Garden Update VII

My assistants are always happy to see me in the garden these days.  I think I am the most interesting thing they have to look at all day.  They follow me around and peck at my pants and fingers.  One tom seems particularly fascinated with my pinkie ring.  He keeps grabbing my finger and then I kick him.  Not hard, like a football, just enough to send him backward a couple of feet.  He's back before long.

What attacked the greenhouse?  At first I thought the turkeys had gotten in.

And then I spotted the little culprits.  See them all over the leaves?  Worms.

I dusted the brussel sprouts with diatomaceous earth.  There were some just ready to pick.  I pulled the remaining broccoli plants, which hadn't formed any heads yet anyway.  Started pulling the cauliflower, and found three more heads that had been hiding, but one was very small, so I'm not counting it in my harvest tally.

 Tomatoes are still ripening and rotting.  One plant seems to have much less of the blight on it than the rest.  I'm going to try saving some seed from it. 

This little tomato plant popped up in my garlic pot.  How odd that it sprang to life as everything else is dying off.

The green pepper plants have had all they could handle of the colder temps.  I picked my three little green peppers today.  Bigger than last year's, but still I wonder, what in the heck was I thinking?  Giving up valuable real estate in the greenhouse for this little return?  And yet I know when spring comes around, I won't be able to resist the lure of some kind of pepper.  Maybe a jalapeno.  They grew well for me down south.  See?  I just can't help myself.  I found the cucumber hiding under part of a tomato plant.  Woohoo!  Lovely surprise.

Another surprise was finding this celery plant still alive under the same tomato plant.  The others all died shortly after transplant, and this one isn't any bigger than it was then, but who knows?

Carrots are coming up slowly.  The turkeys ate most of the tops, so I have to dig them.

Potatoes are sad.  This little handful from four feet of hills.

Swiss chard sprang up for yet another meal.  I wonder how long it will keep growing for?  And I regret not planting some romaine in the greenhouse mid-summer.  It could be doing well right about now.  How do you harvest swiss chard seeds?  Does it bolt like lettuce?  Hmmm.  The onions from seed are well, but tiny.  I'm going to transplant them into the greenhouse and see whether they make it to green onion size before it gets too cold.  If they don't, I wonder if they'll come up in the spring.

The corn is looking pretty for Hallowe'en.

With just a bit more time it might have been good.  Next year I'll try direct sowing some in the greenhouse a little earlier.

Only 7 months to plan the lay out for next year's greenhouses.  Two 12' square spaces.  What have I learned?  What do I want?  I think next year will be the year of the cuke!