It is the beginning of November.
Temperatures- Highs this week are mid 70’s and lows in the 50’s.
We have very hard well water. The water that goes to our house goes through a softener and is filtered. The hose water comes directly from the well. I have come to the conclusion, new hoses, sprayers, connectors, etc… have to be replaced on a yearly basis because of this.
I got into the garden and replaced all of the irrigation sprayers that were now a year old.
Carrots were planted a little later than I had hoped. I really wanted the seeds in the ground mid-September, but it was more like mid-October. I will plant more every few weeks so they can be pulled at different times.
I am pretty sure this is not broccoli. Some of the tags got mixed up…but I will just let it roll…
All of the cabbage looks great. They take up SO.MUCH.ROOM. I only have about 6 planted…that means only 6 heads to eat. If you think about trying to live off of what you grow, that is not much at all.
Got a little side-tracked making my way around the garden…found this Texas Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi texana). They do not get much bigger than a pencil. They like to eat slugs, snails and other insects.
I was able to grow 1015 onions from seed last year and they did really well, so I am trying again this year. I start the seeds inside mid-summer. It takes about 2-3 months before they get big enough to transplant, and even then they are still small. The most important thing with starting from seed, they need to be watered regularly since the roots are so shallow and it is still warm out. The dirt dries quickly on top.
Last year, I had an excellent crop of tomatoes. At this time, they were covered in fruit. And then…we had a light freeze and I lost ALL of them. 🙁 This year, they are not doing well. I only have 5 plants of tomatoes and they are just now getting blooms on them. I am afraid I will not get any tomatoes this fall.
The peppers were started back in March and are still going strong so I have just left them. I probably need to make pepper jelly with them!
Like broccoli, I do not have much cauliflower growing. I direct sowed a few more seeds, but they are growing pretty slowly.
Eggplant is also going strong and we get about 10 each week (way more than I can eat since I am the only one that likes it).
I was able to harvest about 2 cups of raspberries! This is the thing I am most excited about! Raspberries do not do well this far south (9a). I did some research and found this variety that will tolerate the heat. Unfortunately, I threw away the tag and have no idea what kind they are!
