Fun already ruined here in Central Texas when we had our first freeze. Peppers were the last thing left and now they’re gone. Oh, well, I’m ready to do nothing outside for awhile. Now is the time to get rid off stuff that has accumulated in the house and has been made more apparent by the fact that our kitchen is undergoing renovation and we have been squeezed into a smaller space. Hopefully, by Spring my house will be finished and clutter free and I’ll be ready to hit the garden anew :)
I didn't get a freeze and all the plants are just taking off and growing like crazy. There are a few tomato blossoms now on a tomato plant in the net room. The big squash is now about 22 inches long. There are other blossoms on the plant but I doubt they will start growing squash unless that plant also loves cool weather.
I know I would get a medal for my carrots and turnips. Those are in the good hard plastic, nice looking, square, 13 inch, planters that are made to put on a deck with short legs to keep the bottom of the container off the deck.
I ordered five more of those containers, but the 15 inch ones and they came today - 15 inch will work for root food. I'll get more of the 13 inch before I plant for spring.
I'm going across the street to Walgreens for something and I'll get a notebook to write down all my seeds and info. I need to know to plant each type and I'll be sure to record the date I plant as I didn't do any of that during my “experiment” planting this year.
I said on last week's thread but later in the week that I found the sales slip for my strawberry plants and I only ordered 24 like I thought I did, but they sent 48, that's why I have so many.
Well, gardening is never over, is it? When a fall garden is over, one has to plan for the early spring planting, exactly what to plant, where to plant it, and when to plant it.
Yes, the Hill Country got hit with 20s this week. It was early. I got out and picked the garden the day before. I got ONE Cherokee tomato. ONE all season and it had some bug sting it so was gone before I could get it. Still, saved the seeds to crossing fingers those will sprout later. Got a couple pint freezer bags of tomatoes put up and one or two more if they ripen on trays. Brought in all the peppers which will go to the freezer, too. Picked a pot of greens which will be one the table tonight. Didn’t get all the greens because there was a POISON IVY in the middle of them! No, it’s not the same poison whatever that I had a few months ago but it’s in that same bed so it might have come from the same lettuces package, grrr. I’ve never had poison ivy there before this year. I’m surprised I’m not broken out head to toe, whew. Hubby dug it up but broke the root so... There were some carrots nearby so will wait until next week to see if they survived the freeze. I don’t want to go anywhere out there until we get a good rain to maybe wash away any poison ivy residue but the rain chances have been cancelled and hubby put up the hoses for the winter.
Maybe kiddos will be in for the holidays and they can help putting the garden to bed. The utility service tree trimmers were here this week so they stomped all over it. I told them they could go in there but they weren’t careful but maybe that didn’t matter. Ugh, STILL, after 45 years, they didn’t cut the big limb that WILL bring down the lines because it’s laying on them - no that’s the electric line, no that’s the cable line, no that’s the phone line so it’s not our problem. Fine by me when the entire neighborhood goes down and they’ll have more problems than cutting the @#(&$#&@* limb now or decades ago. But I have bigger problems this week. Our water heater blew a fuse and caught the insulation on fire. Thankfully, hubby up at 4 am getting ready to head to the panhandle and was right next to it when it happened. No one has the right size and are telling us the week after Thanksgiving. We finally found one and can get it out here next week. Hubby had already had to delay his trip a day to get his pickup repaired so after this he had to get someone else to go so that’s another thing, blah. With so much crazy stuff, maybe his guardian angel was telling him not to go.
We still have some small tomatoes and blooms here in central Texas. Yesterday they were all green, so hopefully tomorrow some will begin turning red. The volunteer squash was hit by the cold and we’ll be putting it in the compost heap. The pepper plants were not affected by the freeze.
oh some outer leaves were, but the leaves surrounding the peppers were fresh and so were the peppers.