GARDENING IN NOVEMBER

 November is a busy time in the garden. Winter vegetables need to be tended and direct sowing of seeds. And there are seeds to be saved from summer bloomers. November finds my counters littered with saved plastic boxes filled with dried seed heads waiting for a little finger work. Tender plants are already in the greenhouse safe from expected frosts-although so far we have been fortunate. Apart from a few nights of temperatures in the high 30s we are now having Indian summer which is a lot nicer than a Texas summer. Warm dry days and cooler nights. The plants are loving it.

There are many years when the Copper Canyon daisy, Tagetes lemmonii, never gets to bloom. It can be so late that an early frost nips it in the bud. This year, however, it is spectacular.

The same is true of the Gomphrena 'grapes' Because it is a late bloomer it rarely get chance to bloom. In the end I gave the original plant away, but it had left behind some seedlings in the gravel, which I left, and this year the plants are blooming beautifully. They grew like spindles all summer and then about a month ago they started to produce flower heads. Maybe I will try to transplant into a place at the back of the border where they can mingle in among other plants including Verbena bonariensis. It is best grown where it can grow through other plants. 

Ajania pacifica, is another good fall bloomer. It is quite the spreader but easy to pull and performs well in a rock garden setting. 

But it is seed collecting time for many of the fading summer bloomers including the globe gomphrenas, pink and purple although not entirely necessary as they usually naturalize-sometimes a little too vigorously. Gomphrena 'fireworks' gives off a curry smell in the fall. The first year I grew the plant I remember thinking that one of my neighbors was busy making an Indian dinner! Since then it has shown up everywhere although none seems to have escaped the garden. It has a big tap root which often results in it overwintering. All the gomphrenas leave a lot of mess behind when the petals start to fall. Confetti time.

I have so many blanket flower and verbena seedlings that I have to move some of them to places where I would like them. Not in the pathway, although alyssum and daisy fleabane can stay. I will probably pull out the Mexican feather grass that is growing alongside it. 

I have already transplanted a few Larkspur from the vegetable beds to the sunken garden. I just have to make sure that the snails don't eat the seedlings before they are big enough to stand on their own two feet.What's going on in your garden?

Fruit is ripening on the citrus but it will be a few more weeks before I pick the kumquats and the calamondin to make marmalade. Lots of work but so worth the end result. We are terribly finicky about our marmalade and like the sweet/tangy taste when made from these little fruits. 

Kumquat

Calamondin

Improved Meyer lemon

I'm having one of the best winter vegetable garden seasons in quite a while. Already harvested pak choi, chard, peas and beets broccoli and carrots are well on the way to a good harvest. 

It's not often we get a successful pea harvest in the fall unless we protect the crop from frosts. This year, so far, no frost but then no rain either.

This variety is Cascadia which I have the best success with in spring. It produces tender posts that can be eaten at all stages from snap to full pod. They remain crisp and stringless. 

I don't know what I would do without my garden as it has kept me busy during these difficult stay-at-home days. 

FALL IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN

 Over the last few weeks I have concentrated some of my gardening time( just an hour or so a day is still all I can manage) on preparing the vegetable and herb garden for the fall/winter growing season. Arguably the variety of crops that can be grown successfully over winter far out-number those grown during the spring/summer season, although some of the fall plants will mature during the early spring.

 Before I could even begin to prepare the beds I had to first remove much of what had been growing in the pathways all summer. This included the many grasses, blanket flowers, gomphrena, pink, purple, strawberry and 'Fireworks." I am always torn between having flowers spilling over the pavers and the neat and tidy look of having nothing to impede moving around when working out there. When I clean everything out in the fall I know this is the look I like but then when they all start growing in the spring I like that too. How to balance this with the hours spent removing them is the challenge at this stage in my life.

Even now I have left a few to enjoy the last of their blooms.

Then I had to tackle the beds themselves, removing the layer of cedar mulch that had been been on there for 2 years saving it to either mulch another area of the garden or return to the beds after planting. Each bed got one bag of new 'garden soil' purchased from a big box store. 

 

We decided that because our gardens are so difficult to access that it was more economical on the body to move them by the bag. Plus we no longer have a truck to transport bulk material. 

 Weeks ago I started some winter vegetables inside, under grow lights.  I find they stand a better chance against snails and caterpillars if they are a decent size when planted outside. 

broccoli, baby pak choi, kale

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

red cabbage, parsley

Beets and carrots were sown directly in the ground. They are now up and growing well. One of my weaknesses is my inability to pinch out plants but with the beets as soon as they are big enough to add to the salad bowl. I promise I will!

Kale, pak choi, broccoli and cabbage are now all big enough to go into the ground.

I have a few packets of seeds including Napa cabbage, lettuce and radish which I will direct sow over the next few weeks. 

Peas are struggling with the heat. I probably planted a little early. 

 

We kept the citrus trees out on the driveway this year, mainly for ease of transport into the garage during periods of freezing temperatures. All that is except the smaller kumquat and the orange. The kumquat was a rescue citrus and it was a few years before I even knew what it was. Last year was the first fruiting which has increased this year. It makes great marmalade.

I see the beginnings of ripening on one of the fruits.

The orange tree has not done so well. One last chance to improve itself!

HERALDING IN A NEW YEAR AND A NEW DECADE

In the words of Dickens "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" That sums up my feelings about 2019. We had exciting travel, wonderful visits with family and friends but a ghastly 4 months of chemotherapy. Then on December 17th my final round of Big Chemo. It can only get better from now on and into 2020.

I even managed to do a little gardening on my good days. I have a good winter vegetable garden with lots of broccoli, chard, kale and pak choi. The broccoli is almost ready to pick-a lot earlier this year than other years.

The pak choi is full and juicy and was often on the menu over the holidays.

The red cabbage are starting to form heads,

The cardoon that grew in one of the beds last year is back again. It will take up the whole of this one bed but worth it for the striking flower heads.

I am not without having made a New Year resolution for 2020. I will keep the pathways clear in the vegetable garden. It won't be easy as already hundreds of Ca poppies are sprouting, along with blanket flowers and feather grasses. Well! maybe just one or two will get to stay!
Next week begins part two of my treatment as I head to surgery. Fingers crossed.

DREAMING OF A GREEN CHRISTMAS

You may be dreaming of a white Christmas or there may be visions of sugar plums dancing through your head. Over here we are thinking of lots of greens. I am having a really super winter vegetable crop year. With only 2 frosty nights and lots of warm sunny days and a sprinkling of rain it must be perfect conditions. I even have peas! The first successful fall planting.

There's lots of this. Napa cabbage.

Although the the first pick doesn't have a very tight head I'm not complaining. You can see what dish I made at the end.

Homegrown broccoli is so tender there is no need to peel the stalks.

And lots more peas in the making.

This particular snap pea is called Cascadia. It is tender at all stages even when the peas have fattened up in the pod. You'll find it at Botanical Interests.

Delicious peppery arugula. Cut and grow back again.

Dinosaur kale, delicious stir-fried in olive oil with garlic.

More peppery mustard greens.

Beds of chard and broccoli.

Multiplying onions, from Bob and Renee. The lemon tree came out of the potting shed today and received a root pruning. We lifted it out of the pot, amended the soil bringing it up to the right level and pruned some of the long straggly roots.

I finally got around to thinning a row of the beets the other day, putting the trimming in a green smoothie.

So this is the salad we had the other night  using the Napa cabbage. It is Asian style with a peanut sauce. You can add whatever you have on hand. I used cauliflower, carrots, radish and bean sprouts. Topped with scallops and shrimp it makes a delicious meal. I have  Renee Studebaker to thank for the recipe, which she shared in the Austin American Statesman years ago. It's one of the reasons I grow Napa Cabbage.

Now to go outside and pick dinner.

WORLD RECORD CAULIFLOWER

A new world record for the smallest cauliflower ever grown has been bestowed upon my garden. By me. This little beauty measures exactly 1" across and weighs 1/4oz, which works out to be about $64 lb. Don't think I will be bothering to grow cauliflower again. Mind you, the poor plant did have a tough time, having had most of its leaves eaten by garden visitors, along with the 6 broccoli plants which grew along side. I only bought one plant just to try out.

I may just have to entreat a certain person to create some more of those net covered structures I have in my vegetable garden. I planted 4 more broccoli plants under cover and they have produced some beautiful heads.

In fact I went out this morning to cut the broccoli, chard and napa cabbage because it is going to get brrrh cold tonight. In the low teens. Even as I collected this morning ice was forming on the chard. I have taken into the greenhouse, potting shed and house all those potted plants which will not stand temperatures in the low teens. I uprooted the last A.desmettiana, still in the ground. It would be foolish to leave it out there as it would not survive.

I have tucked in the plants in the greenhouse with their hot water bottles, just as my mother did when I was a child. No eiderdown but extra blankets over the sago palms. Goodnight garden!