Deb's Garden

[DebTheFarmer]

Pretty sure it got way too close to 0C last night. I'm afraid to go out and look… Will probably be covering everything up the next 2 nights.

[flowerweaver]

It so amazing to think you are already at freezing when I'm still in the 100's F and sweating in my garden! Hope you get your harvests out before a hard freeze. Everything looks good Deb!

[DebTheFarmer]

Covered up tender plants tonight and possibly tomorrow night too.

Winter squash, zucchini and cucumbers (all in the main garden) had a slight touch of frost. The beans and tomatoes that were in a different garden plot were hit hard The beans and tomatoes on the lower part of the plants are fine but all the upper blossoms and beans are toast.

Tomatoes in the main garden are absolutely fine. Would never know we had frost if you only looked at them.

I can't even imagine living in a place were it gets to 100F! I would melt… I would not know how to garden there. Could probably grow eggplant and melons successfully though!

[flowerweaver]

Sometimes it gets to 113F!!! That's when I melt. Well, I don't go out between 10:30 am and 7:30 pm after it gets into the high 90's, except for brief spurts to irrigate things that aren't on timers. By then most things are in the ground anyway. I have learned to do a lot by headlamp. I don't have much luck with eggplants for some reason.

[steev]

Melting at 113F? I've seen it go 119F four days running, on the farm, and worked all day. Really, once the brain coagulates, you feel no discomfort.

[DebTheFarmer]

Found my missing hen today!


11 live chicks, 3 dead, 2 unhatched eggs.

Plus, there's another broody who is hatching out a mix of eggs I put under her (5 chicks and counting!) and another hen snuck off to sit on a pile of her own eggs (i think there's 8).

Gonna have a lot of babies soon….

[philagardener]

Looks like she has been busy! That is a pretty full clutch!

[DebTheFarmer]

Finally got an eggplant on that first blossom!

[12540dumont]

Ahh, you get chickens, I lose chickens. Coyote attack. Lost 2 more hens.

[steev]

Switch to roadrunners; watch out for safes.

[DebTheFarmer]

Weather isn't looking so great over the next 4 days… there's hard frosts and flurries in the forecast.
Went through the winter squash patch again and picked all that'll taste good.

Opened up our tunnels to see if we got anything. And, well, should've done that sooner….


All the Little Green eggplants were overgrown (gonna save seed from one). The Little Finger eggplants on the end of the tunnel that I've been keeping an eye on had 3 fruit. There's some immature ones scattered throughout but 90% of the bushes had only flowers or nothing at all.


Melons fared ok for being planted late.
Had one muskmelon rot. I saved the seeds from it. It was fully grown and should've been picked 3 weeks ago.


Petite Yellow, Blacktail Mountain, Cream of Saskachewan and Sugar Baby watermelons. Minnesota Midget melon and one other type that I don't remember.


Had a handful of sweet peppers and only a couple of purple jalapeños. Crappy pepper harvest this year.


Now, sweetpotatoes.
Tried to grow them last year with no luck.
This is what we got this year….







The ones from slips that we started ourselves (from an organic store-bought sweetpotato) did the best.
All the vines were in a raised bed. No plastic ground cover or tunnel. Did cover them during a couple nights we thought might have light frost.


Annnnnnnd, cardoon bloom.


My friend who is an almost professional cheese maker (started out as a hobby) wants to try and make a "rennet" with it. Picked both blooms and have them in a vase. I didn't want the hard frosts to kill them.


Started our greenhouse this weekend!
It's 20ft x 12ft. Will have double-walled polycarbonate panels on the south wall, south half of the west and east walls, and the bottom half of the south roof.
Putting in a rocket stove to grow stuffs in winter.



Thankful to have a journeyman carpenter for a friend

[flowerweaver]

Looks good!

[DebTheFarmer]

This is what I woke up to this morning…



That's right. Snow.
It's 3 weeks early!!!

To say I'm heartbroken is an understatement.

[flowerweaver]

Oh no! What a contrast. Hope you'll still be able to get your greenhouse together before it gets impossible. You know the beginnings of my new one blew away with the tornado and I'm still waiting on the repairs to the one that got crunched by the falling tree. Fortunately my winters aren't so rough it still may all get done.

[DebTheFarmer]

The snow has already melted. It's probably only 5C right now though. It'll be a cool week but should be back up to 20C by the weekend, but that won't be sticking around.