Weekly Gardening Thread – 2011 (Vol. 40) October 14

Free Republic | 10-14-2011 | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Good morning gardeners. The October weather here in East Central Mississippi has been nothing but amazing this past week. We have had a few rainy days that have helped keep my compost pile moist as I am still working on building it up. It is satisfying to see the steam rise from it when I give it a turn on these cool mornings.

If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.

I hope all your Summer gardens did well this year and your Fall gardens prosper.

[Red_Devil 232]

Weekly Gardening Thread

Weekly Gardening Thread

[Red_Devil 232]

Ping to the Weekly Gardening Ping List.

I hope all of you will stop by.

This is typically a low volume ping list. Once a week for the thread and every once in a while for other FR threads posted that might be of interest.

If you would like to be added to or removed from the list please let me know by FreepMail or by posting to me.

[lysie]

Good morning. Thanks for this thread. The winners this year in our garden were peppers, tomatoes and butternut squash. The loser was pumpkin. We had just one pumpkin out of 2 plants. Pitiful!

[30Moves]

Question:

I plan on trying a greenhouse this year.

I wanted to build it on the back of my house to share the heat but....I am thinking of covering 1/3 of my garden (since I have late broccoli still growing). I’ll let the broccoli finish then plant greens, spinach and other cooler weather plants.

Is this a bad idea? Will it affect growing something in that area next spring? Does the ground need to go through the cold season?

Thanks for any help.

[wyowolf]

Still picking LOTS of tomatoes off my tomato “tree”... best year I have had yet!! might have frost here in ATL soon though...

[Arrowhead1952]

Good morning RD. The garden and lawn sure liked the rain we got last weekend. We had about 2.75” but need a lot more to catch up. We are over 20” behind for this year.

I think a lot of trees are going to die from the drought. I’ve noticed a number of cedar trees that are brown and the city has already cut some down.

I talked to my sister and BIL after they went to the farm last weekend. Almost all the stock tanks had dried up, but some caught a little water. Will have to restock fish when we get some heavy rain.

[Redleg Duke]

Good morning and greetings from southern New Hampshire!

This week, we got our first chicken eggs! Also, our accidental rooster, Studley Hungwell, has started his "duties"!

The leaves are turning and approaching peak color. It seems to have happened faster this year, but now that I am "over the hill", I seem to be picking up speed!

I have started putting metal wall panels on the carport north wall. I will do the same on the south wall and that should help with keeping snow out this winter.

We still have some peppers to be harvested, but the garden is ready for tilling.

Our five Marans pullets continue to grow and develop bigger attitudes. They are sure ugly...but the Dutchess says they will grow out of it.

[FreedomPoster]

What would you recommend for planting now? I’m in ATL, so similar climate to yours I would expect.

I have two raised 6x6 planters available in the back yard. There’s some basil that’s about to go, and some thyme, oregano, and chives, but mostly wide open. Suggestions?

[rightly_dividing]

We have a lot of trees that died from the drought. Plus a storm blew in two weeks ago that had a small tornado with it that took out a number of trees. My neighbor had several trees twisted off. The county still has debris crews working the neighborhood everyday. We were blessed to have only a messy yard with lots of limbs and leaves, but a neighbor a few hundred yards away had an oak tree fall through their home and missed the mother and child by about 4ft.

[Arrowhead1952]

We had high winds when that storm came through the other night. There were a few limbs broken, but nothing big. Our daughter came in last weekend and told us about the damage she saw in the Bastrop area. I heard that the fire damaged over 90% of Bastrop State Park.

[Arrowhead1952]

Try planting leaf lettuce, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, radishes and onions or shallots. Those plants love cooler weather.

[Free Vulcan]

Have had some seriously awesome crop of salad greens this fall. Harvest a bunch of winter radishes this week and froze a bunch of kale. Starting to ‘put the garden to bed’ this weekend, looks like the cold is going to move here next week.

[Ueriah]

Also putting garden to bed. Took down tomatoes yesterday, getting ready to start turning the soil for planting the garlic next week. Adding steamed bloodmeal to the soil as I would for any bulb beds.

[Mrs. Don-o]

This is the kind of day here in the valley of the Watauga that reminds me of what I was told was a Cherokee children's song (though I don't know if it actually rhymes in Cherokee as it does in English):

He makes the cloud
And He makes it break
He makes it rain
For the children's sake.
A Father's love
That all can see:
Rain, rain in Ten-a-sie!

We'd been needing this rain. It's filled up the TVA reservoirs.

Here's what I still have to harvest in my garden(USDA Zone 6B): lovely broccoli, Eritrean basil, leaf lettuce, Bull's Blood red beets, Egyptian walking onions, some kind of Asian greens (I don't know what it is, but it has huge mild leaves, like a tender and sweet leafy cabbage), Swiss chard, kale, 4or 5 big red Brandy Boy tomatoes still on the vines; and quite a few peppers.

And I've potted up a good variety of perennial herbs to bring in before the frost: parsley, chives,cutting celery, sage, thyme, green onions, rosemary. I hope they'll do OK in my front window. We don't have grow-lights. They'll just have to manage with the southern exposure.

I know the Weekly Cooking Thread isn't until tomorrow, but I will favor you with my latest Garden Soup recipe. Keep in mind, as all sensible people know, that soup recipes are highly adaptable. Do it YOUR way:

Turnip Squash Soup (4-6 servings)

1 whole big galumptious turnip
1 whole med. butternut squash
1 carrot, scrubbed
1 Tbs olive oil
3 Tbs butter
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 quart chicken stock (I used bouillon)
1 big Bouquet Garni *
1 Tbs honey
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp coriander
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Big pinch of Garam Masala**
4 oz. cream cheese (half a package)

* This was the first time I ever made a bouquet garni. I took a big bunch of cutting celery, stems and all (or you could just use regular leafy celery--- just the foliage), parsley (long-stemmed), thyme, sage, and leek leaves too tough for eating. I tied the bunch together with string. And then...you'll see...

** Garam masala is a mildly sweet-mildly hot Indian spice mixture. You could use curry powder

Put the whole turnip, the whole butternut squash, and the whole carrot in the microwave and nuke for about 20 minutes. After about 10 minutes remove the carrot (when soft); after about 15 min. remove the butternut squash (when soft). Leave the turnip in there until it's good and soft, and then let it sit.

Meanwhile, sauté onion and garlic in butter they just begin to brown, about 10 minutes.

Also meanwhile, heat broth (I used bouillon) in a large pot. Add the bouquet garni and let it steep while simmering gently (kind of like making a tea). When the onions/garlic are cooked (10 min), remove the bouquet garni from the broth and discard,and then transfer the onions/garlic to the simmering stock, and add the honey, pepper, nutmeg, coriander, cayenne pepper, and Garam masala or curry powder. Simmer until all the onions are softened, about 15 minutes.

And yet again meanwhile, your microwave veggies have by this time cooled. Cut the turnip in chunks and peel (The skin will come off easily). Cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, chunk and and peel. Cut carrot in chunks, and puree all these various soft chunks in a food processor, together with the 4 oz of cream cheese. Then put the whole creamy orange puree into the soup pot with the (mmm, inhale, so fragrant) broth, warm gently, and correct seasonings; add a little more chicken bouillon if it isn't salty enough. Serve hot with croutons.

---

I know it seems like a big production, but the microwave makes it speedier so the total preparation time might be about 40 minutes (my guess), and boy, it was good.

And it's a sure-fire way to use that big galumptious turnip!

[Mrs. Don-o]

BTW, when I said put the "whole" turnip in the microwave, I meant after you cut off the feeder-roots and the greens, and wipe off the dirt. The greens you can use in some other greens recipe. Keep in mind that although the turnip root is good and nutritious (Vitamin C, fiber, very little starch, lots of minerals) turnip greens have, like, 10x to 20x more nutrients than the root! O-Me-O-My!

[afraidfortherepublic]

O-mi-gosh. I’m glad you reminded me to wipe off the dirt! LOL.

[greeneyes]

I am not sure where you live, but I actually did this with some success last year, and will do it again this year. My “winter garden” had onions, garlic, spinach, and 2 varieties of lettuce. We had home grown salad at Christmas, and plenty of salad through the winter and spring. Had to cover the bed a little more as the weather got colder.

Just put in compost in the fall and spring, it is actually good for your soil to have plants rather than be barren. I am going to plant winter wheat in addition to the salad garden. The empty beds are going to get Rye or clover to turn under in the spring.

[greeneyes]

Thanks for the thread Red. Amazing weather here in Missouri too. Beautiful sunny days in the high 70’s, a teeny amount of rain. Nights mostly in the 50’s. Wish this could last for a few weeks, but we'll be in the 30’s next week according to the local forecast.

Still picking up a few persimmons daily, and eating 2 or 3. Collecting the seeds. I have almost enough to roast and grind to see what kind of coffee they make. Hubby's corn is still maturing. I tested an ear this week. It was 3/4 filled out, and tasted pretty good.

This week I have been thinning the spinach which gives me plenty of baby spinach to eat in my salads. The winter salad greens are not as far along as I would like, but I was a little late getting them planted.

Have a great weekend. God Bless.

[Red_Devil 232]

I say go for it!

[tubebender]

We hope to finish the Fall garden cleanup today and shred it for addition to the compost pile. I raked up 2 big garden carts of Redwood needles and stock piled them to use as dry matter for the compost and will gather more for mulching garden beds. I weeded the old corn patch yesterday so I can amend it and plant my Garlic soon. Pumpkins are still growing and the vines are still green with no mildew yet? Picked a few more cucumbers this week but I think most of those plants are done...