November 1^st

Butter Lettuce

Well, we have had our first official hard frost.  That means that all of the summer vegetables are truly finished and almost everything else needs to be covered. So far our lowest night was 28 degrees.  Vegetables such as beans, peppers, and tomatoes die at 32, but many other vegetables can survive in lower temperatures.  They can freeze and thaw many times during the fall and early winter, and reserve their growth periods for when the weather is favorable.  

This makes growing really slow, but it can work in your favor, a garden that has been planted well can have tons of vegetables “hanging out” and waiting to be harvested. For example we planted 5 beds of carrots in early September; they have pretty much stopped growing by now, but can wait in the soil for another few months before they need to be picked. I’ll harvest a few at a time until Christmas.

Andrew with a cardoon plant

As the frost loomed, we harvested the last of the beans, peppers, eggplant and tomatoes.  With the tomatoes I pulled off all of the green ones as well as the red, and will ripen them in the shed over the next few weeks. I also dug up all of the sweet potatoes to cure, and cut down the giant cardoon plants. I harvested most of the lemongrass and potted up the rest in the greenhouse to plant in the garden again next year. We also lost the cucumber plants, which was a little sad. I was hoping to hold on to them for a little longer.

chickens enjoying a mountain of beet greens

Right now in the garden we still have lettuce, French radishes, Japanese fresh turnips and Pac choi under cover.  Kale, swiss chard, brussel sprouts, purple top turnips, celeriac, mustard greens, spinach, carrots, beets, cauliflower and romanesco are all exposed to the elements and happy to be so, though most of those will need to be covered or harvested soon.