I'm not harvesting much. My horned melons are getting close to being ripe. I have lost forty or so tomatoes to worms. I will NEVER grow tomatoes without cages EVER AGAIN. I got fed up with losing my maters, that I built cages around them, gathering the plants up and shaping them and tying the branches to the cage so they aren't jumbled up in there. Some of them were taller than me. I did about 16 of them with 4 ft horse fencing made into a circle. Now that they are off the ground, I can spray them without a problem, and I have a bunch of new, unblemished fruit developing. I have been harvesing chinese cabbage, yardlong beans(letting most go to seed for next year. I think they taste better than the reds) and turnips. I can't wait for my broccoli!

Golly, you yankees are lucky to be getting tomatoes already. My tomatoes are in 8 foot cages except for a couple I am trying to let bend over at the top. The weather has just been unseasonably warm here in S St Lucie County. I maybe got a dozen tomatoes in a little cool spell we had about a month ago and then couple dozen about 2 weeks ago. The largest one, a brandywine is about 4 inches in diameter, but not turning yet. Can't wait to get vine ripe tomatoes again.

My foot long beans have been really producing , but nematodes got them so will pull them shortly.

Getting okra regularly all summer.

Some great looking eggplants but no fruit, Had a few off some summer plants.

Getting some summer squash.

Should get limas and kentucky wonders soon.

Not much to report compared to you know who? SILVIA

bernie

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Nothing, everything's burning up. I've never had pole beans wilt daily before I get home, but I do now. I'm really not sure how things are going to go this season if we don't start to cool down soon....

Rattlesnake beans for dinner -- thank you happy_fl_gardener !! Remember how long ago you gave those to me ? My Fall crop of plants are not pretty but the beans taste delish .

Pigeon peas are blooming away and very pretty . I have the tree variety and they are up 9 or 10 feet . I will definitely save seeds and plant many more in the Spring . Talk about a hardy plant ; this one wins first prize in that category . Are the pigeon pea seeds from you - happy or from ill man ? Many thanks for sharing .

Peppers have done the best out of all veggies for me . Mine are all in the ground , planted tightly together . The hots have done the best out of the peppers . Banana peppers ( are these also called Cubanelles ? ) really thrive and are not too hot - just right and very pretty with their long yellow fruit .

I hate to think about freezing temps just a few months away .

Bernie -- It looks like your garden is growing nicely. I'm going to try some Brandywines next spring.

Tom -- I saw your pictures on another post. Your garden looks great.

Mary -- Glad the Rattlesnake beans did well for you. I got very little food from the different varieties of beans that I grew this fall. Fall just isn't the best time for beans.

Miranda is growing a bunch of Pigeon Peas. Could you have gotten them from her? Is wasn't me. I may grow some in the spring since they grow so well here.

Peppers and more peppers. When I get company I ask "Would you like to take home some peppers?" Reminds me of summer squash and zucchini when I lived up North.

Picked my first pummelo of the season today to see how close they are to ripening since I have been seeing them for sale recently. Mine was quite edible but not quite sweet enough for me to pick another one this week.

Christine

Alright, Christine. You, Silvia, Tom, Michael and several others have nurtured me along inspiring me with all your beautiful gardens and true and tried methods and veggies. I wanted to show you how my humble garden is coming along. I am getting better at this veggie thing with all you guys' help. Nothing like yours, but here are my bush beans in the front, my broccoli in the middle and you can see my pole beans in the back. My meyer lemon to the right:

Some of my broccoli plants are starting to make heads:

collards are coming along:

I've got one delicata squash looking cute and maybe two other tiny ones coming?

You know I have a love-hate relationship with tomatoes, but I finally have a few fruit setting on four plants:

I also have some bok choy, carrots, radishes, evergreen onions, lettuce and arugula growing, but they are too puny yet to show. My peppers are the sorriest, so I won't show those and embarrass myself. At least I'm making progress, so thank-you everyone. I am actually planning on having my first harvest of the season tomorrow- green beans. Not the bountiful harvests you all show, but nevertheless, a harvest! And they will probably be steamed and then served with a little butter, salt and pepper... not any of the incredible tasty things you all make, but at least they will be fresh, and hopefully tasty.

Anna

Oh, Anna, your garden looks so beautiful and the plants look so healthy! You are doing a great job at gardening. I'm really glad that you shared your garden pics with us. I enjoyed seeing them. The delicata squash looks like the heat isn't bothering it at all. Very nice.

Christine

Your collards look much better than mine and my broccoli, as of yesterday have not developed heads yet. The top picture is so pretty! Edible and ornamental is the way to go! You have done very well.

Thanks, Christine and Miranda. I feel great about a pat on the back from you two! I am actually proud of my progress this year. Am trying lots of stuff that's new for me, so I will start learning about lots of things. I am thankful for all your help and ideas/advice I have gotten here.

Anna

Here's my harvest. Oh yeah, eat your heart out.
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I think I'm headed for a sugar coma

Anna!

Coffeemom, too much sugar in your coffee....

right now i'm eating... the last of the season's sweet potatoes, the last of the roselles, anaheim and sweet spot peppers, collards, yellow submarine tomatoes, lots of lettuce (jericho and bronze oak leaf--both from southern exposure, both heat-tolerant and open pollinated), in a few days my first radishes, and in a week first broc of the season...

i've also been enjoying christine's delish red bell and marconi peppers... red pepper dip, red pepper salad, red pepper lasagna... all three this week and there are STILL peppers in the fridge. thanks, christine!

no veggies to speak of (yet) but harvested one BIG Meyer lemon and 3 medium sweet Indian limes and there are more coming along.

tomatoes growing (abt. 30 plants) but blossoms not yet setting in the continuing heat.

some thai basil, sweet basil and bronze fennel surviving.

and I have a tiny bay tree-let that provides bay leaves.

bananas on two diff. plants: double mahoi and cavendish.

Denise

coffeemom --- Halloween harvest?!

Anna -- I have extra Seminole pumpkin seeds for spring planting if you want any let me know. There are a number of Kales that grow fast and are an excellent winter veggie. When picked young they even make a great salad green. I am growing Premier Kale for the first time this year. It grew the best in the heat. Looks like a broccoli leaf. Milder flavor than collards.

Denise --- Can you tell me more about the Indian lime? I am not familiar with that one.

Christine

I'm harvesting a bumper crop of Barbados Cherries from both my 4' potted bushes, and my second crop of figs galore from my potted Alma, Kadota, Brown Turkey, LSU Purple, Mary Lane, Black Mission, and Green Ischia plants.

I have not heard that any of you are trying the Trailing Green Marrow, am I the only one? You know that with my garden being 12' from the lake Fall is often the kiss of death to do to dew and DM/PM....

Tom

Dug up two jicama this morning. Both were bigger than I'd planned to let them grow. That was the first lesson learned today. The second is that you can cook jicama for two hours and it will still be 'al dente'. So I drained the cooked chunks, spread them on a cookie sheet, spritzed them with 'butter', sprinkled with salt, pepper and garlic powder and put them under the broiler til brown. My son ate 6 -8 pieces in rapid succession and declared them ".....interesting". ;o) cora

Last night I harvested and ate yardlong beans(red and the green), seafoam swiss chard, red round turnip greens, and a big momma paste tomato.
I, too have an indian lime, but I have gotten no fruits yet to speak of. It's still small.

Tom --- I'm saving the Trailing Green Marrow for the spring since diseases got the other squash varieties that I tried. Didn't want to waste the seeds.

Cora ---Glad to hear that you got a jicama harvest. The plants you sent me grew very well but I should have planted them where they wouldn't be in the way when it came to plant the fall garden. I thought that jicama was eaten cut up raw in salads not cooked. Did you like it?

Christine

Christine, the 4 jicama I planted became a huge green monster that buried 20 feet of a 25 foot fence. It was covered with large stems of purple flowers which gave way to large stems of big seed pods. I'm wondering now if I should have allowed such prolific seed production, because in digging up the root, there were only two that were big enough to use - and were in fact, on the verge of becoming woody.
I cooked part of the larger root out of curiosity. And, like my son said, the taste was 'interesting'. Very slightly sweet as when raw, but otherwise tasteless. The salt, pepper, butter and garlic just didn't help that much. So - raw it shall be from now on.
cora

Anna your garden looks great!
Mine looks a little sad from all the heat the last few weeks. Well, like everyone else the diseases wiped the squash out but at least this year I managed to get some patty pan squash, and another I can't remember the name of- long green italian ???
I got my first eggplant today as well as pole beans, arugula, baby lettuce. I have basil, culantro, cilantro, and curly parsley. All my tomatoes are in pots this year and my peppers are all beginning to set fruit. Broccoli has a ways to go.
I love seeing everyones pics and hearing about their gardens!
Jo

Cucumbers lots and lots of them right now.

Thanks, Tom and veggrljo! I am definitely getting better. Jo, you already have culantro and cilantro? My culantro perished in the heat a while back, and I have not yet planted cilantro.

Christine, I would love to try the seminole pumpkins, but my impression is that it takes up a lot of room? My garden is small and a big vine would overtake it in no time, I think? I have enjoyed seeing everyone's pumpkins, though. Thanks for the offer, but I think I probably need to stick with smaller stuff.

My only eggplant died recently from unknown causes. Is this too close to winter to plant a new one?

Anna

Yeah, too close to winter. They like it hot.