A Little Rain Makes All The Difference

We have had some nice rain rain over the last two days. It has made an amazing difference in my fall crops. They seem really very happy now. On to a tour of what is in the garden right now.

This is the end of the rock wall garden. The lettuce is perking up. Before it was struggling, but it has grown a lot in the last couple of days. Other things in this photo, basil, chard, parsley, and bunching onions.

Just a bit farther on is some more lettuce and the radishes and turnips. The kale is in the back. It is getting eaten by some caterpillars. They seem to like the turnips better though as that is the only place I found them. The turnips can handle the damage as their leaves are huge. The poor kale is so tiny still. Now some of it is totally defoliated.

Next down the line are some of my tomatoes. I have two plants that are alive. My GabrielleAnn and Cherokee Purple. The Cherokee Purple is about five feet tall and just as wide. It is a huge plant. It has had occasional disease try to get in, but it seems to recover and grow on. Too bad there aren't all that many tomatoes left on it that are big enough to ripen. Enough for me to keep it there, but nothing like from the last wave of tomatoes.

Right next to my Cherokee, is my row cover under which I have all my Asian greens. The row cover keeps them pretty pristine except for the little bit of slug damage on the edges. Can you believe this mass of green? In the front are two kinds of bok choy. The next row back is tatsoi, then comes Chinese broccoli and last but not least is the Fun Jen. This spring I didn't plant enough of the Chinese broccoli. I got very little harvest. I couldn't use it as a separate ingredient, but only as a tiny piece in a stir fry. Now I get a decent harvest. It is enough for one for a meal this week. Yum.

Some of the bok choy is bolting already. Sigh. It has seen way too much heat this fall. But most of it seems to be sizing up. I'll have to thin it and the tatsoi out again soon.

I took some thinnings from the last bed and planted them right next door under the same row cover. I also put some turnip seeds and radish seeds in between the rows. I think it was a mistake to transplant the bok choy and tatsoi so late. It should have been done earlier. I didn't because I wanted my Amish Paste tomatoes to get big enough before pulling it out. There was a nice flush going on. I hate to miss such things. But because of that they were transplanted too late. They may just all bolt. But it was worth it. I probably should have just transplanted the Chinese broccoli or the Fun Jen over there instead. Fun Jen takes a lot longer to mature.

Farther along is my lone surviving zucchini. It has survived a nasty attack of the SVB. It had really bad powdery mildew going on. When I pulled out all the rest of the squash I cut off the bad leaves. Ever since it has been growing like gangbusters.

Look how long its stem is. I wish there were a way to control this plant. It likes to just meander along the ground and when it does it smothers everything in its path. This year it took out some poor unsuspecting dried beans.

I'm sorry. I just had to show you this photo of the huge zucchini blossom with a visitor. I know. Now you will all never visit my blog again because I just had to show a huge slug. He was really quite fascinating. I've never had a slug this big in my garden before. RIP. I hope I never will again either.

Past the zucchini in the old squash bed I planted some spinach to over winter. It has had really spotty germination. Or maybe it was that slug taking down the seedlings? I guess I'll never know.

I have a few other things that didn't have their photo taken. They were being shy today. The pole dried beans are still drying pods. I'll pick them again during the next dry spell. I have some peppers still putting out. The jalapenos are really putting on a nice flush of flowers and peppers now that the weather has cooled down a bit. I should have a lot in a month if the frost doesn't get them first.