Very dry here. There may be some rain this week..Carrots and beets still growing along with brussels sprouts and a bit of broccoli and cauliflower. Chopping leaves and spreading on garden and tilling in.

Dry here too Wayne and I think Cindy is worse off than me, no rain for about a month now and still nothing in the forecast. Warmer than normal too, no kiiling frost yet, and I bought some pansies to replace the summer flowers but they're still kicking. I can't recall the summer flowers blooming in Nov. Picked about 100 persimmons today along with our very last tomato :-(.

Mostly seed harvesting yesterday. Pole beans, marigolds, candy lilly, and various vine flowers. Picked some kale for dinner, mullein and sage for drying. I've got nasturtiums and sweet potato greens under caps that will need to be reaped soon- they are doing great under caps even though we have had a couple frosts. I know the killing snap is coming soon. The basil has now died. The parsley and some greens will still do well for a while yet.

The perennial grow bed is a seedy mess, and not all I want. I let some undesireable weeds go and the bronze fennel is gonna be a fright to tame in the spring. Bugs got to the brussels too badly for them to get good seed crop. On the bright side, the celery types and bulb fennel are self sowing well now, and the sea kale put out an excellent seed harvest. I've plenty enough of celery and bulb fennel seed to spread some out back. The chard has struggled, but on the seed list is a different one to try out.

Working on seed orders this week, almost ready to place them. Pinetree has dropped their shipping rates, yay! And a smaller Baker Creek order. Some herbs and flowers. Trying some new little melons, tomatoes, and greens. Johnnys and Seeds from Italy for reordering some bigger packets of greens and flowers.

Got the indoor grow lights dusted off. Only one is set up for microgreens right now. I'm still getting enough out of the gardens and fussing with hardening off plants to the indoors I haven't started growing greens yet. This weekend though so I have a bunch for holiday dinner.

It's been pretty dry here too, but we got in a couple squalls in the last week or so. Water tanks are refilled and ready to be "burped". I drain some water out because freezing and fill kitty litter jugs. Jugs become stabilizing wall and hold leaf pack around the greenhouse caps.

A bit more frightening is the temps. Warm enough to fool plants. Magnolias are budding and roses blooming among the dropped leaves. We had a couple weeks of bright fall, but it just didn't get cold enough for a brilliantly colored fall.

Here's that back plot of experimental Sweet Potatoes. From 2 plants I have dig up about 15 nice ones and 4-5 mutants (too big and knarly). Probably another dozen or so to dig with dozens of "hotdogs".. It was a lot of work finding them so I may stick with the row method in the future.

No killing frost here so far and none in sight, the summer flowers keep going well into Nov which is not normal.

....more in the other direction....

..and lastly, the Persimmon tree in autumn mode, we already picked the fruits.

Squash is doing really good in the new planter box-also muncher cucumbers

I think I need suggestions for a yellow bush bean. I have a favorite green pole, Santa Anna. But I got a bed that has some trouble, and I want to run a bean (and other things) in it next year. I haven't grown a bush bean in about a decade, heh.

For yellow dwarf/bush beans...

I like 'Dragon Langerie'/ 'Dragon Tongue', they are flat with purple stripes and turn pale yellow when cooked. Unique. Available many places.

Dragon Langerie Bush Bean (Heirloom 57 Days) – Pinetree Garden Seeds

This heirloom French yellow bean 'Rocquencourt' seems similar to Santa Anna in shape

Bean Rocquencourt (60-23) – growitalian

Wow, we got 3/4th an inch of rain over night, first rain in a month here. Was getting dangerously close to a fire hazard situation but this helps a lot. After I rake up some leaves I'll cut the grass for the last time this year. Will also plant spinach seed this week for an extra early Spring crop. Still no killing frost yet but temps will drop into the 30's by mid-week. This rain should plump up the carrots and refresh the broccoli for more side shoots.

Thanks for the suggestions robert. I might add the Rocquencourt to my order.

Us okies had fire hazards until it finally did rain via tornado outbreaks.

Some people did lose their homes by wildfire.

Then later some got their roof blown off by tornados.

Choose your poison , fire or tornado's/with heavy rain......power outages.... I'm hearing about a first killing freeze middle of next week in my locale .

It's about time.

Okie HU

vgkg , I got some spinach just coming up in my greens tunnel (after a cold rain) , finally HOPE for overwintered spinach next spring., (after a cold rain ..finally) along with some other goodies..

Can't see the new spinach coming up over to the left YET.

Here have kale , collards , mustard , Swiss Chard , lettuce , turnips , rutabaga. , onions , radishes..

Will be covering the hoops with row cover next week for 1st killing freeze and for all of the winter.

Also have Austrian winter peas coming up in other areas there.

And another tunnel of just brassicas.

I just love off season gardening , even if it doesn't really pay off.

Gives me something to do while the north winds are howling..(and the wind cries Mary ,JIMI says.) https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=a9d980729aea7839&rlz=1C1CHZL_enUS689US690&sxsrf=ADLYWIIBMcEJJ_rRvEYXWjOq1GrR4V9ZkQ:1731401465809&q=Sons+of+the+Pioneers+Cool+Water&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgFuLUz9U3MDIqKrZQ4gIxDbOzyowttcSzk630c0uLM5P1E4tKMotLrBJzkkpzixexygfn5xUr5KcplGSkKgRk5uelphYVKzjn5-cohCeWpBbtYGUEAPeDyaVXAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjR59SKtdaJAxXAq4kEHXkFBawQgOQBegQIcBAM&biw=1904&bih=811&dpr=1ary , Jimi says...)

something fundamental there somewhere....also Cool Water by the Son's of the Pioneers. My Mom actually bought that album when I was a boy.

Okie HU

Might get a few tomatoes before the weather changes

No mo maters here RD other than a couple of last semi-ripe ones I picked last week. We barely dodged the predicted frost this morning (@38F) so the summer flowers will continue to bloom, no more frost is predicted for at least another week or longer (that's nutz!). Expecting a needed inch+ of rain tomorrow/nite so I plan to plant the spinach seed before it hits.

We have had several killing frosts so the only thing left now in Northern Michigan is kale, collards and lettuce. I'll be canning some greens today. It was a low of 27 last night, but now will be in the 40s and 50s in the day and the high 30s at night for the next week or so, so it looks like I'll at least have fresh salad for Thanksgiving dinner. Everything else is done, of course. Bean plants and corn stalks were fed to the cattle several weeks ago, along with the squash and pumpkins with bad spots or those otherwise compromised. The birds have been busily finding the dried beans that I missed and the chickens enjoyed the last of the tomatoes. Snow is in the forecast for the end of next week, but just "flurries", so winter is coming. I do have some mizuna and lettuce in the hoop house, so that'll be good at least through Thanksgiving, although the days are getting shorter and plants don't like that.

Annie

I got three pink banana squashes total from my vines. There's one last vine hanging on but I'm happy with the three I got. Cured and stored. Something got into my lettuce transplants, only two remained so I put some more out today. Cabbage is still in the early stages. We usually don't get very cold till January or February so we have alittle more growing time to go. My last attempt of tomatoes are flowering now. Hope to get some tomatoes before the cold moves in. Pulled up the last of the basil. It did very good this year. I was able to dry a good bit for cooking. Love everyone's pics, thanks for sharing! 😍

We got a good soaking overnight with 1.5" of rain which really perked up things and gave us a breather on possible wildfires. I planted the spinach seed just in time, still no first and one is not in the forecast. Weird to have summer flowers still going, I had to squeeze in the pansies among them. The latest first freeze on record in central, Va was December 2, 1985, so we might break that record in about 2.5 weeks from now?

vgkg, it sure seems like this year flew by, only 2.5 weeks until December. (sigh)

Annie

Yeah Annie, in the blink of an eye it'll be New Years again. ....above I omitted typing no first "frost" yet. My next major chore will be raking up tree leaves and stock piling them for next years compost piles, the leaves are behind in falling down too, maybe due to warner autumn temps this year?

I've only had a few light frosts in Central OH, but it is supposed to actually snow next Thursday.

I picked a Lemon Cucumber today, the plants have been constantly trimmed by deer but are still growing. Coleus are still alive but look terrible from drought. I could have kept some Pepper plants alive and producing but I gave up on them a month ago. Brassicas are doing great, may get a few good-sized red cabbage, have cauliflower, huge kohlrabi to pick. Winter radishes growing huge in the mild weather, honestly more than I can eat. Have Lacinato Kale and a Redbor type Kale that look great, never learned to appreciate them yet.

vgkg, the leaves are pretty much all down here but we didn't get the usual colors, mostly just yellows and oranges and not many reds. The oak trees are still holding some leaves but they just turn brown.

Since we have 80 acres here and about 30 of those are wooded, I'm not raking any leaves, LOL. My compost is provided by cleaning the barn and cleaning up around the hay feeders. I have added some household scraps, but the cattle pretty much clean up the garden, from the bean and corn stalks to the last of the pumpkins and apples. They then provide more compost!

Annie

Annie yeah the fall foliage this year seemed a bit dull, too few bright colors. We finally got hit by a killing frost yesterday morning, about 90% of the summer flowers are toast. I went ahead and yanked all of the broccoli plants, we got the bulk of the harvest in the freezer and the side shoots are few, they seem to be a bit tough too. All broccoli plants are now chopped up and in the compost pile, that should smell things up in a few days. All that's left in the veggie garden now are carrots and collards with a few turnips. We should be picking carrots and collards until the temp dips into the teens, which is not in any future forecast. No more below freezing temps for a while yet.

My mustard greens seedling sprouts are starting to pop up. My first time growing them. Looking forward to cooking after harvest. I see carrots foliage starting to grow. This year I planted a good bit of root crops, have turnips going too. I had planted some honey melons during the summer but for some reason it didn't do that good. Only got one melon off of several vines. Melon wasn't sweet so gave it to the chickens. Not sure if I will grow that one again. Happy to hear everyone has something for fall growing!

Well my spinach seeds have popped up a-ok, all 4 rows. Looks like 99% germination so some thinning is coming up. Temps here are expected to plunge into the low 20's next week but that won't be a problem, the carrots, collards, and young spinach can handle it ok. Might get 1/2" rain on Thxgiving Day and some snow showers on Sunday.

Still no rain here-it has rained twice since October 1. Still getting lots of squash although the plants are looking a little ragged. Really like the recommended Muncher cucumbers and have lots of tomatoes, but most of them are just starting to blush. It is finally cooling off, so I’ll have to watch the weather to determine the harvest date

You must be south---like maybe central TX.

We could all get wiped in the next week or 2.

Beware.

Okie HU

Thanks Okie HU and good luck to you. I am deep south-about as far as you can go in Texas and it has barely gotten below 50 here. Picked 5 tomatoes that were blushing just to make sure I get some-too many critters circling my yard. Still have about 70 or so. Still making squash-mostly green (supposed to be white) Scallop and a few crooknecks. Had one of my best seasons for squash (cucumbers too-although they were small so best numbers not weight) considering I only had 5 or 6 plants of squash-maybe 8 vines of cucumbers.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all -hope you all have a great holiday and a great meal

Seeds and Such has a pretty good Thanksgiving sale going with free shipping too. I ordered $24 of seeds and got $14 ($7.99 off seeds and $5.99 off shipping) off and 2 free packets of seeds. I am a sucker for free shipping-gets me every time-that is why I buy lots of seeds from Baker Creek (probably have 60-70-maybe more-seed packets from them right now).

Thank you RD for letting us know about Seeds and Such offer! I love finding deals with free shipping and free seeds offers. I ordered the Vates Collards and Zebrune Shallots from them today. Happy to get the two additional free seeds with the order. I have been wanting to try the purple basil so happy to be getting for free! I have never been to their site before. Thanks for the suggestion!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. 😊

You’re most welcome Sharon, glad it worked out for you. I picked up some Sungold and BHN-589 tomato seeds, sunburst and white scallop squash seeds, and some ghost and naga pepper seeds.

The temp dipped down to 25F this morning so that officially makes it winter here (nevermind the calendar). What little bit of summer plants that were hanging on are now toast which was just a few peppers and traces of leftover flowers. Pansies will be the only source of bright colors for the next several months. It's back to leaf raking today and on Monday I'll drive around the neighborhood to collect more bagged up leaves for next summer's compost piles. We'll still be picking collards and carrots for a while yet as December rolls along.

I'm late to the party, but I see Seeds N Such still have free shipping and 25% off, so I'm off to check out what they have. I don't NEED anything and save most of my own seeds, but I'm always looking for something I don't even know I need, LOL.

Annie