The fall garden planting has officially begun. I sowed seeds of Nantes carrots on July 29th, and they have just started to poke their green shoots above the ground. Over the past several days I have been transplanting lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli seedlings out into the garden. I will be transplanting additional seedlings of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and kohlrabi seedlings out into the garden over the next several days. All of these additional transplants will be going into the raised bed where the corn was growing. Speaking of the corn, the last of the Silver Queen sweet corn will be harvested today. Overall, the corn harvest has been really good this year. The Roma tomatoes are starting to turn red and I will begin harvesting these in earnest over the next few days. Harvest continues on the hot banana peppers and the jalapeno peppers as well as on the pole green beans, bush lima beans, celery, and cucumbers. The very dry conditions have continued in my garden, but at least some sparse rain has fallen over the last few weeks. I have continued to “artificially” water the garden, as needed.
The harvesting activity in the garden has really ramped up over the last several weeks. Harvest started on the Red Norland potatoes in the grown bags on July 12th. Total harvest out of four of the five bags was pretty good (see picture below). That is not a picture of the exact total as a few potatoes were previously harvested out of the bags. Potato harvest began today on both of the 4ftx4ft raised beds (see pictures below) and the harvest was pretty good from those beds as well. I started harvesting the first of the Diva cucumbers a few days ago and was able to put up six jars or dill refrigerator pickles. There are many more cucumbers on the vines. I will probably put up another 4 jars of refrigerator pickles over the coming weeks. I probably harvested the last of the spring planted lettuce this last week. Harvest also started on the Tango celery this last week and harvest continues on the Hot Banana and Jalapeno peppers, Rattlesnake pole beans, and Derby bush green beans. Planting of more bush green beans was completed about one week ago. The Silver Queen White corn will be ready to start harvesting in another four or five days, YUM! The six Roma tomato plants are still growing like crazy, but no red tomatoes as of yet. The spring planted Green Arrow peas were finished growing and were pulled up. The Yellow Candy onion plants were also pulled up about a week ago and those have been drying in the barn. The onion crop was excellent this year and I might just run out of mesh bags to store all of this bounty!
The garden did received some much needed rain over the last week, but it still remains very dry here in Central Indiana. The forecast looks like it will be hot and dry over the next week or so. I hope to be able to sow seeds of Nantes carrots in about another 10 days and, if the weather is somewhat favorable, I hope to plant out seedlings of cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi, lettuce, and broccoli by the second week of August, for a fall harvest.
Potato Harvest from 4 Grow Bags, Picture Taken 7-12-23Potato Harvest from One of the 4ftx4ft Raised Bed, Picture Taken 7-23-23Potato Harvest from the Other 4ftx4ft Raised Bed, Picture Taken 7-23-23Some of the Yellow Candy Onions Drying in the Barn, Picture Taken 7-23-23Left to Right: Red Cannas and White Disco Belle Hibiscus in Front of Chicken Run, 4ftx4ft Raised Bed, and 8ftx4ft Corn Raised Bed, Picture Taken 7-21-23
Well, the 2022 gardening year has come and gone. I was able to harvest the last remaining carrots, on December 19, 2022, just before the below zero weather hit Central Indiana (see pic below). The 2022 garden was a big success, despite the very dry conditions from mid summer to late fall. I tried a few new things in the garden this year, which turned out to be a resounding success. One being the landscape fabric placed under the tomato plants (see pic below) and the other using a bean tower for the rattlesnake pole beans. The landscape fabric under the tomatoes kept the leaf blight in check. I have been battling this leaf disease for many years now. In 2022, I had the best tomato crop in about 7 or 8 years. Also, last year, I tried a pole green bean (rattlesnake) which I had growing up a bean tower which was purchased from Gardener’s Supply Company. This tower worked really well and the beans grew and climbed like crazy on it.
Now is the time to be planning your 2023 garden. I will be ordering seeds and plants over the next few weeks. With any luck, the cold frame will be going up in the garden in about another month.
If you are not receiving blog updates via email please visit the following link and get signed up, it is free: https://follow.it/tim-s-square-foot-garden-blog?action=followPub
Last of the Nantes Carrots Harvested on 12/19/22Landscape Fabric Placed Under Tomato Plants
Well the really nice fall weather was bound to end sometime. On November 12, the garden received about 2 inches of snow. Harvesting ramped up just one day before in anticipation of the snow and cold. I was able to harvest 3 giant heads of cauliflower, a few more giant Kohlrabi, several more heads of cabbage, the rest of the broccoli and celery, and most of the brussels sprouts. The temperatures dropped to the mid teens for a few nights after the snow. Even though I doubled wrapped the remaining 3 cauliflower plants with row covers, it was just too cold for the heads to survive. I did stick the largest half frozen cauliflower head into the chicken run for them to feast on. The remaining kohlrabi and cabbage plants seemed to have faired better in the cold. They also were doubled wrapped with row covers. I still have one remaining head of cabbage and at least a few more Kohlrabi plants out in the garden. They will probably be harvested over the next week or so. The lettuce did pretty well through the cold snap because it was covered with a plastic covered hoop. In fact, I was able to harvest some more lettuce about 4 days ago. The carrots also seem fine, as they were also covered with a plastic covered hoop. I have not harvested any carrots as of yet, but plan to start harvest on them soon. My refrigerator is still packed full with all of the harvested produce.
Giant Cauliflower Harvested on 11-11-22Giant Kohlrabi Harvested on 11-11-22My Chickens Ain’t Afraid of No Snow, Picture Taken 11-12-22Chickens Enjoying Grazing in the Broccoli Plot, Picture Taken 11-21-22Chickens Enjoying Small Head of Cauliflower in Their Run, Picture Taken 11-21-22
The fall garden is producing a record harvest for me so far. The weather has turned cooler, as one would expect, and at least some rain has fallen. Even though it is still pretty dry, the fall garden is producing really really well!! The garden experienced several lite freezes and some frost, but the cold weather crops were not effected much by the cold. I did cover most of the plants with either row covers or plastic covered hoops. The weather has recently turned unseasonably warm, which is alright for the garden. Harvest has been ongoing with broccoli (lots of broccoli), lettuce, cabbage, and kohlrabi. I still have a little bit of celery still growing even though the cold did in several of the plants. The brussels sprouts are starting to get some good size to them, so I expect a good harvest from those over the next few weeks. The late July sown carrots look really good as well and I expect to start to harvest some of them over the next month or so. If it starts to get really cold, I will have the carrots covered with a plastic hoop. As long as the ground does not freeze, I can harvest carrots through early January, if they last that long. Four of the six cauliflower plants are starting to head nicely so it won’t be long until harvest starts on them. The weather forecast looks like it will turning colder in about another week, so I will have to keep the row covers handy. I will be planting out my topsetting onions bulbs out into the garden within the next few days. They should overwinter out in the garden with no problem. Heck, the weather has been so nice that I still have a few tomatoes that are ripening up on the plants, even though those plants will probably get pulled up in about another week. Happy Late Fall Gardening!!
Sierra Lettuce Still Producing, Picture Taken 11-2-2022Scarlet Nantes Carrots Are Ready to Harvest, Picture Taken 11-2-2022Stonehead Hybrid Cabbage Still Being Harvested, Picture Taken 11-2-2022Jade Cross Hybrid Brussels Spouts Getting Bigger, Picture Taken 11-2-2022Giant Head of Broccoli (Packman Hybrid) Ready to Be Harvested, Picture Taken 11-2-2022Giant Kohlrabi (Kossak Hybrid) Harvested, Picture Taken 10-31-2022
My garden is still producing for me even in early October (See pictures below). There was a light frost yesterday morning, but it did not do any damage to the plants. That frost was about a week earlier than normal for my location. Harvest still continues on warm season plants, but their days are probably numbered as there is a moderate to heavy frost predicted in about three days. I will go ahead and pick the rest of the peppers, tomatoes, and green beans before they get zapped by the frost. The cool season crops I planted out in early August are growing really well. I have been harvesting my Sierra lettuce almost weekly now. The first fall broccoli heads are nearing maturity, with plenty more to come. The kohlrabi is also ready to harvest with some of the heads getting really large. The cabbage is starting to head up a little, but needs a little more time to get bigger. The cauliflower plants are really big, but the heads have not really begun to form as of yet. I even planted a few top setting onions about a month ago for green onions and they are nearing harvestable size. The late July sown carrots are really starting to grow now as well. The spring planted brussels sprouts are getting fairly tall, so I had to stake them up to keep them from falling over. The spring planted celery is still growing really well and I continue to harvest the outer celery stalks about once a week. Because of the predicted frost, I will cover the broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi with row covers and will cover the lettuce and carrots with a plastic hoop. I will also try to cover the celery plants to keep them growing for awhile longer. Celery likes the cooler weather, but will not tolerate a freeze. The early fall weather has been pretty good so far, albeit a bit too dry, so I have been watering the garden on a regular basis (mostly the cool season plants). I would rather have it too dry than too wet, especially this time of year. Here are the number of seedlings/transplants, with the variety name, I planted out for my fall garden:
How is your fall garden growing? If you have not tried growing a fall garden, you are definitely missing out. Send me an email and let me know how your garden is/or has grown this year. Send email to: tim@timssquarefootgarden.com I look forward to hearing from you.
Broccoli Heads Ready for Harvest, Picture Taken 10-5-22Brussels Sprouts (Left) and Broccoli (Right), Picture Taken 10-5-22Cabbage (Lower) and Cauliflower and Broccoli (Upper), Picture Taken 10-5-22Cabbage, Kohlrabi, Cauliflower, and Broccoli Growing in Very Full Raised Bed, Picture Taken 10-5-22Kohlrabi Ready to Harvest, Picture Taken 10-5-22Celery, Green Onions, Peppers, Lettuce, and Small Self-Seeded Lettuce Plants Growing Nicely, Picture Taken 10-5-22Poblano Pepper Plants (Caged) at Least 6 Foot Tall, Picture Taken 10-5-22
