Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Garden Chores

Today was a long day in the garden. Usually I spend about 20-30 minutes picking and doing little things, but the garden was quite a mess. There were a lot of dead leaves on the cucumber plant which I pulled off.

The bean tepee was getting messy and dropping dead leaves all over my lettuce below. So I cleaned up the yellowing leaves and thinned out the living ones so I could finally find my beans again. The Fortex beans have stopped producing. I ripped up their leg of the tepee. Now I just have one leg left with Kentucky Wonder beans. They don't seem to have gotten the message that it is getting colder outside. They seem happy enough to keep producing, which is sad in a way because their shade is so heavy right now that I can't use a large part of my lettuce bed. But not to worry. The new little transplants that went in today were planted by the tepee poles where the Fortex beans were.

I also put in my last succession crop of Asian greens. There is no Chinese cabbage in this group since it wouldn't produce in time, and no mizuna since my old plants just keep producing but I have three each of tatsoi, fun jen, and boc choi. There was no room in the old bed for them. The Chinese cabbage that was planted a while ago takes up too much room. But the zucchini had been pulled out. I did put in a cover crop, but it didn't come up in spots. So the Asian greens went in there.

I currently don't have a row cover over them. I'm hoping that I don't regret that later. Some radishes that I had planted were innundated by caterpillars. I'm hoping that it is too late in the season for them now.

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had a productive day in the garden too Daphne. I grew Kentucky Wonders last year & they just kept producing like crazy. I will definitely be growing those next year. I even have the perfect spot picked out for them.

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  2. Curious what cover crop you are trying (that didn't all come up). I always contemplate that, for nitrogen-fixing purposes, but then I get greedy and plant edibles instead. I'm trying chinese broccoli this winter, sounds like maybe it gets kinda big?? I'd love to see photos if you want to post them. Happy gardening,
    Karen
    http://greenwalks.wordpress.com

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  3. You had quite a produce production going on this year. Interesting to read about. I haven't been here in ages. Now, I will read some more to see what else you have been doing.

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  4. My cover crop is hairy vetch and oats. I've been told the oats winter kill here. I've never used them before, only rye. But supposedly they are still better than rye since they aren't allelopathic.

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