All Done Now

13 years ago

Well, I've had it with gardening for this year. The okra died after a watering last week. It's been years since I have had okra freeze out at 8 ft tall. I got a lot of okra but that stuff was only 4-6 ft tall. I still have tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, Kentucky Red cowpeas and some watermelon out there but I am going to pick just a few cages of tomatoes to hand water--the Sungold for sure because those are my breakfast-in-the-garden tomatoes--and a couple big ones for sandwiches and let the rest go. I have two small frames with screen wire over them with lettuce--looking good--spinach--something ate what little came up so I replanted--and another with a few beets and carrots--something small ate part of them too. I do plan to plant the greenhouse beds in midOctober to salad and steaming greens, but no more tomatoes. We ate so much from the greenhouse the last two winters that I am really looking forward to having that stuff again.

I sure wish it would rain good so I could plant some winter radishes and turnips, but I'm not going to plant and have to water every day.

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Comments (3)

slowpoke_gardener
13 years ago
I have shut down also. I will still harvest winter squash peppers okra, pumpkins sweet potatoes and a few tomatoes as long as they will grow without water. I will start getting things ready for next year when my arm heals. I checked the sweet potatoes yesterday and I think they are ready to dig. I expect to have a lot of damage because of underground critters. I am expecting company this weekend and I may as well put them to work while I have a long curing time ahead of me.
mksmth zone 7a Tulsa Oklahoma
13 years ago
pretty much done here too. Peppers, tomatoes and eggplants are giving just a few every once in awhile. Cukes and melons got bugged months ago. One thing that is going crazy is Basil. Planted one transplant in spring that seeded itself. Now we have more basil than anyone could use. Might make a bunch of pesto and dry the rest.

Mike
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MiaOKC
13 years ago
My tomatoes are looking pretty crispy on one side, but they are putting out a big flush of new growth (because I finally broke down and watered them, I guess!) One cuke of three is still going, it got a later start and hasn't had any set yet, so I'm hopeful. My bell peppers have done much better this year than in the last few, but I always got my best production from them in the fall so am hanging on to them. Am thinking about putting some things in for the fall, but my problem is that my only clear row is west of the monster tomato plants so they would not get much sun, but I might do something anyway.

Mike, when I was overrun with basil at the end of last season, I picked it all, washed and dried the leaves, and put them in the food processor while adding just a bit of oil to help it mix, stopping and scraping the sides with a spatula and chopping again. Then I spoon into a mini muffin tin (ice cube trays work well, too), drizzled a little more olive oil over the top of each cup, and covered with plastic wrap, patting it down to make complete contact with the surface of each cup, trying to keep the air out (I think the air really discolors it). When it was all frozen hard, I popped them out and have stored them in a freezer ziplock. These are great to add to sauces, soups, pasta, etc, all winter long (in fact, I just used the last few from last year last weekend and now will make more with this season's crop) and if I want to add garlic and nuts to make pesto out of it, I have the option later. If I was more of a pesto lover, I probably would have made it all into pesto and freeze the cubes that way, but I thought this gave me more freedom of choice down the line.

I've read a few things about quick blanching the leaves, first, to preserve the green color better, but I didn't get that fancy with it - since I only used them to cook with the darker color didn't bother me, but I might try that with part of the crop this year.