Christmas lettuce

 The Mesclun lettuce mix survived the cold snap.  The Simpson leaf did not.  Turnips are still yet to fruit, but they do not mind the cold.

Red Oaks

 The oaks were particularly colorful this year.  These photos were taken on November 9th, 2023

Southwest view

North

Bittersweet

Bagging My Bok Choy

 Most people around here are bagging their deer, but I am bagging Bok Choy.

Don't be jealous, but I also got lettuce too!  Success with lettuce and spinach is rare, but we got lucky this year.  Got a rain on the bed last week so we should be good for a while if they survive the cold coming next week.

PS.  I can not figure out how to comment on post???  I have to change my settings somehow and may have to try and get help from David to get that done.

Got Bok Choy

 Bok choy and lettuce are stored in the refrigerator.  We ate the spinach and mustard greens straight away.

 

 

 

Fall Garden

The fall garden is growing under the row covers.

Spinach and various choys, plus last of the okra and green tomatoes

 

 

Green Tomato Relish

 

 I will have to make my relish out of cherry tomatoes this year, there were not many green ones left on the larger ones, they all turned red.  There was a chance of frost on the 7th and we harvested and covered the fall beds, but the frost never fell!  Okra still coming in. 

 

Fall Plantings

The fall garden is planted and covered.  We planted turnips, bok choy, lettuce and spinach.  I put in some brocolli seedlings I started a month ago.  We got 1 inch of rain the day after planting and everything sprouted, but now we are irrigating because it is dry.

 

More Mators

 There are still tomatoes rolling in, and okra.  Peppers are a bit small this year, and thirsty.  We have canned a total of 43 quarts and are really hoping for rain to get the fall garden a drink.

Okra

We had been dry here in August, but finally got 0.6 of an inch of rain, and here comes the Okra flowers!!!

 

 Picked another round of tomatoes today, peppers, okra and my summer candy tomatoes.

 

 

 

 

Peppers

Peppers are small but colorful!

 

Happy Labor Day

 Good work if you can get it!

Corn, Okra and More Pumpkins

Corn and Okra are starting to come in.  We shucked the corn here and every top had a worm, 

but price you pay for organic corn. The pie pumpkins are plentiful!  

We started canning last week and have 8 quarts so far.  

I made pico de gallo from the small tomatoes, and we snack on cherry tomatoes, our summer candy.

 

August Garden

Beans (17.5 quarts) are in the freezer.  It took us one week of pulling and shelling.  I weeded the okra rows today getting ready to pick them, and found volunteer tomatillos and a gourd.  I also uncovered some real nice butternuts from under the Johnson grass.  We planted them in June, but had forgotten where.  The corn has cobs with silk!!!

Tomatoes and Peppers are coming in.  We planted a small early tomato, Stupice, which made good pico de gallo!!!  A larger one we tried, Mortgage Lifter, are turning red now.  The Celebrity canning tomato are looking good.  We also cut some early pumpkins which we grew from last years jack o lanterns.

Lima Beans

We have our first crop of Lima Beans ever at Buzzard Roost, thanks to our folks who told us a good cultivar for our soil, Henderson Lima Beans!  I love them and I am looking forward to the beans.  We harvested our pintos today.  Rain was in the forescast so we just pulled the plants and put them in the barn, and now we our pulling the beans off the vines and shelling.  This will probably take all week!

 

Sunflowers are blooming like crazy.  We plant them for the flower vase and our gold finches.

Corn has tassels!!!

Cucumbers Coming

 

 This photo was taken on July 15th.  We have had 2 inches since then and should get tomatoes.

 

Summer 23 Harvest Begins

We have been busy harvesting and freezing, along with eating...squash and green beans, everyday!  We are making squash casseroles and braised green beans.  We also spiralized the squash and fried to make squash pasta and it is really good.  Better than spaghetti squash actually, as it was quite crunchy.

1st picking of squash

1st picking of slenderette green beans

2nd picking of squash with my first cucumber!

The cucumbers are full of blooms and just starting to come in.  I am looking forward to eating cucumber everyday.  I love them in salads, as a snack and refrigerator pickles.

2nd picking of beans

We have 1.5 baskets of slenderettes and 0.5 basket of maxibel, a long french bean (left).

Vacuum sealed produce

We are trying out our new high tech vacuum sealer for preserving some produce. 

 

 

Garden Report

 

Beans blooming like crazy

We are eating and freezing squash.

 

 

 

Storm Damage

The latest wind event (the area had 90+mph winds) blew over the old hollow locust tree in the yard. There were no nest in there this summer but previously we have had a screech owl nest in the cavity and many a squirrel.  When we first moved here there was an Asian hornet nest in there.  They are very large and scary, but not aggressive like some hornets.  Anyway, the hollow tree is now gone with the wind.  Inspector White is accessing the situation below.  

Ms White inspects the storm damage

Gnome made it through with only minor damage to his shelf mushroom 

 

The tree fell on my house plants but there are few casualties

 

One of the graphed Pawpaws lost it's graph in the wind (back right).  We taped it back on to see what happens.  The nurseryman says the root will grow the stock Pawpaw if the graph doesn't take.

  We secured the PawPaw trees with nylon ties

PawPaw Trees

 Out with the old peach trees

In with the new PawPaws and a Fig from Peaceful Heritage Nursery in Stanford.  They have a row cover over them right now to adjust to the outdoor sun.

Beans are Blooming

Beans blooming on June 23 after another 1" of rain.

 

June 21st Bean, Cucumber, Squash, Pepper and Tomatoes

 

I started mowing (or weedeating if veggies are too big for lawnmower) between the rows and have recently learned there is a term for that:  living pathways.  I was driven to do it in my battle against my weeds:  johnson grass, pigweed, and nettle.

 

Bean Field Again

 

 

Bean Field 6/8 after 0.65" rain

Bean Field 6/14 after 0.95" rain

Cucumber Squash Peppers

The cucumbers and squash are coming along.  I remember last year we lost them all to drought.  We lost our BellPeppers seedlings this year to cutworm and so purchased plants at the nursery.  Got them in the ground last week along with our tomato seedlings, okra and corn seeds.  A good inch of slow stead rain has fallen on them all week so all should be up soon. 

Bean Field

Beans on June 6th

 Irrigation works too.  There is a row of peas inside the mesh fence which is in place to keep rabbit out.

Fencing Works

David finished the 8ft fence and the beans are up!  We do not have rain, however,  so we had to water with the barn irrigation tank.