View Full Version : This Should Not Be Happening
It's October 21. In Nebraska. This is what I picked for dinner last night as I was walking around the garden. We should be down to onions, some kale, winter squash, sage... This is a June harvest and this post should probably be in the Environmental forum because of that. The forecast is for every day to be around 70* for the foreseeable future. Whether it's climate change or just the nicest weather anywhere on the planet its hard to complain. Ratatouille anyone?
1440
That is a beautiful harvest!
SteveinMN
10-21-14, 10:06am
We've had the killing frost, so the softer crops (tomatoes, etc.) are pretty much gone from the farmer's markets. But we also have been enjoying daily highs in the 60s -- about 10-15 degrees above average. Typically we have a lawn-coating sprinkle of snow before Halloween. There's still time for that (it could happen next week; this is Minnesota). But we certainly are enjoying some bonus days now.
Oh wow Gregg........lucky you! What beautiful stuff you have there. (we need to talk onions sometime). But.......it IS disconcerting for what it might mean concerning the environment. Oh well..........just enjoy it now!
My garden is kaput. (central Indiana), except for a few very strange looking pole beans left.
catherine
10-21-14, 11:11am
Yeah, that pic is gorgeous! Enjoy it!
My mizuna is a bush. I can't eat it fast enough. And my kale and collards are doing fine still. But that's about it.
LOL.......my stocktank veggie gardens in the back yard are also pretty much done. And......the back one I put on bales of straw is leaning because the straw is decomposing. haha..........got to figure out what to do before it slides off.
That's weird....I had my first green bean crop failure in decades. I mean I have NEVER had a crop fail like this. Blossoms and foliage, but no beans. THEN, suddenly, 2 weeks ago, in October, they started coming. We've been eating fresh green beans every day.
Florence
10-21-14, 12:55pm
just enjoy it while it lasts! February will be here soon enough!!
ApatheticNoMore
10-21-14, 1:42pm
That's weird....I had my first green bean crop failure in decades. I mean I have NEVER had a crop fail like this. Blossoms and foliage, but no beans. THEN, suddenly, 2 weeks ago, in October, they started coming. We've been eating fresh green beans every day.
certain plants won't set fruit if it's too hot (was it that hot there? it was here!)
Kay.........I had that happen here for several summers in the past when it was just too hot all summer. Such a bummer, to have beautiful foliage ......but no beans! This summer (with cooler temps) we finally had beans again. I guess they know somehow that it's not a decent world (temp-wise) to bring their progeny into, so they don't waste their energy. (Or maybe it's just too hot for them to reproduce??). It's interesting how different plants in the garden react differently to different conditions. In past sweltering summers, my tomatoes and cucs loved the heat.....but the beans just gave up.
Gardenarian
10-21-14, 2:13pm
Beautiful crop, but - a little scary! I read that they are now continually changing the planting zones to try to keep up with climate change.
Yeah, Greg, that looks like our take from our last week of the CSA this week! Funny, it was not at all a hot summer (maybe touched 100 once or twice, barely) but a looooong summer. I picked 6 lbs of tomatoes last weekend and there will be more this one. I don't know. My thread a couple years ago on "normal" seems pretty laughable now. So far the years have been like this: 2012 was so hot the tomatoes couldn't set fruit until I sprayed blossom-set on them. 2013 I got tomatoes only because I had a raised bed that didn't retain all the water. 2014 I'm picking tomatoes til practically Halloween, when usually they are done by early to mid-Oct. However, some places got snow on Sept 11 around here so go figure. It was 80F today. What will the winter bring? Who knows? It was a great year for apples and plums and hardly a peach anywhere.
Similar for us the past few years Rosie. I'm thinking the new normal is that nothing is normal anymore.
Blackdog Lin
10-29-14, 8:59pm
What a great picking Gregg, this late in the season!
From the summer garden, we're down to peppers, bell and Anaheims. We have also had gorgeous weather the last 6 weeks, but there's the potential for frost the next couple nights so I went out and picked all the best peppers this afternoon. Put 2 more gallon bags in the freezer, took my sister a plastic grocery sack half-full, and have a few laid out in the kitchen for meals the next 2 days. Alas, we didn't get a green tomato crop this year.
We do still have a row of onions and 6 broccoli plants (our fall gardening), but while I think we'll end up using the onions, the broccoli plants haven't gotten with it and I'll be surprised if we get anything off of them before they get killed off.
Did a big pot of pasta sauce last night with what will probably be the last real picking of tomatoes and basil. Still have to can it today.
We had a light frost last night that got the tops of the tomato plants and all the basil and zucchini. Everything else still looks ok. Should hold up until Saturday morning when we're supposed to be high teens or low 20s. I may try to save the curly parsley because it looks awesome and we use it every day in smoothies. The rest of the summer stuff? Meh. Brussels sprouts, kale and root crops will all be hanging around for a while yet.
Since we're supposed to be back into the 60s next week it will be the perfect time to pull everything and run it through a shredder. We're totally rearranging the garden next year so it will be a huge step to get it all prepped this fall.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2025 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.