The Dawg Patch

[AKgardener]

@GoDawgs since it looks like u enjoy cooking or bread making you really should try and make crumpets it was easy to make and so delicious I’ve made English muffins before but now it’s an every weekend thing… so glad you have baby maters

[GoDawgs]

This morning marks the first time this fall that the heat was turned on. It's 39 in town, 40 out here and 66 in the house so the heat's been turned on just to take it up to 70. The rest of the week the lows will be in the 50's again with highs mid-upper 70's. Hurry, beans! Hurry! I spied little baby "toothpicks" on them yesterday so maybe 2 weeks until first picking.

Yesterday I got the first decent picking of field peas. They shelled out to 7 oz. Most of the pods were about 10" long and had 18 peas in each one. These are Big Red Rippers and the vines sure are "vigorous", as the catalog says.



There are three 18' rows. That's my "steady stick" leaning against the corner post. I use it to push vines aside to make room for my next step through the row and then lean on it so I don't lose my balance when stepping as vines are just waiting to snag that trailing foot!



The zinnias have had their day and need to give way for the garlic later this week. The few butterflies still out and about were still visiting the flowers as the plants lay in the cart



Some work with the broadfork and the bed is ready for garlic down each side the end of this week and summer squash down the middle come next spring. The bed behind it will have leeks planted down one side later this week too.



That leek bed will get forked today. Meanwhile, Pickles has gotten the urge to make a simple compost bin from some pallets so we'll see later what she has in mind. These things sometimes take on a life of their own!

[GoDawgs]

Pickles finished the compost bins for the most part. She wants to rig up an easily removable front panel. The cardboard on the bottom is there to prevent roots from coming up into the compost.



Yesterday we moved the remains of the leaf pile gathered up last fall to one of the new bins. Then I loaded up most of the compost pile behind the house and moved most of it to one of the new bins. It hadn't been turned in ages but was full of worms so it was layered it in with some of the leaves. I say "most" of the old compost pile because I ran into fire ants about 2/3 of the way down and just left the rest there.

The moon is right for planting out the garlic and leeks Thursday or Friday and the weather guy says rain is coming in. Oh well, it will happen anyway. We need the rain, the new plantings need the rain and I don't mind getting wet. The beds are prepped so it's just a matter of plugging stuff in.

[AKgardener]

Job well done! I did my garlic already tore up half the garden yesterday don’t forget to start you small maters just sayin

[GoDawgs]

Job well done! I did my garlic already tore up half the garden yesterday don’t forget to start you small maters just sayin

Got two Red Robins started about three weeks apart and will start another one maybe next week. Trying to stagger them so when one poots out the next one is starting to produce.

[GoDawgs]

I got the garlic planted yesterday afternoon after the rain left. The soil was nice and damp, not muddy at all. We sure did need that rain! There are 80 cloves in the ground, 38 Lorz Italian and 42 of the new Polish White. I know I wasn't going to keep the Siberian and Russian Inferno going but there are some really nice cloves in storage so I might have to find a place for them just to keep those lines going. Y'all know how that goes!

Today I'll get the leeks planted. The last few brassica plants are out on the porch hardening off and they'll go into the ground on Sunday. Those will be the last of the fall plantings.

[GoDawgs]

Well, after I planted the leeks and garlic I did a second check of the Siberians and Russian Infernos I had decided not to plant but found some huge cloves! How could I not plant them?



Sooooo..... That pack of scallion seedlings was sown just to test viability of some 2017 seed (great germination!). I hadn't planted them yet and decided a third row wasn't necessary just because I have a hard time throwing good plants away so I used their row to plant the Siberians and Infernos, making another 34 cloves in the ground and 114 total. To finish the row I planted five of the garlic bulbils I've been playing with. This will be Year 3 for them.

Meanwhile Pickles canned up the last of the potatoes harvested this spring as they were starting to sprout. She found a recipe for Greek flavored and for Italian flavored potatoes and made a batch of each. Thirteen pints total done on Friday the 13th. The first two rows are the Greeks, the back two rows the Italians.



And finally, Lester has been contributing to squirrel population control. He started dining in on the latest batch of young 'uns, and has moved on to the more meaty adults. It seems his favorite dining spot when "dining in" has become Pickles' bathroom floor which is OK because it's easy clean up! He's so quiet about it. Usually he comes busting in one of the two kitty doors but when he brings home "dinner" you never hear him. Sneaky boy!



Today is Football Day so there won't be any gardening done although I might harvest a few cold brews. Go Dawgs!

[GoDawgs]

Time for some pics. The new compost bins are seeing work. I had filled the center one and three days later it has shrunk down by about a quarter as contents settle down. There's brown stuff in the left bin and green (grass clippings right now) and on the right with the first few fallen leaves of the season mixed in.



The collards needed their first cutting this morning and the kale needed its second cut. Collards in the front, kale on the other side of the bed.



Here is this morning's haul. A pile of kale (left), some collards (right), three little eggplants that were ready and a handful of okra pods.



There are some kohlrabi that are almost ready. I love their colors especially in the morning sun.



The turnips are loving the cooler weather and starting to really grow fast. If I can keep the flea beetles off of them we'll have some pretty greens this fall. On the other side of the bed the first carrot planting is up about 5-6".



This afternoon I'll be setting out the last few broc and cauli plants, basically a test to see if they'll survive and produce if planted this late. I also need to pick more cowpeas and the first light picking of the fall green beans. And if I'm in the mood I'll start peeling the garlic cloves, step #1 in the dehydrating process. At least, in theory. Y'all know how that goes. That old saw about the best laid plans, etc.

[GoDawgs]

A couple days ago I got those last four broc and cauli plants in plus seven more kohlrabi (three 45 dtms and four 55 dtms).



Yesterday afternoon I did the second picking of the Blue Ribbon beans and got 1 lb of them. It's the first time I've grown them to pick as last year I only grew a few plants from my MMMM seeds for the purpose of making seed to grow this year.



I'm really impressed with these beans! Huge plants and just loaded with beans in all stages of readiness. It looks like we won't have any frost for at least the next ten days. These fall beans are bring grown purely for fresh eating since we canned up a bunch in early summer. I think these will be my new fall go-to bean.



The first Kolibri kohlrabi got pulled too.



I just love the color of these, both veg and foliage. The greens are edible too but I've not yet tried them yet because I don't pull a lot of them at once, just one or two as needed so there aren't enough greens to fool with.



This afternoon's project is dehydrating garlic chips from the smaller cloves left over from planting plus a few more bulbs.

[PlainJane]

Love those beans!

[pepperhead212]

That Kolibri kohlrabi is my favorite, along with Grand Duke, which has a lot more foliage on them. Both of these can get fairly large, but not woody, like some tend to do. The leaves are good, like with most brassicas.

[GoDawgs]

That Kolibri kohlrabi is my favorite, along with Grand Duke, which has a lot more foliage on them. Both of these can get fairly large, but not woody, like some tend to do. The leaves are good, like with most brassicas.

I just wish Kolibri was an OP so I could save seed. It grows so fast! Hmmmm, that might be another experiment, to save and plant Kolibri seed and see what's behind the F1 curtain! That sure was interesting when I did it with an F1 daikon radish.

Edited to add:
I looked up saving kohlrabi seed. It's a biennial so I don't think I'm going to bother with it.

https://seedsavers.org/grow-kholrabi/

[pepperhead212]

I just wish Kolibri was an OP so I could save seed. It grows so fast! Hmmmm, that might be another experiment, to save and plant Kolibri seed and see what's behind the F1 curtain! That sure was interesting when I did it with an F1 daikon radish.

Edited to add:
I looked up saving kohlrabi seed. It's a biennial so I don't think I'm going to bother with it.

https://seedsavers.org/grow-kholrabi/

As I was reading your comment, I was remembering the one time I grew some kolibri through the winter, in a hoophouse, and discovered that it was a biennial! I started it around now, with some komatsuna, senposai, tatsoi, mizuna, bok choy, and a few I don't remember, I'm sure, and lettuce (the worst of all, which I expected). The tastoi was the last to die back, when it got below around 20° inside the hoop; much colder outside, of course, so this didn't happen often, but most of these greens grew back quickly, once it warmed up, just to 30° or so, inside there. Everything died back, except for the kolibri, which never died, but also didn't grow larger than about 2", and the entire plant turned a totally dark purple, more reddish than the usual color. In March it bolted, though I didn't save any seeds, since it's a hybrid.

[GoDawgs]

Today it was 86, our last day in the 80s for a long time. After bouncing off 56 tomorrow morning it will only get up to 65 and up to 56 the day after that. There's still a low of 29 in the forecast. It's that time of year when the wardrobe switcheroo stops. Long sleeved flannel nightgown first thing in the morning and long pants in the morning until near lunch. Shorts in the afternoon and sleeveless cotton nightgown until bed time. LOL! We haven't had to use AC at all and only used heat about two times to take the chill off a couple of mornings when the house was about 67. The power bill was way low!

This morning was the beginning of tearing down stuff. I removed the hoops, netting and guide strings from one of the green bean beds and set up the other one for add frost protection. I'm trying to keep those alive long enough for the pods to dry out for collection. The net enclosure around the okra is now gone. Lots more got done while it was nice out. Gory details and pics tomorrow.

Pickles was going to hoover up leaves today with the bagger but decided to wait a couple days until the weather gets colder. That way she can be comfortable in long pants etc and not get covered in dust. It was too warm today for that.

[AKgardener]

I put kohlrabi on my grow list for next year is it worth growing and is it any good?? I saw videos on it so I was curious

[GoDawgs]

I put kohlrabi on my grow list for next year is it worth growing and is it any good?? I saw videos on it so I was curious

They're like very mild turnips so if you like turnips you're sure to like kohlrabi. You can cook or roast them like turnips with the added ability to do nicely cut into matchsticks with celery etc and salad dressing for a crunchy salad. Leaves are edible too. The Kolibri are quick too; about 45 days from seed and 60 days from transplants. That's faster than other kohlrabi I've grown. Perfect for short Alaskan summers.

[AKgardener]

Oh man well to be honest I have never tried a turnip haha so guess will just have to try it out

[GoDawgs]

Fall is finally here. All of a sudden the leaves are starting to color up after they started to fall. This is the northwest corner of the garden where the big crape myrtles and grapevines are finally turning loose some of their leaves. Yesterday I took down that net enclosure around the pitiful okra plants.



I'm going to try and protect these Blue Ribbon beans so the pods dry down for seed collection. If necessary (probably) I'll pull them out and hang them upside down under the pole shed to finish that process. Funny how the plants are shorter on the left side and get bigger towards the right. As it turned out I didn't need to raise up the height of the hoops.



These are the second and third rounds of brassica plantings. Behind them is the okra bed and then the turnip/carrot bed. I think this year the turnip greens are the best ever. Really pretty with no shot holes at all. I sprayed some neem oil at the first sign of trouble so maybe that's why.



This is one of the garlic beds. That's a surviving daikon radish on the left and newbie daikon seedlings to the right of it. Two days ago I planted six more daikons in that smooth space behind the seedlings.



Today I'll pull out pepper, bean and okra plants and off to Mt. Brushmore they go. There might be a little rain later today as the cold front moves through. I hope so. The weather is on tv right now and they've issued a frost and freeze warning for Thursday morning with a low of 28. It's coming!

[GoDawgs]

Thursday and Friday were two mornings of 29 with heavy frost. It almost looked like it had snowed out in the pastures. I mentioned earlier about trying to save the Blue Ribbon beans so they could finish going to seed. The row hoops were covered with sheets and fingers were crossed.

Since temps are moderating, I pulled the sheets off the row yesterday to see what was left. The plants look a bit droopy and the foliage on the top and sides has a darker green look but inside that mass of foliage the leaves are bright green.



The beans are the same way. Some that were hanging outside the foliage either had that greasy green frozen look or were half damaged and half OK.



Meanwhile the garden is looking rather bare after clean up. That shadow is from the bean cover sheets that I hung on the trellis to dry.



Things look so pretty in the morning light. Yep, fall is finally here.

[PlainJane]

Beautiful view over the field and water. Is that a pond?