Are Are we oing to go from summer straight to winter? I know the mesonet drought monitor has been wrong all summer.

Transplanted some herbs from outside to containers in the greenhouse to get better production. Sage, rosemary, thyme and oregano.

Just received a email from arbico organics. They have a sale on beneficial nematodes.

I have some Rootknot nematode damage about every year, and have wondered if beneficial nematodes would help, but so far I have other things that I have tried that seem to help, but I am not sure that you could ever get rid of all of them..

Robert, you will soon have you greenhouse full.

I just came in from digging my Red Wine Velvet sweet potatoes. I got a very low yield and quality.

Here are some more boring sweet potato pictures.

This is my Red Wine Velvet (behind), and, Purple in front, a very poor harvest from both. I will run the cultivator through the two rows to try to pick up some usable potatoes after I spray some water to soften the ground. I had about 42 plants of these potatoes.

This is what I have so far from my Covington sweet potatoes, this is from about 45 plants. I just don't do as well with RWV or purple potatoes. The Covington is a very forgiving plant for me. I think I still have a pretty good harvest of Covington in the ground, but I need to water that ground also to soften it. There should be around 30 more plants in the ground, I am not sure, I just stuck the plants in anywhere I could fine a spot, and I have no idea how many will produce.

I think sweet potatoes and Egyptian walking onions are the best producing plants for me, but the walking onions are like a stray cat, you cant get rid of them.

I love sweet potatoes

Kim, you can probably guess that I love them also. I still have sweet potatoes under our bed from last year, we made a couple of pies from the e few weeks ago, and they were great. I ask Madge to make some sweet potato bread, but that was a new one for her, and she has not done it yet. I think that I have seen a recipe for sweet potato cake.

Larry, sweet potato bread is wonderful and I make a double recipe and freeze it. My kids usually get a loaf in their Christmas basket. I’m not sure I can put it on here but if you don’t find a good recipe you can message me your address and I’ll mail it to you

Here ya go Larry. This is 5 ⭐️ recipe.

Ugh they posted backwards. Well the bottom should be on the top okay

Kim, I need you to live close so you can help me dig potatoes.

This is in my north garden. Some of these plants are runners off of the potatoes I planted on 4-29-24. I did not mark the date I cut the runners off of the plants in the south garden and planted them in the north garden, but I am sure these plants have 100+ day in the ground. You can see that there is a good bunch of potatoes in the ground. I did pull the 3 potatoes right of the white stake so the potatoes under them could be seen. Note the fork at the right side of the picture, it is used as a marker in the next photo. Kim, I went back and dug 26 nice potatoes out of that hole...........Revised 4:40 pm 9-21-24.

You see the fork in the center of the photo, and water container at the top of the photo. I don't see the screen on my camera well in the sun, but there is a T post about a foot of so left of the water container that I use as a marker for where I planted the potatoes, they are between the white stake and the T post. Past the T post, between 2 trellises running right to left, I planted 2 or 3 more potatoes, I only found 2 when I was digging, but those 2 plants are the ones that gave me 47 sweet potatoes. You can also see that a lot of my potatoes in this garden have a lot of shade, but I expect to get a pretty good harvest anyway.

Larry I’d have to keep a few lol. I’d have such a hard time without my grands.

Looks like one more hot day . I hope we get some rain so maybe I can get my fall garden planted.

I am going to have to make it rain with a garden hose to soften the ground to dig the rest of my sweet potatoes, then prep my soil for cover crop and fall garden..

Well, I have done most of what I had planned to do to day. I don't have a good place to cure, or keep my sweet potatoes, so I like to dig around the first of Oct., and use Oct. as my curing time. This is the last of my sweet potatoes. I feel that I will have a good bunch to give away, and it appears that I have plenty of people wanting them.

This is the potatoes that had, in what I would have thought too much shade, but I got a pretty good crop. I wish now that I had better prepped the soil, because it was too hard and I got a lot of deformed potatoes, and I did not put any runners in this area, I wanted to save them for the areas that got more sun. These smaller potatoes will work better for Madge and me anyway.

These potatoes grew mostly in the sun, and I got more pounds per sq. foot, but most of these potatoes are larger than what I would like. These 4 piles of potatoes are only the ones I dug this morning, when you add them to the ones I dug yesterday, plus the 47 potatoes that I dug a few days ago, that comes up to a pretty good harvest from the 33 plants that I stuck in the north garden.

This is the before picture, you can see that part of this garden does not get much sun, also it sure helps if you can mow the sweet potatoes first.

Well shoot. I didn’t cover my carrot sprouts and they are gone.

Kim, if you have as many critters to feed as I do you had better plant more seeds. when I was mowing, or even spraying water on my garden clouds of critters would fly away.

Emmy and Jerry came over and hauled away a bunch of my veggies, they took several containers of sweet potatoes, and a sack or two of peppers. Emmy and Jerry said that they would be back next Sunday and try to get more stuff. I want to clean out the unproductive plants and clean the garden. I have more turnip, and mustard seeds than I need, I may just use it as a cover crop. If Elbon rye seeds are not too high I may by a bag of that also, if I can find it.

I have an area cleaned to plant carrots and beets but it had been so dry I have not planted anything.

Do any of you have Dawn's habanero gold jelly recipe? If so, would you share it, or any other hot jelly recipe you have. I have a good supply of jalapeno and habaneros I would like to use, and can I freeze peppers for later use?

You can freeze peppers but they will never have the same texture as fresh. Sometimes we freeze sliced bell peppers to use in fajitas. We put jalapeños in vinegar and just keep adding to the jar as we go. I suppose you could put some seasoning in the vinegar. We use straight (5%) vinegar because we don't process these. We keep in the fridge.

Amy, thanks, I thought I had posted a while ago, but I must have turned off before submitting. We do cucumbers and onions much like you do jalapenos, and really like them.

We got almost an inch of rain last night. I should be able to till and get some fall crops planted tomorrow.

I don't think we got near an inch, but we got enough to dampen the ground enough to plant. I fired up one of my old tractors and drug the cultivator through where I had sweet potatoes, that ground is loose enough to plant now. My cultivator is 7' wide so it only took one pass through the north garden and three passes through the south garden. Its not really worth all the hassle of getting the tractor out and tearing the lawn, but I am not man enough to do it any other way.

I called the Farmers Co-op and they have a few bags of Elbon rye. If I am able to unload the 10 bags of potting soil from the back of the car I may ask wife to pick up a bag of rye seeds when she goes to town tomorrow. I will use part of the seeds for a cover crop on part of the garden and use the rest fora small food plot.

We got a nice rain the other day. My rain gauge showed 2 inches but part of that was from a sprinkler. I had set up. It wasn’t there very long so I’m thinking we got at least an inch of rain because we did have some puddles. The rain station for our area showed a 10th of an inch so they must be quite a ways away from me, if they just barely got a dusting. All I know is my plants are exploding since they got a good rain. I’ve still got some planting and replanting to do. The grasshoppers managed to get into my cauliflower plants and ate all of those and they also ate a pot full of carrots so I will take care of that today or tomorrow. I still wanna plant some Swiss chard collards lettuce and spinach. I love all the different greens mixed together and cooked and this year I am going to can them. We need turnips greens.

Looks like we are going to have a nice day here. It is partly cloudy and 69* now and just right for mowing. I had started mowing, I stopped to take meds and eat a bite, Madge wanted to go buy groceries, and I wanted to buy gas, diesel, and Elbon rye seed, so we took the truck and did both. Its a shame when just going to town wears you out.

I unloaded the 10 bags of potting soil from Madge's car, I will finish mowing, then if I have any energy left I will work on the garden. Hopefully I will be able to work on a couple of tractors also, but that will stretching if.

Hi Friends. Larry, I think you can use any pepper jelly recipe. I'll see if I can find one of mine to share later. I did make pepper jelly once this year with Sugar Rush Peach hot peppers. I'll often throw in whatever peppers I have if I don't have the amount of a certain kind needed. I'll also throw in a few sweet ones if I want the pepper to not be too hot. Anyway, I'll try to get back tomorrow with a recipe.

A Google search gave me this recipe.

Hab Gold recipe

Jennifer, thanks. Madge made some jalapeno jelly a year or two that was really good.

I picked some very pretty red, and some yellow bells a a couple of days ago, but the bells and pimento don't last long around here, the kids raid the garden every 2 weeks. I should have plenty of habaneros, jalapenos and Hungarian wax.

Madge made another sweet potato pie to day, I think it was good, but my meds have been changed and my taster is really messed up. I think that she used the new potatoes rather than the cured ones we have in the house, I had rather use the old ones and make room for the new once they are cured.

It is raining now and I still have potatoes lying out getting rained on. Emmy took a lot of potatoes home with her, and I still have too many to care for

We got a nice rain last night, I sure wish that I had all my seeds planted for fall.

It is hard to show a 3 D image on a 2 D picture, but if any of you are faced with an erosion problem, this may be something you want to try. I build a berm on the low sides of my gardens with free wood chips, of any other free organic matter. This helps to hold back the soil when it rains. The soil will settle on the up hill side if the berm and help level the garden. This is where I grew my sweet potatoes in the south garden, I have also done the north garden the same way, and that is where I grew my best sweet potatoes. This functions sort of like a raised bed, but I can mow it, and drive my tiller or tractor over it. I have shallow soil and need all the help I can get. When I used raised beds, when I was much younger, I had a much harder time keeping the edges of the raised bed clean.

This is what the bed looked like before the sweet potatoes were harvested. Often when growing vining crops it is hard to keep them clean and neat. I try to spray the bermuda, and pull the other weeds to help the bed to look a little nicer. I try to mow the vines, blowing them back onto the bed at harvest.

I got over an inch last night. It’s perfect timing to get my seeds up

I am sorting through my seeds now. I found my collard, mustard, beets, lettuce, and spinach. I wish that I had plants ready to go into the ground, but I don't. I am always a day late and a dollar short on everything.

I tried to till a little this morning, but it is too wet, but I am going to plant something anyway. I thing I will also try to plant some Elbon rye between the a few rows to see if a living mulch will help any in the fall and winter. I will try to space things out to where I can run a mower between the rows if needed.

I harvested a lot of okra pods for seeds this morning.

Larry, I meant to tell you that that link I posted a couple of days ago doesn't look highlighted, but if you click on it, it will take you to the Habanero Gold recipe. I think I named the link " Hab Gold recipe". Not sure why it's not highlighted or underlined on something, But, the link does work if you click on it. This recipe uses dried apricots and specifically named Habanero Gold. Maybe it's the one that Dawn used?

Sorry for the delay in telling you this. Life has been busy.

Thanks, Jennifer, I had clicked on the link, and the recipe does look good. We hope to try it. Madge and I both are still having medical issues and spend too much time going back and forth to the Dr., and gardening,and, even cooking are taking a back seat. I am still trying to get a fall garden going, but if things don't get better I may not try another garden.

I tried about 1/4 of a habanero, without any seeds in a pot of stew, they sure pack a punch.

I planted about .5 oz of early wonder beet seeds this afternoom.

I planted some beets this week too. I also got my spinach chard turnips dill sowed

I just planted 2 more rows of beets. I never have good luck with fall beets, it seems as tho I cant get the ground ready in time, plus, it is often drier this time of the year, and we are on water restrictions. I hope to plant collards, and 2 or 3 kinds of mustard, plus carrots tomorrow, but I always have more on my list than I can get done. I want to try the mineral tubs for some of the fall stuff.

I noticed this afternoon that the gophers are working the garden, they must be looking for the sweet potatoes. If the beets do make, they may not stand a chance against the gophers.

I have never had as much stuff planted for fall as I do now. It’s mostly doing well but some is being eaten. I have to put the row cover on tomorrow as soon as I get done shooting a video.

Hi. We're about planted up for fall. Rick just told me he got some onion sets and a few garlic bulbs. I do save back my best bulbs to replant too. Anyway, once I get those things planted I'll be finished for fall. Some of my lettuce is bolting already. I have another round to put in. I might direct sow some too if I can find some time to do so while it is still light outside.

We had a wonderful trip to Oregon. Each time I say goodbye to Ethan gets harder. I'm very close to my kids and it's just difficult.

My jobs are very, very busy and I only have Saturdays off now, so I am scrambling to get stuff done. Basically, I am exhausted in a way that doesn't happen often.

My salad turnips are bulbing up and the first radishes are harvestable. I'm eating just one a day on my salad, but they're good sized ones. I need to thin carrots and check on the golden beets--they are planted next to the turnips and getting overshadowed by them.

I have 400+ garlic cloves put back to plant, they are in the center bedroom with the door closed, you can guess how that bedroom smells. I have plenty green onions up now, but they are Egyptian walking onions, you can't get rid of them. I also have some bunching onion bulbs that I have saved, they and more Egyptian walking onion bulbils are still on the back porch. I want to replant some of the bunching onion bulbs so I can keep a start of them. I don't plan on buying onion sets this year, I am still trying to figure out how much stuff to plant, because Emmy and Madge are always telling me I plant too much.

Emmy and Laken have taken sweet potatoes home with them to try to cure and store, they will be back over Sunday, and will take more if they have room, but it looks like I need to give more away. The back of my RTV is still full of sweet potatoes, and I need to get it emptied out so I can use it for other things. Madge has sweet potatoes in the house that she want to take to her brother and sister.

I expect that the next project for Emmy and Laken is to figure out what they want to do with the peppers that are still on the vines, I feel sure I have more than they will need, Madge and I have frozen about all we have room for. Madge and I are just not able to do the things we would like to do, so may not pickle any peppers.

We are ready to get rid of the okra plants also. I think all the family has all of it that they want, and I need to burn the stalks.

Jennifer I know you are terribly busy in this season. I am just thankful you are still here : ) so many have gone to fb and don’t come back. I like our little gardening corner. I’ll be doing a garden tour today, but from what I remember, almost everything is up, including a big patch of cilantro. I planted some more dill in pots that have pecan trees in them. I basically just look for empty soil and plant since I am so limited on space. Many plants have to double up. As soon as my Black Eyed Peas are done, I will cut those down and get ready for onion seed. I’d like to get some more potting soil. And I know how it is with those kids. My son used to come home pretty regular with his family and now they don’t. And I’ve had so many problems with my van this year that I have not been able to go to Lubbock. Today my son will be in the area and I will go have lunch with them in Gainesville Texas. It’s only 12 miles from the house.
I haven’t even thought about garlic since all of my beds and pots are completely full now, well I think they are. I do have a few more seeds I want to get planted.

Kim, what brand of potting soil do like to use? I have used mostly Sunshine, Pro mix, and Top Notch over the past 30 years. I have bought a few bags of Happy Frog over the past 2 years, but it is more expensive than the others, so I don't plan on using much of that. The past 2 years I have been trying a lot of Top Notch, for now, Its the best bag for the buck for me. I have nor had the material to make the amount of compost that I want, so the Top Notch I filling in for compost. I don't lift or walk very well, so I buy the Top Notch 10 bags at a time ( that is the amount I can haul in the back of Madge's car ). I can drag the bags out of the back of Madge's SUV, and place 2 bags on the front of my zero turn and take it to the spot I need to use it, and just kick it off the front of the mower. I then split the end of the bag and drag it down the row to mix it it into the soil.

I have been placing Top Notch in the planting holes for the sweet potatoes, and I have been able to dig those by hand with a spading fork, otherwise I have to get the kids to dig the potatoes. The kids are happy to dig the potatoes, but gripes my so to have to ask for help.

I am replanting the sweet potato bed with fall crops and adding some Top Notch in the planting rows, when I finish I will go back and plant Elbon rye between the rows, hoping to give the grasshoppers something else to eat on rather than my crop, and if the grasshoppers don't eat all the rye it will have a large root mass for me to till in next spring.

Well, I think my meds have kicked in well enough to go out and plant more fall crops. I am not sure how much I can get done, I will just go till my body tells me to stop.

Larry, that is exactly how I work. I just keep going until my body says no more. I don’t really consider myself to be old but my body sometimes acts older than it should. As far as soil, I like pro mix the best. I add fertilizer to my pro mix when I put it in the pot because it does not have all that beneficial stuff in it. I do not use anything miracle grow I don’t care how cheap it is. It’s not for me. I did get some at Walmart that was on clearance. It was organic OMRI rated. I really liked how it was fluffy and had fertilizer already in it. Probably will not be able to afford it at normal price. I need two bales of pro mix red bag to fill a pot. So what I’ve been doing is putting compost and grass clippings in the bottom of half of the pot and topping off with the pro mix. That works sometimes but one of my pots sunk all the way and now it’s only half full. It’s enough soil for lettuce but not really anything else. If I had $400 I would order a load of soil fromlocal place. And then I would just buy pearlite and vermiculite to make my own potting soil. I guess I better get outside and get busy. I’ll check back in later.

Kim, here is part of what I have been up to today. I am trying to build a carrot bed across the newest addition of the garden. When Covid hit I expanded the south garden. The soil is not great. About all my soil is shallow, I do help it some by amending it, but when you get down to the hardpan there is not a lot you can do without adding a lot of money.

My longest irrigation tubes are 30' long, and I am almost there. I will add a few bags of potting soil and perlite to the area I have spaded up. I will then plant carrots, more beets and some bunching onions. The area to the right, between the spaded area and the trellis is for bulbing onions, to be planted around March,. To the left of the spaded area will be other fall crops, but I wont go to as much work for them, I have pretty good luck getting turnips and mustard to grow anywhere.

That pitch fork you see there is one I picked up at a flee market, it seems to be old, and some one had put a new handle in it. I don't think my newer pitch fork would handle digging that hard soil, and I am not man enough to get my spading fork into the soil, or at least hold up long doing it.

Here is my next project. I need to clean out the okra plants. The tractor with the brush hog on it needs some repair, and I know I am not man enough to pull these plants, and I don't want to cut them one at a time. The plants are not as tall as they look because I an sitting on my stool resting when I took the picture, but some of the plants are near 10' tall.

I got two packages of pro mix today for $10 each. But I had to wait 30 minutes because they rang up wrong. I went to Gainesville and met my son for lunch and my Lubbock grandkids. It was so good to see them.

I don't think that I have ever got pro mix for $10. I have 1 bag of pro mix left on the back porch, and I think there is 1 bag in the shop, with tax pro mix runs me about 15-16 bucks a bag.

The kids are to come over tomorrow and bring lunch. I am not sure you could ever see your kids and grand kids too much.

I have a nice bed made in the south garden, but I worked on it off and on all day long. I am so slow it takes me all day long to fall down.

Pro mix normal price is $20.00 here. Walmart said when people keep buying it then they mark it down.

Added to correct. When people stop buying it then they mark it down

I try to stay away from Walmart. I like buying at the Farmers Co-op, they know me down there, and know my vehicles, I pay for what I want and by the time I get back to the vehicle it is loaded. When I go to Walmart I walk till I drop and still cant find what I want. I try to buy local when I can. I am also having grand daughter order on line so the product can be delivered to my door. Walking is a pain.