For most of us veggie gardening season is about done. But for those in the deep south or with Greenhouses, gardening continues. The rest of us will be putting the gardens to bed for the winter.

Let's continue our discussion about our veggie gardens.



Tatsoi growing in my garden.

I cut down all my eggplant today. Darn things were still making flowers but it is so late in the year that I don't think anything would have come of the flowers. Honestly, I had a lot of eggplant this season. By now I just got tired of watering the pots. So that is it for the Driveway pot ghetto till next spring.

I love your Tatsoi. How long do they last for you? Past the first frost?

They lasted ALL SUMMER! Now that it is cool again, they are growing like mad. They last past frost, can stand some snow. A wonderful green, everyone should grow some. While Bok Choy is temperamental, Tatsoi is easy.

That's great. When I read that it was not very productive, I put it low on my list.

BTW, my Fall snap peas and snow peas are growing pretty slowly, compared to my late spring / early summer crop.

Also, my ''Carouby de Maussane' seem to be very slow-growing, and happened to have low germination. Maybe those are because that bed is more clayey than my other snap pea RB.

The ''Carouby de Maussane' snow pea / snap pea is almost disappearing among some weeds. Your idea of growing in pots sounds better every time I try to weed around growing plants.

I find that the fall peas do grow much more slowly than the spring ones. Mine are just flowering nicely now. Plant them earlier next time of you want a frenzy of peas set early in the fall.

I finished pulling up my cucumber vines. Pulled all of them, even the late planted ones. Those really late planted Double Yield pickling cukes never even set a cucumber. Covered, just covered in male flowers. And been covered in male flowers for weeks. The heck with them, I pulled them. I will just try again with them in the spring.

Still have my tomatoes and peppers in ground and still getting a fair amount of tomatoes to eat. Since it is already October, I consider getting tomatoes to eat now a very good thing.

Pickled a nice amount batch of Hildora yellow bush beans. Second picking and this time I got lots more than the first picking last week. I haven't made anything out of them yet, just eating them raw as I pick. I happen to like raw beans if they are flavorful and tender.

But boy, I do NOT like picking these. I would pick pole beans any day. These you have to bend and squat and pick all thru the leaves near the ground and find the beans. Beans mostly flopped near ground. I don't know how you guys that really love bush beans and pick a lot do it. Nope, going back to pole beans next spring.

I must say, the Hildora are a very nice tasting tender bean. Much, much better tasting than those bland Tenderette bush beans I planted this spring. But the Tenderette held the beans high above the plant and where easier to pick. But I didn't much want to eat them. These are tasty for eating but a pain for picking.

So I have some REALLY nice looking Rutabagas. I think chelle said you wait till after frost to pick them? I also have a few Golden Beets and a few white turnips. Then I have some again, really nice Purple Top Turnips that are eating size.

These would all be from those root crops I planted at the beginning or so of August.

I am making veggie soup on the crockpot and it smells divine. And no where near ready to eat yet.

Wow, Rita, you have a lot to eat from the garden as well. That's funny about the bush beans! I guess because I grew up witht hem, PLUS I have a small rolling seat to sit on while picking, I don't mind picking them. Also, when I first tried pole beans, the variety I had was large and stringy and tough! But I will do both next year.

I never got any rutabagas planted this fall abut I did plaant turnips, although I didn't plant until labor Day weekend.

>> Plant them earlier next time of you want a frenzy of peas set early in the fall.

Sounds right. I'm always getting to garden tasks late, but plants don't respond to excuses.

>> I don't know how you guys that really love bush beans and pick a lot do it.

back when I grew bush snow peas, I always planted them in a raised bed that saved me around 12" of stooping. Also, I draped the bush snow peas over strings to keep them off the soil.

I don't think I've ever had a "bush anything" really stand up straight and support itself. I alwys wwanted to try the idea called "pea brush" where you save fallen branches with a lot of forks or side branches, and push them into the ground around pea plants to give them something to cling to and climb up. But I don't have much or any fallen wood in this yard.

Well, my peas that I grow I support to keep off the ground. And I am used to pole beans. I don't think anything can make me ever love the growing habit of bush beans. But these I am growing now do taste really good so who knows. Maybe I will plant them again.

But the root crops seem to be a success. Will have to plan on Turnips and rutabagas again next spring. chelle is the one that got me started on the rutabagas. I didn't used to know what they were until she started talking about planting hers.

Here are some of those Hildora Beans.


Turnips look ready to me!


And I picked two red peppers and some nice tomatoes again today. Pretty good for picking tomatoes every day in October.

Fall is for apples but no apples growing here. Had to resort to buying apples at the supermarket so I would have some for eating.

We've had a very good year for apples, but I haven't picked any yet. I need to do something with them though...the branches are resting on the ground! The last couple of years had been light harvests, so I'm out of the habit of propping them up.

Even my dwarf that's really just in the garden as a spring ornamental has big apples! They're a green variety, so they're not very dramatic on the tree, but I'm still impressed by their size.

I probably should have an apple tree or two as I do like apples.

We actually have two but they are young yet, no fruit. I know one is Pink L ady but I don't remember what the other one is. Wait, DS got another one this spring too. There aren't a lot of choices for our zone though.

Got most of my new strawberries planted, watered AND mulched!

A friend wants about 40 plants so I'll dig those up later this next week. I will be planting them for him as well as he has been sick and still doesn't have the energy to plant them.

DH got all the straw chopped for mulching and cut the front meadow for me to use the grass clippings as mulch in the aisles. So now we'll need to arrange to get more straw because I don't want to end up like this spring with no straw and none available. Gotta cover with tarps though!!!

Getting another load of manure tomorrow and picking up three youg hens for DS. Instead of getting baby chicks this time he is trying with these hens that are already laying. They are Black Star, Golden Comet and Production Red.

I picked two small tomatoes from the garden today!!! So happy I put off pulling a few plants. Got a couple of beets the mice didn't chew, a few carrots and three onions so we're going to do roasted veggies. I already have a few turnips in the fridge and some peppers and potatoes.

We're supposed to get rain Sunday. We could use it, but mostly I'd like to see the temps cool off a bit, we've been hitting mid to high 80's.

Good going, Arlene!

I've done nothing in my veggie patch lately. Too busy playing around with flowers...in the rain!!! We finally got an appreciable amount of it today, and I'm so relieved!

I know there's still plenty to pick out there. I just have to do it. Maybe tomorrow morning...

Yay, rain! I really hope we get a good soaking and it looks like we may. If it rains Sunday it has to be enough to keep the ground wet until Thurs., when I can get out again to weed.

And I still need to mulch what I have alreadyweeded. I'll work in the rain as long as there's no lightening.

chelle, good for you to get rain. It did rain some here late afternoon but just enough to wet things down. But might rain more overnight. We will see.

Arlene, hurray for the straw and much. Get it down right away and avoid those too many weed problems you had to deal with all summer. I know my garden is no where near as big as yours but I could never deal with it if it wasn't for having it all mulched.

Do take pictures of the new chickens. Heck, take pictures of any chickens, (I love chicken pictures and chicken stories) but I am especially interested in the the three new ones you have chosen.

I didn't do any garden work today as I am cleaning house. Cleaning yesterday, cleaned today and more cleaning continues tomorrow. That is what I get for neglecting the inside of my house all summer.

My grass cutting guys came and cut my grass today. It really needed it. But point I was gonna make is the boss commented on the fact that I have lots of tomatoes still producing. He said my tomatoes started producing much earlier than his and now his are long done and mine are still going. Really was a great year for tomatoes in my garden.

>> He said my tomatoes started producing much earlier than his and now his are long done and mine are still going.

Your tomatoes obviously feel appreciated and are doing their best for you.