We have had fairly mild weather for this time of year, with overnight lows in the 50s. No frost warnings. Nothing happened at the house. That is why I was surprised to see all the black, withered foliage in the garden when I visited last week. The basil, bush beans and some of the peppers were gone. Other plants looked just fine. This was just an example of how much the climate can vary in just 2 miles (and a 100 foot decrease in elevation). Cold air apparently slides down hill and valleys can have frost while hillsides do not. But there are no hills around the gardens, so I can’t really explain it. Frost happens.
The Trinidad peppers in the raised beds are black and were pulled and put in the compost piles. But this Trinidad planted in-ground looks just fine and has 7 or 8 peppers ripening. I have a couple of Carmen peppers loaded with green fruit just starting to ripen and a Revolution bell with 3-4 small peppers. All I need is another week or two so I am hoping a frost or hard freeze holds off.
The tomatoes are finished, except for this Esterina yellow cherry tomato. I tried Esterina this year in place of Sungold because Esterina was supposed to be more crack resistant than Sungold. The flavor is good, not quite as candy sweet as Sungold but with a good tomato flavor. For the most part it was crack resistant, until a few weeks ago when we got a large amount of rain after a long dry spell. But look at the amount of fruit still on the vine, long after the last Juliet and Chocolate Pear were plucked off their vines. I am not sure these will all ripen in time. Anyone got a suggestion for green cherry tomatoes in case? Maybe they just go in the refrigerator pickle crock.
The last of the Pineapple tomatoes were harvested and I got a few decent slicers which we have been enjoying. The squash vines were pulled and the cucumbers are dead but will take some time to remove from the trellis netting. The pole beans are on their last legs, producing a few beans here and there. Musica is still trying to pump out beans but not for long. The summer vegetables are finished but at least some of my fall vegetables have survived the dry weather and are starting to enjoy the cooler weather.
That’s what little came from my garden last week. To see what gardeners around the world are harvesting, visit Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.
That's still a lovely harvest considering how many plants you had to get rid of. My harvests are basically at the all green stage save for one strawberry. But at least I am doing better than last year when I had barely any fall crops growing. I still don't have as much as I would have like (or had planned) but I'm hoping to do better with each passing year.
ReplyDeleteSummer sure does end quickly in your part of the world! I quit growing Sungold too, not so much because they are so prone to cracking, which they certainly are, but because they were too prolific. I would get so tired of picking them that I would let them rot on the vine and then end up with one huge mess. I'm still searching for a good tasting crack proof cherry tomato.
ReplyDeleteThat is really weird. I would have said it was a sudden blight, but the fact that it hit your beans and basil too does point to a kiss of frost. We came nowhere near that kind of temperature. But you still managed to get some nice produce.
ReplyDeleteI was hit with a light frost about a week and a half ago (Eastern Ontario Canada). But I didn't have too much left aside from a few tomatoes and my one sole zucchini plant. Sorry to hear you lost a few but lucky with what survived!
ReplyDeleteWe got into the 30s one nice, but it didn't frost here. Not that there are many tender plants still out there. Just a couple.
ReplyDeleteGood tomato harvest for this time of year. Not going to get any harvest from my Trinidad peppers, they did not grow well at all.
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