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Post by heavyhitterokra on Sept 11, 2017 12:23:16 GMT -6
I thought I'd have squash big enough to eat by now, but they grow a little slower during the shorter days we're having, plus it hasn't rained in so long that it looks like a desert out there. I'll add a few photos from this morning at dawn. The light could have been a little better but I got tired of waiting for the sun to come up. It was 52 degrees this morning and I forgot to wear a heavy shirt.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Sept 11, 2017 13:42:48 GMT -6
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Sept 18, 2017 8:58:03 GMT -6
After exactly one month with zero rain, we have gotten a gentle sprinkle that has lasted for 18 hours!
It's a perfect seed soaking Fall rain; we couldn't have asked for anything better. (Thank you, God!) I'm so excited after having lost my entire Fall crop to drought in 2016. This rain is awesome!!! I can hardly keep from just gazing at the ground, watching for germinating seeds.
I've got turnips, radishes, peas, squash, corn, broccoli, okra, Roselle, rabbit tobacco, and pumpkins planted. My pumpkins are still light green, they'll really have to pick up the pace to make it before frost. My corn stalks are about 4 feet tall. They'll be cutting it close too, but my squash is ready to harvest right now and has a lot more blooms. My rabbit tobacco is in full bloom, My Roselle is loaded with calyces and blossoms, My okra is putting on pretty good too. I just cut up a gallon bag full of okra to freeze for this Winter.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Sept 25, 2017 13:24:58 GMT -6
My Fall corn crop is chest high now and starting to tassel. No sign of any ears though, but the tall green stalks sure do look good at this time of year.
We've harvested yellow squash twice so far.
The sprinkling of rain we received on September 18th, was just enough to germinate some of my radish, turnip, and pea seeds, but not enough to germinate very many of them. At least I have some green out there to look at now. Last Fall, the drought caused my crops to fail. I think this year, they'll be well enough established to withstand some freezing weather. At least part of them anyhow.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 1, 2017 12:40:04 GMT -6
Today is October 1st, 2017
Although we've had very little rain within the past 45 days, my Fall garden is doing very well. I went out this morning before Sunday School to see that most of my corn is taller than I am. Some of it is 7 feet tall or taller. I took a few photos for the future, to compare notes through the years.
(Mind you, this was just two-year-old Indian corn seed that I had laying around.) That's why it's growing so tall. Most sweet corn has a much shorter stature.
I couldn't find any sweet corn seed on such short notice in Late July, and again in August, so I just planted what I had on hand. I'm glad I did. Now, it looks as if I'll have plenty of corn stalks to feed my hogs for Autumn silage.
My Purple Top Turnips, Daikon Radishes, Austrian Winter Peas, Broccoli, Sweet Potatoes, and Roselle are doing as well as can be expected with so little in the way of moisture. It's been a tough 45 days during this time when they probably needed rain the most. I imagine my turnips and radishes will be hot this season due to lack of water.
The good news is this: It has been so terribly dry since mid-August, that weed seedlings were not able to do much growing, so the Fall garden has been extremely easy to tend (yet another reason for gardening in the Autumn of the year). That, in combination with the cooler temperatures, may cause me to enjoy this garden more than I enjoyed my Spring garden when it was so hot, weedy, and humid.Indian Corn Sweet Potatoes Daikon Radishes, and Turnips Roselle image hosting cdn
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 5, 2017 19:10:28 GMT -6
We finally got some rain yesterday. I think it may have rained about 2" inches? The garden sure has perked up because of it! There are Austrian Winter Peas springing up everywhere! They almost look like grass growing they are so green. There's a really good chance they'll make it this Winter too. Last year, they germinated so late because of drought, that they all froze to death the first time temperatures fell below zero. This year, I think they'll have much better roots established so freezing won't hurt them so badly. (At least, I hope so)...
I've been picking a 5-gallon bucket full of radishes and turnip greens every morning to feed my hogs. I've got a lot more thinning out to do before Winter.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 9, 2017 4:51:00 GMT -6
I found my first ear of corn with a browning silk today. Many other ears are showing red silks or white silks and there are lots of corn tassels. So, I guess Fall corn is a possibility in Oklahoma that I'll have to pursue more diligently in future years.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 22, 2017 16:28:26 GMT -6
October 22, 2017.
I had turnip greens for lunch today after I picked a truckload of them for the hogs. Still not hardly a dent. Gotta love Fall gardening!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 24, 2017 19:34:50 GMT -6
I picked some of the biggest Bell peppers I've ever seen today. I got 6 peppers from just one plant. The plant is still blooming! It's going to get down in the 30s tonight and is forecast to be in the upper 20s by Sunday morning, so their days are numbered.
I ate enough turnip greens today to probably turn me into a turnip, but they are soooo, good!!! Someday, I'll have some to share. But, right now, there are only a few million to go around.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 25, 2017 9:04:59 GMT -6
October 25, 2017 First Frost, A Fall gardening note for posterity:
Well, the weatherman lied to us again...
Rather than the 37 degrees he had forecast, it was 26 degrees this morning at 7:00 am. There was heavy frost all the way to the top of our roof. Everything in the garden was white with the kind of long crystal frost that occurs on mornings when the fog lays on the ground all night.
In a few hours, it will look like God poured boiling water over everything, but this morning it was a beautiful sight to behold!
That won't bother the turnips though, they'll only become sweeter from the experience. The same holds true for the broccoli, the Winter peas, and the Daikon radishes. I've discovered the Daikon radish greens to be the best part of the plant. They are not spiny like the turnip greens but are supple and tender. I've been picking them in the garden and eating the leaves raw. They are great as a potherb too. I have been mixing them with turnip greens, but I believe they would stand alone just as well if not better than turnip greens as a new Thanksgiving dish.
I can hardly wait to fry up some crispy farm bacon to crumble on top of a big batch of those greens in fresh rendered Thanksgiving turkey broth!
My 2017 Fall garden has been magnitudes more bountiful than my 2017 Spring garden was.
What a difference from the 6-month drought that claimed last year's Fall garden. I hope that's a sign that the 2018 Spring gardening will be better too.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 25, 2017 18:28:05 GMT -6
The frost this morning didn't kill everything. it was hit and miss with my Roselle bushes, some curled up, some didn't. It killed some of my okra and left some. Weird, because it was so white this morning that I figured everything would be lost.
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Post by macmex on Oct 28, 2017 8:31:29 GMT -6
Temps went down to 25 F. this morning. I worked like crazy, for the last two evenings, bringing things in under cover. Still couldn't get to everything in the garden. I have a ten year supply of hot peppers in my tool shed! Here's a picture I took this morning. It's frost on cabbage, which, fortunately, will be fine.
George
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Post by macmex on Oct 29, 2017 5:09:45 GMT -6
Bon, that one is Grand Asia. You can still go back for more, if they're out there. The ground should still be warm enough to protect them. I'm so glad you had a good harvest!
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Post by macmex on Oct 29, 2017 5:46:29 GMT -6
Here's a picture of part of our squash harvest. This is what I got out of the garden on Friday night, October 27. There were three or four more left out there, which survived, albeit with some frost damage. I'll process them this week.
I had already harvested a number of them, either to eat, or as gifts. And, we had one volunteer plant of Seminole Pumpkin come up in the front yard, in June. It covered up a tree we had cut down. So I left it. We ended up getting about 10 pumpkins from that plant. They were all smaller than the OTCP, but nothing to sneeze at. And, the Seminole is a denser squash. I think it yields more for its size. The Seminole Pumpkin plant bore more fruit, but about 25% of them were ruined by rodents.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 29, 2017 11:58:59 GMT -6
George, Great squash harvest! Looks like it's about time to re-post the Pumpkin Atole recipe you shared last year. Squash bugs killed all my Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkins. All that survived were my Buckskins. Last year, that variety was pretty stringy. I way prefer the OTC pumpkin, but I didn't get to choose... I've got a few of what I'm guessing are Seminole squash? I'm not sure what to do with those? Any suggestions?
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