Looks like we got down to 36F last night. Oddly, the basil looks like it survived.

It's leaf collecting time here, too.

Got down to about 23° the night before last night. About the only things left out now are carrots, beets, a dab of broccoli, and brussel sprouts that may not make it. Tillage radish cover crop still out there.

Apples were tremendous. I have a brush pile to burn after the corn field is harvested. Leaves are falling and I hope to get the usual crop of finely mulched leaves to till n.

Yep as predicted we had a major frost here this morning so it's bye-bye to all of the flowers :-( .......Another frosting tomorrow too but that should only sweeten up the collards. The persimmons will be picked by this weekend when the 70's will return for the time being. Indian Summer is on the way....

oops, I posted this in the Oct thread (deleted).....

Now that a killing frost has hit here I cleaned up the summer flower oval and finally planted few pansies for some winter color. Also in the process of prepping some rows for spinach to be seeded next week for an early Spring harvest. It's getting very dry here now and my neighbor's well is going dry too. We're not under drought conditions but the sparse rains have been light & shallow, no recharging of the deeper water table. If TS Ophelia had not dumped 3.5" on us back in Sept we would be bone dry by now. We have 2 wells and I'm sharing the deep well with the neighbor, their well works ok enough except for doing the family laundry.

Whew, 82F yesterday and it's a chilly overcast 55F today. Just a sprinkle of drizzle earlier but no real rain in sight for many days to come. We may start to get fire danger warning soon. The tree leaves are falling like snow now and they are extra colorful this fall. I'm bagging up as many as possible to use in the compost piles next year. Also raking up newly fallen pine needles for future gardening uses. Gardening includes picking collards for dinner tonite and gathering another few dozen persimmons from the tree. The branches are very loaded down and I probably should have thinned them out earlier, never needed to do that before.

Today was a perfect 60F and sunny so I went ahead and planted 3 rows of spinach, may plant another 1-2 rows tomorrow since I have some leftover seed. VgQn helped me pick another 100 or so persimmons, the nite and day temps make for good outside garage storage. After picking them we looked at the tree and didn't see any difference.

They are still hard and very sweet but will soften up with time and be pudding by Christmas. By the time we're done picking there will be around another hundred out of reach even with my 8' ladder. A fruit picking pole is no good as persimmons are tightly bound to their stem and need to be nipped off. Looks like the neighbors will have them on their Thanksgiving menu. Still raking leaves and pinecones, I see one last grass mowing in my near future. The deer have left our yard since the pears are all gone.

Picked all of the early turnips today and started picking the carrots. Continued raking up leaves today, was nice at 72F and it looks like a good rain on Tuesday, hope so as we're 8" behind for the year. Thanksgiving dinner should have some garden fixings of carrots, sweet potatoes, collards, peas, and persimmons with pear cobbler for dessert.

We finally got a decent rain yesterday, about 2.2 inches which helped sustain the fall garden. The collards, carrots, cabbages, and turnips are happy today and the spinach seeds are popping up. The Appalachian wildfires to our west got even more rain so that was a huge relief out there. Picked the last of the persimmons except for around 50 that are out of reach, bird food now.

Got greens here , collards , kale , chard , mustard , lettuce, spinach , rutabaga , Kohlrabi ,turnips , carrots , radishes. The tunnel to the left has brassicas , green peas.

Getting ready to cover the tunnels for the long haul through the winter.

Here's what I had this time last year.

:

got just 3 tunnels this time. In process of covering them for the winter.

more to report later.

Okie HU

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to ALL

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We had roasted carrots and parsnips from the garden with our feast. Recently pickled beets were supposed to be part of it, too, but they were forgotten and remained in the refrigerator. Oh, well, they will be a great new addition to the leftovers tomorrow.

We have had a warmer than normal autumn and the garden is better tended than some years. Most is covered by a layer of shredded leaves. Garlic is planted, although a few weeks latter than I'd prefer. I was gone a lot in October and was sick when I got home and didn't do much for awhile. I'm sure the garlic will be okay, maybe just a bit smaller.

Some carrots, parsnips, and beets are still in the ground. They should be okay for awhile. Might be a weird cabbage or kohlrabi if I looked around some. Potatoes are stored, herbs and garlic are being used, and a couple small cabbages are refrigerated. There are veggies in the freezer, too. Time to relax and enjoy the last days of autumn.

Well it looks like we'll get our season's first dip down into the mid 20's next Tues/Weds mornings. The collards and carrots should be ok but I may use old bed sheets to cover the still developing cabbage heads. The late turnips have probably reached their peak of growth at 60 days now so I'll harvest the rest of them before they become too turnipy in flavor. These are White Lady turnips (100% white) but if left in the ground too long they'll start to taste like the standard purple tops. Otherwise all is well in the garden and it's still basking in that recent 2 inches of needed rain, no more rain is in sight for now.

Avacado Tree

My last post for Nov.....the temp hit 19F Weds morning and it looks like the carrots, collards, and turnips took it ok, but the cabbages which I covered lightly in sheets all seem a bit ragged. Normally my fall planted cabbages do very well to develop heads before it gets too cold but these were slow to grow this year. They have to be transplanted in late Aug but the heat would not let up to give them a break this year, plus drought conditions all fall did not help. These heads will be less compact than normal unless they get on the ball. Temps are moderating now so no more 20's in sight for a little while.