gallons of ripe persimmons. |
I wondered if freezing them would help, so I made a batch of persimmon puree and popped it into the freezer. I made persimmon pancakes the following Sunday and they were delicious. I've managed to collect two gallons of them, and will make persimmon jam sometime this winter to can.
 |
| sweet basil managed to avoid the frost |
 |
| oven roasted okra and green tomatoes |
Roasting the green tomatoes was an experiment that turned out well. Most of my tomato plants were pulled earlier in the month, because by the the time they ripen, they're not so good inside. But green, they're fine. We like fried green tomatoes, but they're a lot of fuss to make. Chopping and roasting them in the oven is just of good, but quicker and easier and with less oil!
 |
| Green bean harvest decreased early in the month, so I tried canning some with yamberries. Green beans with baby potatoes is tasty, so this should be good too. |
 |
| Finally filling the African keyhole garden with soil and compost. |
When Dan build our second African keyhole garden, it was already growing volunteer cherry tomatoes and lambs quarter. We harvested these all summer and I waited to fill the bed. That's been one of my garden project this month, layering the soil with rotted wood, compost, and woodchips. I'm guessing we'll get more volunteer tomatoes and lambs quarter next summer, which if fine.
 |
| sweet potato squash |
 |
| daikons with irrigation pipe |
 |
| Kale. This has been tasty in salads. |
 |
| lettuce and carrots |
 |
| lettuce transplanted into large pots |
The lettuce and kale are growing so well that I've thinned them out and transplanted some into gallon-size containers. These will be moved into the greenhouse when it gets a bit cooler.
Anybody else still got a garden going on?
Garden Notes: October 2024 © October 2024
