Cindy, I have a question for you: How did you tell when the Green Doctors cherry tomatoes were ready?

Naturegirl, collards are what people in the south call "greens", typically cooked for a long time often with ham hocks or other pork trimmings. Kale, Brocccoli or Kohlrabi leaves are other options. For poor folks with limited resources they were traditionally served with beans and corn bread or hush puppys to make a very healthy meal. The "Pot Likker" is a special treat! The tree collards are a special version that don't produce viable seeds so we can only get them by starting cuttings which each one produces plentifully.

I am returning home after the week away. Great to get away, but I will be thrown back to reality the instant I set foot at my place. I watched weather closely while we were gone. I believe we dodged the freeze bullet last night, but tomorrow night’s low is 29 with a high on Monday of only 31 and low Mon night of 23. Growing season is over!

I sure wish it were a bit warmer for all the chores I need to get done this afternoon and tomorrow. I’ll just have to bundle up and put my nose to the grindstone and get it done! If I’m lucky it’ll make it to 45. Brrrr

Naturegirl - I plant onion sets in the fall and then harvest them in the spring, just like garlic. However, if it's a particularly cold winter not all of them survive.

Richard - I didn't grow Green Doctors this year, though I do have seeds for it and from two different sources. Not sure if I've ever gown it. I did grow Verde Claro, and it was a bust. Will not be growing it again.

Yeah Cindy, I sent you some seeds from Green Doctors a little over a year ago. For some reason I thought you grew some this year. I had tried earlier this year but didn’t get any tomatoes. The ones I have now are loaded with tomatoes. I assume they get darker and softer at some point (some are already turning darker). I don’t know much about green tomatoes, but have really enjoyed most of the ones I have grown. I think these are the first cherry tomatoes I have grown that are green when mature.

It is actually supposed to get down in the 40s here next week. It was 56 here this morning, but is warming up again until the new front blows through. I think these cold nights have helped immensely with bloom production. One of my Chocolate Stripes plants has close to 20 tomatoes. I am so excited!!!

I finally got some gherkins yesterday. They were tasty but oddly all were round and looked like tiny watermelons with fairly large seeds.

Thanks Richard. I may plant them next year.

Jamie - Have you checked your saffron crocus? I was just out there weeding mine and discovered that something is eating the tops of them, including the flowers. It's either rabbits or chipmunks. I put down some bloodmeal and hopefully that will help.

It rained yesterday, a scant 1/2". Next rain looks like Thursday and Friday. Friday night's low - 31 degrees! Will need to pick everything before then.

I had the same issue with mine, Cindy. I am not going to get any flowers this year

I might have to make a hardware cage for them next year.

Winter came roaring in overnight. First freeze. I awoke to about an inch of sleet/snow and an overnight low of 25. Yesterday as I puttered in the garden I decided at the last minute to attempt to cover my sugar snap peas that are blooming and have some pods formed. I know peas can handle a freeze, I don’t know if they’ll survive such a low temp. By weekend it will be mid to upper 50s. Between now and weekend they’re talking about rain, possibly significant. Fingers crossed.

We had frost Saturday night so lots of things bit the dust. It was very nice out today in the garden so got lots done but still only a start on fall chores. I picked half a dishpan of tomatillos while tearing down the vines; those things are a vigorous weed!

My last compost bin went cold, I think because it was too dry and not enough green stuff so fixed that today by turning it into bin 2 and adding layers of dahlias, marigolds and the aforementioned tomatillo vines. Also added some water...hopefully it will heat up now.

It is not supposed to rain until Friday so hopefully we will get the garlic planted and compost the rest of the dahlias, asters, etc. Any feedback about how much shade garlic can take? I'm thinking about splitting my planting between two areas, one with 70% sun the other about 50%. No full sun available unfortunately ;(

It sounds like a lot of you are reaching the end of the gardening season - at least for warm weather crops. Lots of clean up going on. My tomatoes, squash, peppers, cucumbers, and beans are all done. The plants are in the compost bin and the harvest is in the garage and house. The garden beds have been topped with shredded leaves. My husband and I make a good team grabbing bags of leaves off the curb although many come from our neighbors who have been trained over the years to bring their bags to us instead of the curb :)

I was surprised to see the tomatillo plants mostly unaffected by the freeze that did in other plants. It looks nipped around the edges so I imagine another degree or two lower will take it out. Cilantro/coriander and dill are also going strong. I was not sure if they were cold sensitive herbs of not. I expect they will get die as it gets colder.

It is time to get the garlic in here. I noticed today that the garlic prices at our local produce store are much higher than I remember in the past. I'm glad I have a good supply of homegrown bulbs.

Our forecast for the next week isn’t too bad. There are a couple of nights where the low is predicted to be 39 but the others are in the 40s. We may not get a frost for another week or two. I still have some tomatoes flowering and some green tomatoes that I need to pick.

Today I pulled all of my pepper plants and stripped them of useable peppers. Also picked all of the decent green beans. There's still quite a bit of garden clean-up to go and more garlic and onions to plant.

Friday night is still looking like death to all tender foliage though they have raised the possible low to 33 degrees.

It looks like maybe the 90 degree temperatures are gone until April. It is supposed to be 40 degrees on Thursday here with 20 mph winds, so if I can make it through that-it looks like I will have the rest of the month to maybe get a decent tomato crop this year-it was a long horrible summer. It was in the 20s in the panhandle this morning. It is crazy how much the temperature varies in this state. 50 to 75 degree differences in temperature between the panhandle and the Deep South are just crazy. Sometimes it is warm here while it is snowing in Amarillo. I guess it is like that in California or Alaska too.

I have been getting the garden ready for winter and next spring. I have till ridged some rows. I have sprinkled sulfur and lime on many areas. Many potatoes to be dug yet. A few tomatoes and green beans producing. I picked what is likely the last picking of young green lima beans. The sugar snap peas are going very well. I picked the last watermelon on Oct. 22nd. I have not finely mulched leaves yet...and sprinkled on the garden.

We are getting rain today. The forecast is calling for as much as 2” in Memphis. It has been steady out here but not heavy. There is a possibility of some storms tonight, I believe. I had planned to transplant some more kale, spinach l, and brassicas this afternoon but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Richard - I’m glad it has finally cooled down for you. It looks like you’re not going to get any weather out of Zeta, either.

Cindy -is it still looking like you’ll have a hard freeze this weekend?

Hey, Jamie. Yes, the cold is coming here this weekend. But before it gets here we have a flood watch from a cold front and then Zeta. Rain is supposed to begin tonight and continue through Thursday when the remnants of the hurricane combine with it. Possibly three inches from all of it.

I was able to pick seven more saffron crocus flowers today. The blood meal worked.

At least it's not snow! SIL in Montana has 14" of snow and a low temp of -29 (yes, that's minus) the other day. That's brutal!!

That is brutal!

some friends in the Atlanta area were dealing with the remnants of Zeta overnight. I haven’t checked with them this morning. We mixed it as it stayed well to the south of us and headed toward Georgia and you.

I just took a look at the forecast for the next few days. We might hit lows of 33 Sunday and 32 on Monday. The other days have lows in the 40s and 50s

The beginning of the "yellow" clouds of Zeta are moving it here. It's pouring! Hard!!

Our flood watch has now been upgraded to a flood warning.

And there are some "orange" areas imbedded in the yellow clouds.

Cindy - Stay safe!

Richard - I'm happy to hear that you've gotten a break from the summer heat. Fingers crossed you do have a great tomato harvest. It sounds like you're off to a good start.

Here, the rain/sleet/snow over the past few days has amounted to about 1.5" in my gauge. The guessers had indicated that we might get as much as 3". I'll take every drop of that 1.5" that I got. It's been months since we've had a rain like that. Fortunately, it came slowly enough that I think every drop was able to soak in. Maybe the cracks in the garden will start to close up. It's been awfully cold since last Saturday, but today it's supposed to hit 50, then 60, 61, and 56 for the following days. I'm hoping I can get some additional cleanup work in the garden over the weekend.

Good luck, Everyone!

I had to switch to using the Houzz App on my phone and iPad recently. I am using my Facebook login to get on this site and our work network has been blocking Facebook since we started working remotely haha. For some reason, Houzz’s website isn’t connecting properly with Facebook any more and I can’t log in on there now. So, it’s the app for me now.

Sorry, Jamie. I always struggle when I use the app.

I spent a lot of days stripping the garden. I got about 10 gallons of tomatoes in two 6 gallon steam trays. A lot of peppers and at least three 10-12" bowls of mixed beans. And we had scrambled eggs with zucchini from my last zucchini. It was only about 3/4" x 4" but it was enough. It had been developing for 3 weeks or so. The plant is still flowering? I was expecting a serious freeze here this morning which never came.

I want to thank Richard for the seeds for Lipstick sweet peppers. It did wonderful compared to bell peppers I'd been trying to grow here.

Good luck to everyone facing storms. We are warm and dry here...it was 60 yesterday and sunny. However we did have a killing frost last Saturday and the season is over for tomatoes, cukes, and tender flowers. I chopped down the dahlias and will let them harden for a week or two before digging and dividing which is a job I love to hate.

Zeta's rain and winds are hitting here now, glad we dug up the remaining sweet potatoes yesterday. Mid/upper 30's predicted over the next couple of nights which could end up as a frosty morning or two coming up. The fall crops will brush it off ok but my last greeny tomatoes won't like it, I will cover the most promising tomato plants with old sheets and blankets. Picking collards, turnips, spinach now. 1 cabbage picked so far and the broccoli heads will be ready in 2-3 days. Carrots still have another week or so to go before picking. The persimmon tree is being picked now too as they orange up.

We had some rain and wind overnight but not sure if it was the tail end of Zeta or the remnants of the ice storm that did all the damage in Oklahoma. It is clear and cool now. We're supposed to be in the low 60s this weekend.

I have tomorrow off from work and may start digging up my horseradish root since the plants are toast already. I usually wait until mid November but since we have already had a couple freezes it should be ready to harvest.

I still have a few beds to clean up as well but I really don't want to. LOL

I shelled two big bowls of mixed beans today. Most were Kentucky Wonder and also a wax haricot vert. Also some. one plants worth, of a mystery bean with purple pods and black beans that grew late in with the wax beans. Realized it was 4 bowls that I had, so there's still two bowls to go. Both are lima beans. A full bowl of Christmas limas and about 2/3 of a bowl of Sieva Lima beans. I had a very good year for beans. Many of these are dried in the pods and ready for storage. DW made apple cookies and I ran two cookie sheets of beans thru the oven as it cooled to make sure.

Need to plant garlic and clean up a lot of leaves.

You are welcome John, glad they grew well for you. Their flavor is very similar to a bell pepper-a little bit milder.

I need to clean up and till the area where I am going to plant the garlic I got from Cindy and Margi too-so I can find a better way to kill all the weeds before I plant them in a few weeks.

It has been in the 40s here, but warms up to 65-70 during the day. Looks like about 4 or 5 more days of 40s before it warms up again for a while. Probably won’t freeze until after Thanksgiving-maybe December. Should have planted more dwarf tomato plants that I could move inside in the cold. My Beauty King plants have about 10 tomatoes 🍅 on them-thanks Cindy and Jack. That is my favorite dwarf-Tennessee Suited is also awesome.

It was another great day for working in garden and I'm tired! I planted lots of garlic, Music, Inchelium Red, and Polish Jenn saved from last year and a few cloves of an unknown from a friend. He says it is growing wild all over their garden from a couple of heads his MIL helped them plant a decade ago. I'll try not to have it get out of control here:)

Along the way to garlic planting I needed space where the beets were so out they came and prepped the bed on the fly. It is nice having lots of compost to work with. That spot was better for beets this year than other parts of the garden. I think they don't like it when other vegetables get tall and shade them.

Jamie I think I remember you have strawberries in containers. How do they do over the winter there? I have some in big pots I plan to move the spring but not good to dig them up now.

Len - our strawberries survived over the winter in containers without any problems. They are in a more protected area of the yard, near a fence but that’s the only special treatment they got.

Len, I had the same experience as Jamie, my strawberries made it through the winter-even though it was only freezing maybe 7 times all year.

We ended up getting 2.4" of rain from Zeta and the cold front. Tonight there are frost/freeze advisories. Glad that I already picked most of that was worth harvesting already. The entire weekend is looking questionable re: low temps. Actually through Tuesday next week.

I shelled two more 12" bowls of beans...Limas today. And I picked the last beans off the haricot verts, both bush and pole varieties. Mostly for the seeds, but some on the poles looked like nice fresh green beans.

I asked DW what they charge for dry beans at the stores. She said 89¢ a pound. So if she's not joshin me I might have saved about 4 or 5 bucks worth. I was worried last spring about the supply system, the success of which, made my bean project a waste of time.

I did pick 4 more Ambrosia sweet corn cobs today which was a better idea.

John - It's great that you are still getting some sweet corn. Mine has been finished for two months. Guess I should stagger the planting more than three weeks apart next year. Nothing like fresh home grown sweet corn!

Cindy - The corn IS getting a little chewy especially for DW. But it beats no corn.

On the bean subject it occurred to me that if you wanted to grow "dry" beans to grow them on strings instead of tripods like I did. If they're on strings you could unhook or cut the strings and move them to a protected spot like we do garlic. So many of my beans are not dried on the vine and they sure are hard to open.

I did learn that haricot verts are much better string beans than Kentucky Wonder, so I'm not going to grow them next year. I grew Emerite pole and Aiquille Verte bush haricot verts. The Emerite some of you also enjoyed. The Aiquille came from the USDA; item # PI 518171. I found it to be delicious and very productive. Not having a lot of bean experience and less with bush beans after a few batches i decided to let some go to seed which was much too early. But I do have some seed for a few; especially if what I picked today looks good. We also loved the French Gold pole wax haricot vert.

John I'm laughing about your bean experience after seeing spaghetti squash at the farmer's market today for $1.00 each. Fortunately my labor is free.

That is great price for spaghetti squash, Len! Hope that you bought several.

lol Cindy have seven on rack in garage!

It now looks like Sunday night will be our night - the forecasted low is 30 with 33 on Monday night. So, it’s right on time this year.
I have a few more things to set out but I’ll get them in the beds this morning.
I miss summer already haha

Beautiful day here today. Started out in the mid to upper 40s, but the high was 67. I worked in the morning at pulling out dead-due-to-freezing annuals and I added these to the compost bins. The list included vinca, impatiens, dahlias, and a few ornamental peppers. Question to the group: Would these things be considered 'brown' or 'green' material in the compost bin? I realized as I was starting this post that in a matter of just a few hours Jamie will be starting a new thread for a new month, so I hope a few of the experts here see this first and respond.

Margi, the plants are "green" material in the compost bin. I consider dry leaves and, of course, straw as brown materials. I have started putting wood shavings between the food layers in my compost bin, it's a closed container-too many varmints would get into it otherwise. All of the trimmings from the yard get mulched up and go on a big compost pile in the back forty of our place. Lea

LOL Margi if you figure out what is brown and green let me know! Dahlias I have down as green because they are full of water and nitrogen. But maybe not if they get a chance to dry out and become mostly carbon. I think the most important thing is to keep changing what goes in as the pile grows.

I just turned a pile that went cold after 6 weeks and it seemed mostly brown and dry so added layers of dahlias and other green stuff and some water as I rebuilt it and now it is heating up again.

I don't have any deciduous trees so took lawn mower and trailer to a parking lot in town surrounded by oak trees. This must be their year to shed leaves because it was easy to mow up batches and came home with about a yard of mulch.

I just put what I have on the compost pile, what I don't have don't go on the pile. I have built huge piles of leaves and tromped them down by walking on the pile with a tarp on top; which really smashes the pile down. With that the pile was still 4 feet high. The following year the pile is composted totally. That's with all leaves.

Currently I use mostly leaves from maples and then later in the fall from oaks. And then the following year my garden waste. I get what I get. And don't worry about it. If it's just from leaves it's call leaf compost, I think. The truth is I always sprinkle a couple spade fulls of manure in the pile to get it started.

Happy November!

Manure is necessary to get compost started John, if anyone doubts that please refer to presidential campaign for confirmation.

I thought one of you early risers would bet me to it, haha https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6021442/veggie-tales-november-2020