December Gardening

We here, in Southeastern North Carolina, have had a fabulous garden month! It's not southern California but if it were we wouldn't have tasty greens. We've had a few interspersed light frosts to moderate the bitterness of the turnips, mustard, kale and collards. Ample rain and warm, sunny days have pushed growth so everything is lush, green and productive. Frost put the kibosh on the buggy, bugs, temperatures have been just right, and rain has come perfectly in intermittent spurts.

Today there was freshly harvested salad for lunch with a small turnip sliced and pecans harvested from the neighborhood. Just delicious! Tonight we had green peppers in our stir fry. Earlier this week we had creamed Swiss chard. A special treat with the stems saved for soup. Broccoli has been coming on strong for a month. As is typical we are taking it for granted but soon it will end and we will miss it. There are a few cabbages and brussels sprouts but it is uncertain if they will make. I planted peas for shoots. They germinated and every few days I pick some to toss in a salad with arugula and small mustard leaves for spicey kick in our salad.

It was so warm today I spent most of the day outside neatening up around beds, planting pansies, moving pots, cutting back dead plants and string trimming around beds. I couldn't stop! It is so much fun when the weather is nice. Define nice? Seventy degrees, blue sky, birds singing and dogs lying in sunbeams with clean clothes blowing in a gentle breeze. That's nice.

The best part of gardening this time of year? Everything. Beautiful sunny days. Temperatures allowing for long hours outdoors  and everything growing without fussing over water and bugs.
It is, hands down, our favorite time to grow.

Growing still!

The little broccoli featured November 7th grew into a nice sized head that was eaten this week. There was enough for two adults.  Lovely sweet-tart steamed, in the microwave, broccoli with lemon juice.

We have also been having salads for the past two weeks. Amish, an heirloom Bibb is the star but there are some lovely Oak Leaf and blousy, pale green Grand Rapid lettuces in the bowl. Arugula planted in October adds a peppery bite. I planted peas really close together in a little spot by the spinach bed after reading an article reminding me that it will grow during these warm Fall days. Snipped shoots will add to the beauty and flavor of our salads. Yesterday I picked a handful of Clementine salad tomatoes, probably the last of those.

Cold nights are coming so I will be harvesting broccoli and maybe all the salad. There are still peppers, jalapeño, bell and banana, that need picking too. No worries. I need a bed to plant more garlic and maybe just a handful more of peas for stir-fried pea shoots. Mustard greens do not tolerate a hard freeze so they may need to come out as well. We'll see. It takes courage to wait out temperatures that may get down to 32 degrees, but may not.

The kale is, like, wow! this year. And maybe we will have Brussels. Maybe. If not the sprouts, we'll have the greens. That's be beauty for brassicas if they don't perform as advertised we eat the greens.

Rainiest Fall Ever?

The South has had a long, wet 2015 Fall. Very wet. South Carolina's wet was epic, history making, wet. Up here in North Carolina we watched the new feeds and were grateful it wasn't us. The rain we got from Hurricane  Joaquin here was more than enough to ruin crops unharvested, like cotton. Somehow our garden survived. Other gardeners in town reported their seedlings we pummeled to death by the rain. Twice. Between rain showers I rush out and garden. Last  weekend we put down weed suppressing wheat straw on all the beds. It looks so much better now.
I did a spot check this morning. Six of the nine broccoli have formed heads. We may get three cabbage heads if I stay on top of the caterpillars. Kale is robust. We ate it in a frittata this week. Nom. Mustard, lettuce, arugula and chard are all good. We've had a few salads, yay! We might get a few beets. Carrots have beautiful, ferny tops. Herbs are great. We still have a basil. Which leads me to peppers. All the pepper plants are still producing! Amazing.

Getting bigger every day! 

Seeds

Yes. I mis-labled a packet of seeds as turnips. They are my best looking mustard greens!
Oh joy! The spinach took! I have the most wonderful bed of itty bitty spinach plants that will grow slowly over the winter. They will produce abundantly next Spring. If the weather holds...
Turnips. I planted them again. Maybe we'll have a warm winter and get something from them.
Peppers! They are still forming! It has been a great year for peppers.
Onions have sprouted in our St Pauls community garden bed. When the beans come out, garlic goes in!

A Brief, But Beautiful, Life

And then, we had an early frost. The beans took it hard.

The Great Green Bean Experiment

I read or watch a video about gardening and food everyday. It's my thing. Back in June when the green beans played out I went into mourning. They are easy to grow, easy to cook and yummy to eat. The only negative is they stop bearing as soon as daytime temperatures rise. Self-pollinators, their pollen literally dies when it gets over 85 degrees. You can plant them in mid-summer, they will grow, they will flower, but, they will not make fruit.
I thought and thought about this problem and devised a solution. Then I began an internet search to confirm my hypothesis. Bingo. At least one other Southern string bean lover had tried and succeeded with a Fall planting. Thus began the Great String Bean Experiment. August 8th we replanted Blue Lake with my guesstimation date for fruit bearing of early October noted in my journal. Sunday, October 4th we harvested enough for one meal. Tuesday, October 6th another small harvest. Yesterday, Sunday, October 10th...

a big bag full of beans! Woop!

Falling into Transition

Geeeet ready!  The easiest Southern gardening season has arrived. 'Tis also the season of tough love. Summer plants that have waned gotta go. That real estate is better used cool weather vegetables like broccoli, swiss chard, spinach, turnips, kale, collards, mustard and lettuce. Okra, peppers, eggplant and surviving tomatoes get to stay. They produce abundantly right up to frost. Peppers and eggplant go crazy this time of year. Neighbors say thank you when I share but I sometime wonder if they're just being Southern nice. I've started apologizing when I give peppers...

We have more than five banana pepper plants...