Green Thumb Sunday 12-13-09

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday; visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

As I was sorting pictures today, I found this one of our fall decorations.

You Know It's Fall When...

1. It's hard to find something in bloom
2. Plants appear in every nook and cranny of your house
3. The dirt under your fingernails starts to disappear
   
4. Your hands get so cold you consider wearing gardening gloves
5. Your compost pile gets really big
6. You have trouble finding storage space in your shed or garage (or both)
7. You spend less time in your garden and more time on the internet reading garden blogs
8. The weatherman starts talking about snow flurries
9. You wish you had a greenhouse
10. You're making plans for next year's garden

We really got spoiled with the warm fall. Now the temperatures are in the 30's and 40's and not going any higher. Buffalo, NY is having their first snowfall of the season. A possible accumulation of 5-7" is expected. The forecast for Rochester predicts a possibility of snow every day through Friday.

Yesterday we finally bought some heavy plastic for the cold frame. I put it over the frame this morning and got half the job done, but between the wind, rain and numb hands I had to stop. I'm going to try planting some scallions in the cold frame, along with more lettuce, and maybe a few radishes. I finished harvesting the veggie beds - all that's left is what's under the cold frame. The carrots were smaller than I expected. Half of them had their growth stunted from the bean foliage that sprawled everywhere. I also pulled out the beans, harvested my scallions and some lettuce that managed to survive the cold weather. The scallions are pretty small since the tomato foliage blocked out most of their sunlight.

Farewell, and stay warm!
~Sarah
Sarah

Possible Frost Tonight

When I checked the weather this morning I noticed that the temperature was supposed to get down to 31 tonight. Tomorrow night it's supposed to be 33. In fact, the nighttime temperature for the next week doesn't even make it out of the thirties. With this sad news in hand I decided it was time to start winterizing my garden. First I picked all the tomatoes and peppers and filled a half-bushel basket.

Then I started pulling out plants, knocking the dirt off, and hauling them off to my compost heap. In one bed I have a cold frame set up over a basil plant and some lettuce. I set up a grow tunnel (similar to the one here, but mine is smaller) over my scallions and another lettuce plant. I covered the tunnel with the 'fleece' that came with it and a blanket over that.
Most of the tomatoes I picked were still green, so I punched holes in some paper bags, put a layer of tomatoes on the bottom, folded the top over and took them down to the basement. I'll probably freeze most of them after they ripen. I also harvested about half a dozen peppers.


After lunch I helped Mom and Dad move one of the Russian Sage plants. It was very hard to get out of the ground - the roots were really strong. I had to break a couple, but I think most of the roots are strong and healthy. It should survive the transplant pretty well. The picture was taken in August when the Sage was a honey bee magnet.

Still on my To-Do-Before-It-Snows-List:

• Get rose cones or other coverings for Mandevilla and Mom's Heather
• Plant more Lettuce and Scallions in cold frame
• Get heavy plastic to help insulate cold frame
• Rake Grandpa and Grandma's leaves, mow over them, and spread on garden beds
• Wrap transplanted Russian Sage and Japanese Maple with burlap
• Plant bulbs
• Install edging around Perennial garden

Farewell~
Sarah

Quick Post & Website Link

Just a quick post to let everyone know I haven't fallen off the face of the earth! I've been busy this past week painting my room and completely ignoring my gardens. (I know that's really naughty of me, but I promise I'll make time to find out what's still growing sometime today.) Since I don't have a lot of time or anything really interesting to blog about, check out Dave Epstein's website:
Growing Wisdom.com Advice, Inspiration and information for Gardeners
(The videos take a while to load, but they are well worth the wait!)

Enjoy Fall; Winter is just around the corner!
~Sarah

Culinary Fun, Tomatoes, and To-Do Lists

Did you all enjoy your Labor Day Weekend? I know I did. We had a wonderful picnic on Monday, complete with hot dogs, sausage, baked beans, and (my specialty) grilled potato skins. I even got to use a fresh-picked tomato! Tuesday I made Pesto Chicken for dinner. It turned out really well, as did my experiment of putting some pesto on tomato slices and broiling them.

I have good news, and no, I didn't save a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico(R). The slugs seem to have vanished from my garden! I'm not sure what persuaded them to leave, but I don't really care, as long as their gone.
My tomatoes have finally started to ripen. The Mrs. Benson tomatoes are very large, weighing between 8 and 15 ounces each. So far I have not gotten any Brandywine tomatoes; the ones that ripened got blossom end rot. I'm somewhat surprised since Brandwines are supposed to be very easy to grow, and not prone to disease. I guess end rot is exempt since it's not a disease, but a calcium deficiency in the fruit. If I can get to the garden center some time soon, I will try to find a calcium spray for the leaves, so more calcium can get to the tomatoes. In the meantime, I've been trimming the plants of unnecessary leaves and runners in an effort to keep the leaves from absorbing all the calcium. I'm also fertilizing and watering the plants more often.

Due to the cooler weather most of the flowers have slowed their seed production, but I'm still getting seeds from Calendula, Cosmos, Anise Hyssop, and Salvia plants. On the To-Do List this fall is revamping my flower garden, and finishing the new bed around the mailbox. The bed around the mailbox will be getting Lavender and Rose Campion. I'm not sure what else is planned for it. For my flower bed, we are going to put in a mix of peat moss, top soil, compost, and sand. We're also going to reshape the border to make it look more like a circle than a wavy line.

Farewell For Now~
Sarah