Late August Planting
I have been doing some planting over the past week betting on a warm autumn. Yesterday, I transplanted a six pack of patty pan summer squash to the garden which had been started in the greenhouse a couple of weeks ago. Some went to a clearing in the middle of the broccoli patch which by the way still produces a small sack of spears each week. The remainder of the squash starts were transplanted into corn plot four which now has been completely harvested. Hopefully the combination of this summer squash and the winter squash which was companion planted with the corn will take over.
I planted a couple of short rows of Daikon radish from seed in a clearing in front of a shelling bean wall. I also planted a short row of White Lisbon bunching onions directly from seed. The Daikons are just now coming up.
Wild mustard is starting to germinate in the salad green area. These reseed themselves. I just leave plants which have bolted in the garden. Seeds from these plants fall to the ground and germinate in the fall when conditions are right.
Yesterday I started one six pack of fall cauliflower in the greenhouse. Most of the starts are Fremont white 70 day cauliflower with a few orange and light green varieties also 70 day. Note that I put two seeds in each of the six planting sections. If both germinate, the I carefully separate the two tender seedlings when transferring them to gallon pots. Note that I will start a six pick of cauliflower every other week from now until next May. Cauliflower harvest will start in December.
I also started a six pack of purple kohlrabi and Rutabaga yesterday along with a single fall chard cluster in a gallon pot all in the greenhouse. Note that I generally get three to four years of life out of a chard cluster. I plant the rainbow mix which is a combination of white, yellow, and red stemmed chard plants. The yellow and red are best for multi-year performance. Chard naturally wants to bolt (go to seed) in the spring. If the grower carefully prunes it back heavily before mature seed pods emerge, then the plants will often start growing again with brilliant clusters of leaves in a few weeks. After four years or so, the roots and base stem rot away. I used to dig out chard when it bolted in the first year requiring four new starts per year. With the multi year process I use now, I only have to start one cluster per year.
Corn harvest continues. Plot 4 is now completely harvest and corn stalks cleared except where beans are present as I have described in earlier posts. I picked the first two ears from plot 5 this morning. Harvest of plot 5 will be complete within two weeks. We've also had an abundance of pole beans but yields could start to drop because the hated finches have finally shown up. For reasons I don't understand, they love to destroy pole bean leaves by tearing them to shreds and biting off new growth which results in substantial drops in yields. Fortunately, they usually disappear in September. So I am hoping??
I have harvested several winter squash with many more in various stages of maturity. However, the crop is lighter this year than expected. Squash bugs haven't been bad so I can't blame them. There is a lot of root rot in the soil this year which has also plagued my summer squash. I think some of the winter varieties are succumbing to it also. Fortunately, I have plants all over the yard and a few of these are having a good time. We should get enough to see us through the winter. Note that we are still eating from last year's winter squash crop. When a fruit starts to spoil, I cut out the portions which are still good, and give the remainder to the composting worms in the worm bin. They love winter squash.
With so much corn coming out of the garden, I have a lot of raw material for composting. So the compost pile is growing and starting to replenish all I have used throughout the summer. The corn is run through an electric chipper shredder before being mixed with coffee grounds and other green materials. These are then stacked in a pile in the compost area.
Hopefully I will have time to post some pictures later in the week.
danh
I planted a couple of short rows of Daikon radish from seed in a clearing in front of a shelling bean wall. I also planted a short row of White Lisbon bunching onions directly from seed. The Daikons are just now coming up.
Wild mustard is starting to germinate in the salad green area. These reseed themselves. I just leave plants which have bolted in the garden. Seeds from these plants fall to the ground and germinate in the fall when conditions are right.
Yesterday I started one six pack of fall cauliflower in the greenhouse. Most of the starts are Fremont white 70 day cauliflower with a few orange and light green varieties also 70 day. Note that I put two seeds in each of the six planting sections. If both germinate, the I carefully separate the two tender seedlings when transferring them to gallon pots. Note that I will start a six pick of cauliflower every other week from now until next May. Cauliflower harvest will start in December.
I also started a six pack of purple kohlrabi and Rutabaga yesterday along with a single fall chard cluster in a gallon pot all in the greenhouse. Note that I generally get three to four years of life out of a chard cluster. I plant the rainbow mix which is a combination of white, yellow, and red stemmed chard plants. The yellow and red are best for multi-year performance. Chard naturally wants to bolt (go to seed) in the spring. If the grower carefully prunes it back heavily before mature seed pods emerge, then the plants will often start growing again with brilliant clusters of leaves in a few weeks. After four years or so, the roots and base stem rot away. I used to dig out chard when it bolted in the first year requiring four new starts per year. With the multi year process I use now, I only have to start one cluster per year.
Corn harvest continues. Plot 4 is now completely harvest and corn stalks cleared except where beans are present as I have described in earlier posts. I picked the first two ears from plot 5 this morning. Harvest of plot 5 will be complete within two weeks. We've also had an abundance of pole beans but yields could start to drop because the hated finches have finally shown up. For reasons I don't understand, they love to destroy pole bean leaves by tearing them to shreds and biting off new growth which results in substantial drops in yields. Fortunately, they usually disappear in September. So I am hoping??
I have harvested several winter squash with many more in various stages of maturity. However, the crop is lighter this year than expected. Squash bugs haven't been bad so I can't blame them. There is a lot of root rot in the soil this year which has also plagued my summer squash. I think some of the winter varieties are succumbing to it also. Fortunately, I have plants all over the yard and a few of these are having a good time. We should get enough to see us through the winter. Note that we are still eating from last year's winter squash crop. When a fruit starts to spoil, I cut out the portions which are still good, and give the remainder to the composting worms in the worm bin. They love winter squash.
With so much corn coming out of the garden, I have a lot of raw material for composting. So the compost pile is growing and starting to replenish all I have used throughout the summer. The corn is run through an electric chipper shredder before being mixed with coffee grounds and other green materials. These are then stacked in a pile in the compost area.
Hopefully I will have time to post some pictures later in the week.
danh
posted by danh at
10:13 AM
1 Comments:
I attended your composting workshop in Sunnyvale and have started. I too am clearing away finished summer vegetables to make way for winter ones. Question: is it better for composting to let the "spent" plant dry out and turn brown before placing in the bin - or not, or it doesn't matter? I enjoy your blog.
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Anonymous, at 11:11 AM
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