From commentor Marvel:
With cooler temps and promised rain, today was a good day to swap the cloth row covers out and the poly covers in. Done and done.
It rained last night, with more scheduled for next week. Time to pack away the garden’s summer clothes (fabric row covers) and break out the winter wear (6-mil poly). The cabbage & carrots (and a volunteer potato) enjoy this slim moment of freedom between covers; snug/bug, u-bet.
The young pak choi, Japanese turnips and kohlrabi have never seen the yard outside their row covers — they took their uncovering well; With luck, they’ll grow up big & strong and meet their neighbors in some savory soups and stews. We’ll sing their praises.
Assorted young kales and spinaches taking a breather before they get their skylight in place; Stay warm, little veggies.
All tucked in. Oh, that blue thing? A last-ditch canopy erected yesterday with hope that a few more really wonderful tomatoes will ripen on the vine.
I must confess to another #picsfail, concerning my personal apple harvest — one tasty green Roxbury Russet, from the four-foot-tall multi-graft “antique varieties” sapling I planted last year. Yes, I should’ve spared the poor little tree the trouble, but I missed this solitary fruit when I checked after blossom-fall in May. Tragically, after ten days in the kitchen, I decided I’d better destroy (eat) the evidence before recording it for posterity.
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So… what (if anything) is happening in your gardens?
Maude
Fabulous.
Petorado
What was the row cover material in place to keep out? Out in the Colorado Front Range, grasshoppers have been extraordinarily bad this year. Row covers have been the only way to see later plantings germinate. In these pics, what was the pest kept at bay?
Uncle Clarence Thomas
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I don’t have any facts to back this up, but President Obama hasn’t once let up in his relentless and laser-like focus on jobs jobs jobs since January of 2009. (Except for that famous and well-deserved SUPER COKE!/Nobel Peace Prize summit, of course.)
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waratah
Marvel, fantastic vegetable garden. Thank you for sharing.
I kind of wanted to do a little harvesting.
BruceFromOhio
Gaia save me from all that rules this level of hell, let me grow my own fucking weed at last. Good earth, good seed, some modest sweat equity and a decent cold frame against the snow, and I’ll have lettuce, basil, tomatoes, and a good honest ganja to soothe my fractured soul. And my neighbors.
Amen.
Carbon Dated
I feel I got healthier by just looking at those pics, Marvel. Mmmm….roughage.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Very nice! We’ve finally gotten rain after a 2 month dry spell. We’ll see what comes up.
John Weiss
Lovely pictures.
And may I add, from my experience, if you plant potatoes you’ll have potatoes forever.
rikyrah
since I just don’t have the talent to grow anything, I do envy those of you that can.
Munira
Lovely. Where are you located anyway? Here in Quebec, my garden is almost completely harvested. I leave the parsnips all winter but that’s about it. I still have some broccoli and cauliflower out there and I want to bring the beets in today. And I have some cilantro and horseradish and mixed greens still to deal with. My freezer and root cellar are full, my bedroom shelves are full of squash and I have 10 jars of dried beans of various kinds. Just about ready for winter – time to focus on cutting firewood.
Marvel
Thanks for your very nice comments! Petorado, we use the fabric row covers to exclude a few different pests: this year it was imported cabbageworms, before that it was leafhoppers. We generally don’t use them with veggies that need pollination (or if we do, we uncover the beds only while there are blossoms). Munira: we’re in western Oregon (the Willamette Valley) — and congratulations on what sounds like a wonderful bounty there in Quebec!
Ferdzy
I too would like to know where you are. And by that I mean what kind of snow cover do you get in the winter, and is it reliable. We use electical conduit for hoop houses too, but just curve them straight across the bed. We have had some problems with them collapsing under the weight of the snow. Does that multiple-crossing pattern hold up better?
Thanks! (Beautiful garden, by the way.)
Marvel
Thanks for your comments. Petorado: the fabric row covers were used this summer primarily to exclude imported cabbageworms and leaf hoppers. Munira: We’re in western Oregon (the Willamette Valley) — and congratulations on your bounty! Ferdzy: We get very little snow, so don’t need the hardy hoops you do — these are PVC pipes and we use nylon tie-wraps at the intersections to keep ’em in place.
Mo MacArbie
Willamette Valley, eh? I was going to guess Sacramento Valley. You have &*%$ nutgrass up there too?