Yesterday was a Sad Day

[jvs]

I came home from work yesterday and walked through my vegetable garden.  The Tops of the Onions were gone, the Tomato plants were brown at the bottom and stopped blossoms, the Okra stopped producing because of cool weather, the peppers slowed down and the Sunflowers are drooping over and the stalks are dead.  Only the Pole Beans kept going strong.


Well...

I pulled everything out.  I removed the Tomato Cages, Hard Wood Stakes, Poles for the Beans, the Fence Posts and Fencing.  I will roll all of that up in a tarp and put it in the garage. 

And now the work starts for next year...

I will expand about 20% for next year, get some leaves when they fall from the trees and till them under.  I will add a little lime and fertilizer and till that under.

I plan on making a new home for the Rhubarb and Horseradish, and my new grape vines will need more places to hang on to, so I will make the supports bigger.   The Blackberrys, Raspberrys, Gooseberries, Elderberrys and Red Currants need mulch before the winter.

So much to do before the Snow Flies...

[Dixie Dude]

Where do you live?  Here in the deep south drought has dried up everything unless you can irrigate. 

[jvs]

I live in Pennsylvania and there is scattered frost in the forecast on Saturday morning and probably again next week, so it wouldn't have been much longer before everything in the veggie garden was done in.

There were some dry periods this summer and fall, but there was just enough rain to keep things going.  I noticed the farmers corn crops are doing ok, and the soy beans are just as good and Apples and Potato's are good crops.  Pumpkins are as big as they usually get, with a 840 lb pumpkin as the winner and a 697 lb 2nd place at the Bloomsburg Fair two weeks ago, which is a little smaller that the 1,000+ lb winners and 800+ lb 2nd's of past years.

This past weekend I picked up a Neck Pumpkin for one of my friends that weighed 56 lbs.  He has a 200+ lb Atlantic Giant pumpkin in his garden, along with more in the 30 to 100 lb catagory that will get the frost this week coming.  So even though there were extended dry periods this year, it seems things came out just fine.

[Ranger J]

Yes, the rest of the garden is starting to look pretty sad but the turnips and dakon radishes are looking great!  I got into the 'just right' white turnips last night for the first time.  I also have some purple tops that are also ready to pick.  A friend dropped over a pot of what we used to call winter onions.  They are an old fashion type that I have been looking for for quite a while.  They don't develop much of a bulb and have large size 'bulblets' on top.  When I was a kid everyone in the small town I lived in had these onions.  As the name implies they would stay green all winter and were the first thing to start growing in the spring.  They were somewhat on the hot side but when you didn't have any other onions they were OK.  He also dropped by a small sack of Egyptian  Walking onions.  I need to clean out a raised bed for these and will soon be planting.  A gardeners work is never done.

RJ

[gypsyman]

Well, yesterday was my sad day. Managed to get all the green peppers in, and cabbage picked. Peppers are in the freezer, cabbage is sitting downstairs ready to get shredded into the crock for sauerkraut. Still have to get out and get the tomato cages and stakes pulled.  Done for the year!  gypsyman