Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving (And Fall Garden Update)


Belle made a delicious apple cranberry pie. We can't wait to try it.
Isn't the sunshine beautiful today!

Happy Thanksgiving! It's a beautiful day here in south central PA. It's almost 60 degrees outside. Our family walked a 5k race this morning and had brunch with friends. Thanks Karen and family! We're so looking forward to dinner tonight! We hope your Thanksgiving Day is turning out to be as delightful as ours.

We've had many, many frosty mornings and even freezing nights. It's been hard on lots of our plants outside, but many of them are doing remarkably well. 

Here's a quick rundown of things, The good the bad and the ugly! Our white radishes and beets are withstanding the freezing weather, but they've all but completely stopped growing.
beets not bulking up
White radishes not bulking up either



Our cauliflower was planted in August, what's left has been ruined by the freezing temps.  Our cabbage and broccoli plants were put in the garden on September 15th. We were trying to extend our growing season by planting late. You can read about that here. It looks like we'll be only somewhat successful. Hoop houses would help. But it's not been a complete loss. Most of the cabbage and broccoli plants are growing.  Although many leaves have been killed by the freezing weather, many of the broccoli plants have thumb size heads.  Some cabbage plants have no heads at all; others have small heads and there are several fist size cabbage plants that continue growing. The kale is surviving the freezing weather, but it's growing very slowly. I think we'll harvest what's left and pull them up.

Freezing nights have ruined our remaining cauliflower plants.
An unhappy broccoli leaf.
A tiny broccoli plant. I don't think it will produce before it gets to cold

A healthier plant with a finger size broccoli head. Most of them are like this.
A fist size head of cabbage. At least it's growing!

A tiny head that's just begun to form.

Kale that was planted last spring is hanging in there.

Our second planting of carrots in late August is doing great. We can harvest them anytime, along with the rest of our leeks.

You can see how the freezing weather has made the top brown.
We have lots of leeks to harvest yet.
That's it! Our fall garden in a picture. The left are brassicas, the right under plastic is our garlic and the green is cover crop.

Happy Thanksgiving all! We are very thankful for friends, family and, yes of course for gardening too!


16 comments:

  1. It look so delicious. Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving day with your love ones. You still many goodies to harvest from your garden even though it cold season there already.

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  2. Happy Thanksgiving to u n ur family,Jody..:)

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  3. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

    Timing is always tricky with the fall gardens. My cauliflower is just now sizing up, and fortunately our weather hasn't been that cold yet.

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  4. Hi Malay-Kadazan girl, Thanksgiving was wonderful. We spent it with dear friends. Hopefully our goodies will survive the cold nights!

    Thanks HangKebon blessings to you and yours too.

    Dave, I think you're right. This is really our first try at a fall garden. Our timing was a bit off, but we definitely learned that there's plenty of time for a bountiful fall garden around here. I look forward to seeing your cauliflower this year.

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  5. Hi Jody glad you had a nice Thanksgiving. You have had an exceptionally warm fall for your area. Glad you are being successful with some of your fall garden. I can't imagine trying that here however this fall it might of worked but are now under 9" of snow so I think gardening has stopped for a while.

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  6. My timing was off this year, too. Learn as we go, though, right?! Looks like you're doing better than I am! Cheers!

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  7. Hi Bee Girl, you're absolutely right. We're learning as we go around here! That's for sure! Thanks for the encouragement. Cheers to you too.

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  8. Tell Belle that looks like a blue ribbon pie! And those pumpkins and butternuts look pretty blue ribbon too. Your fall garden looks great; updates are always inspiring. :)

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  9. Leigh, Belle says thanks. I have to say it was an amazing pie! Thanks for the encouraging word about the garden. I just wish it were in a little better shape than it is.

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  10. Well I for one am impressed at your garden! That pie does look good.

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  11. Thanks Dr. Momi, all we need is a couple more weeks of warm sunshine. We're hoping and praying!

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  12. Despite being smaller the cabbage looks great! Ours was too pest infested to get a chance to grow at all.

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  13. Vanessa, thanks. We are glad that we have something. It's not much but we're glad for it. Sorry yours were pest infested.

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  14. hope you can help. How do you know when Beets are ready to pick?

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  15. Hi Michelle, thanks for stopping by. I'm no expert with beets. We've really only grown them for a couple years now, but I'll tell you what comes to mind. Ours were ready when the root was full like a beet at the store. Of course garden beets look different, smaller maybe, longer or misshapen maybe. Whatever their shape or size, they should be full looking. If you can't see the beet root, then try digging the soil back around the beet root a bit to see what is going on under there. For California, I'd expect the leaves to be at least 12 -16 inches tall before the beet is ready, maybe more. I hope this helps.

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  16. Your garden looks really great! I really enjoy reading your blog updates! Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

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