Frost

We've had a frost every night since Saturday (10/9). Last night's was the hardest frost yet. I went out this morning to photograph some of the beauty (and the destruction).

Here's an over view of the garden from the back porch.
Here's the beauty of the frost.
The frost on the kale almost looks like snow.
On the carrots it is like a white outline.
On the brussels sprouts it looks like crystals.
It accentuates the different textures of the weeds.
It is a sugar coating on the marigolds.
Now for the destruction.

The end of zucchini (and the peppers, eggplant and basil too).
And most interestingly, the stems of the marigolds seemed to have been ripped open by the freezing of the water inside them.
This afternoon the marigolds, zucchini, peppers, eggplant, beans, and basil all went to the compost pile. Everything left in the garden is frost hardy to some extent. Before we know it it will be snow covering the garden.

Post Script: Here's the after clean up photo the next morning. I've left some of the sunflowers for vertical interest in the winter garden. You can see some of the rows of winter rye beginning to green up, especially the row in front of the brussels sprouts.

Farfalle Wedding Quilt

A good friend from college got married in April, just as we were moving to our new house and so we weren't able to attend the wedding. I knew I wanted to make her a wedding quilt but it took a while to get settled before I was able to. This quilt was mostly made in the month of August, however it took me a little while to get it in the mail to the recipient so it is only showing its face here on the blog now that I know it is in her hands.

I got the idea from Ashley at Film in the Fridge and you can see her version of this quilt here. She calls it Flying Farfalle after the pasta shape.

Basically I sewed strips on the corners of white squares. I had three color piles: blue, green, and red/purple. To make sure I had variety, I sewed from one color pile onto the corners of one third of the squares. Then I divided the squares up again evenly and sewed blue, green, or red/purple on the other side. I laid out the squares at random, just moving things around so no two same pattern triangles touched.
I made a stripe down the back with the fabrics I used for the colored corners on the front.I machine quilted for the first time, and you can see my diagonal lines aren't in the least bit straight, but I think it goes with the funky angles of the bow-ties on the front of the quilt.
I bound it with the green paisley you see next to the colored blocks. It is a lap quilt and measures 47" x 70". I like the design a lot and may even make a queen size for our bed someday.

Harvest Monday 10/11/10

This week shows the slow down in the fall garden. Last week was 70 pounds, this week I only harvested 4. That includes 2 pounds of tomatoes that were picked green last week. These began to shown color this week and were added to the harvest total.
I harvested our first Brussels Sprouts this week, over one pound. They were good but should be even better now that we've had a few frosts this weekend.
We enjoyed a soup this week with leek, kale, beans and tomatoes from the garden.
The scarlet runner beans came in before the frost. They yielded 8 oz. They were planted experimentally amongst the tomatoes and grew up along the frame the tomatoes hung from. They did fine there.
I picked the last of the basil on Saturday night before the first full frost. It weighed 7 oz. I froze some and the rest we made into the last pesto of the year. Also picked 7.5 oz of carrots that night for another soup which also used kale and pumpkin from the garden.
The only frost-tender plants left in the garden are the peppers and eggplants. I've been covering them when the frost has threatened. However the forecast for this week is frost every night for the next 4 nights. So I'll be harvesting the last of the peppers and eggplants later today. You'll see them in next week's harvest totals.

Total this week: 4.48 pounds
Total this year: 427.47 pounds
You can see what other gardeners harvested this week at Daphne's Dandelions.

Hoop House & Winter Greens

I wasn't content with just my little cold frame in such a big garden for winter crops. The cold frame is full and I had more seeds I wanted to try to get to grow in the winter or sprout in early spring. In the cold frame I have, mache, mizuna, kolhrabi, lettuce, claytonia, beets, carrots, walking onions, spinach & arugula.

I had tatsoi outside the cold frame but it has been mostly eaten by slugs.

So I'm trying out the mini-hoop house idea. We went the cheap route, and bough 1/2" pvc pipe. It came in 10' lengths and was cut in half to be 5 feet. We got a long piece of threaded rod that fits inside and my wonderful husband cut it into 1' pieces.

Those 1' pieces went in the ground about 1 1/2 feet apart. We weren't exact. Then the pvc pipe went over top.
I already had some row cover which is currently being held down with the few stakes I could find and some rocks. We may use some clear plastic left over from a painting project to cover it more when snow comes. (Notice the forest of kale behind. We're not lacking for hardy greens)
Here's what went inside.

Transplanted Seedlings:
Bok Choy
Broccoli
Red Kale

Red Cabbage & Dandelion Green (not pictured)

Seeds:
Mizuna, Tatsoi, Purple Mustard, Chinese green onions, Chinese Cabbage, Sugarloaf Chicory, Spinach, Mache

This is all an experiment. I know it's too late for seriously starting seeds in my area, but maybe some things will sprout and over-winter and we'll get an early spring crop. If some things are successful, then maybe we can expand (and plan better) next year.

Fall Garden Clean Up

The garden has changed quite a bit in the last two weeks. Here's what it looked like on September 14th.
Two weeks later on the 29th, I had taken down the cucumbers, harvested and weeded the potato row, pulled the last of the winter squash, and brought down the tomatillos. I seeded winter rye in all those places, except where the tomatillos were.

Only a few days later on October 2nd, the tomatoes came down, the hoop house went up, the pumpkins went out, the cold frame windows went on.A few details.
Around September 20th, I dug up four pepper plants and put them in pots.
From Left to right: Habanero, Hungarian Wax, Purple Bell, Cayenne. I sprayed them daily with a soapy water solution. This past week we got some rain and then a bigger storm was forecasted with cold temps to follow. I brought them in on Wednesday because I didn't want them water logged when they came in the house. They are sunning themselves in the front windows and so far are doing ok. I'm continuing to spray hping that I don't have aphids with them. I'm hoping to overwinter them.

Tomatoes
Here's what the tomato support looked like after 5" of rain. It was worse, the metal props had fallen away and it was leaning even more. I propped it back up so that I could at least cut down the tomatoes.

Here's the after photo from the other side. I haven't weeded it yet, nor seeded it. The bed to the right is where the winter squash were and has been seeded with winter rye.

Here's how the winter rye looks in the potato bed, seeded a week before.

I also planted garlic in the former pumpkin bed. I ordered 6 heads of Red Russian and 3 heads of Music. All total it was 60 some cloves planted. It took up half of the bed.


So in all the garden is looking a lot more like fall. Many peppers and eggplant remain in the garden and that's the only thing I'm covering to protect from frost. We had a light frost in the back field again on Saturday night. Each time, it creeps closer to the garden. I'm sure it will get the last of the beans soon.

Harvest Monday 10/4/10

This week was a clean up week in the garden. Earlier in the week I cleared the squash vines and harvested the remaining butternut squash, another 5 pounds. I also picked the remaining pie pumpkins. I pulled down the tomatillos to make room for an experimental hoop house (more on that in another post). I picked my one and only red cabbage. All the others didn't form heads so I pulled them. They'd been in the ground since early May.
This weekend brought the threat of frost so the last of the pumpkins came in. With the pie pumpkins from earlier in the week they totaled 52 pounds. The largest of the Jarradale's was 15 pounds.
The heavy rain had taken a toll on the tomato supports and the tomatoes, and with the threat of frost, I picked the remaining viable fruit. The ones with any color went into my harvest total. (9 pounds) The green ones will get added as they ripen.
Other harvests this week include one eggplant, pepper, and bok choy for a stir-fry.
Also arugula, beets, and chard.
Total this week: 70.25 pounds
Total this year: 422.44 pounds
You can see what other gardeners harvested this week at Daphne's Dandelions.