Isn’t this basket of beans quite the sight for the second week in October?
After a few weeks of only handfuls of green beans, the Emerite green beans that I wrote about last year are in the “second wind” stage and are producing lovely, firm beans. Which is something for this time of year. Not all do. Many just give up, and some beans will produce hollow beans.
The plants don’t look lovely – brown and relatively leafless at the bottoms, but new growth, flowers, and beans at the top.
Which is fine with me.
We’ve had the earliest frost in a number of years, coming last Friday on the 5th – just a light frost at 34 degrees, which was enough to brown the basil and zucchini and slow the tomatoes and peppers.
I have about 50 pounds of tomatoes left to process (diced tomatoes and Roasted Tomato Sauce) and then it’s just what I can coax into turning red for eating. Sometimes using the paper bag trick, I can get tomatoes into November, but with the early frost, I’m thinking we’ll be lucky to still have garden tomatoes through October.
I loved all of your fall-themed links in last week’s TGP – I’m looking forward to this week and seeing more of what your October gardens are doing!
And remember:
NEXT WEEK is our season-ending TGP blowout! Here’s how it will work next week:
- Pick one of your favorite TGP posts from the last season – anything from March through October
- Link that post up again next week for our 2012 Favorites Party
- Just by linking up, you’ll be entered to win a gift certificate to one of my favorite online seed catalogs!
The giveaway is open to anyone who participated this last season – even if it was only one time! Just come and link up your post and you will have a chance to win some “seed money” for next year’s garden.
I believe a cottage can be anywhere or anything (condo, ranch, farmhouse) as long as you have a "cottage mentality" which puts people above things, celebrates imperfections, embraces simplicity, and finds joy in everyday life. Thanks for joining me!
I love all the tidbits I learn from you and am so glad I found you.
Things are still happening in my garden a bit. I haven’t had been able to talk about it lately on the blog, so I need to share with those of you who understand the excitement.
We planted some lovely heirloom radishes and some Carnival carrots, and they sprouted nicely! I wanted to plant a full fall garden (my first), but I just can’t find the time this year.
I will be starting my seeds indoors in January and use your fertilizer recipe to be ready for the early spring planting. I can’t wait feel like a real gardener next year!
Nice, Jennifer! I haven’t heard about Carnival carrots – are they a good fall variety? And I’m with you on seeds – I will certainly NOT miss my opportunity again this next year. I didn’t like having to rely on the nurseries and their choices for what to plant! We’ll do it together
A good fall variety? I have no idea. lol I did a seed swap with my mom, since we can no longer eat the green beans I bought seeds for.
Make sure you start those seeds and post about it, so I make sure to start mine too!!
Hi Jami: Thank you so much for hosting the garden party today! You got a really nice and big batch of Emerite beans–lovely. I tried Emerite this year because you recommended them, and I liked them a lot, so will grow them next year as well. I still have gobs of tomatoes–I need to start picking a bucket a day to bring in before it starts raining again on Friday. Eggplant are under plastic, so hope they can hang out for a while longer and get bigger, but will totally depend on the weather. It hasn’t frozen here yet, just been so dry that it started to take a toll on the plants. Take care, and have a wonderful new week!
So glad you still found the party, Athena! First time since the switch over that WP hasn’t published a scheduled post – and of course it was the day I didn’t look at the blog until 9:30. Ugh.
But, hey! Glad you liked the Emerite – for a minute reading your comment I thought you were going to say you didn’t like them, whew! I went out yesterday to try and bring in any tomatoes that had any pink on them at all – I didn’t find many, darn. They aren’t liking these cold mornings – most of the plants are frost-bitten already. Glad it’s different for you – enjoy while you can.
I can’t believe we’re coming up on the last party already. Ugh. That just means the nine months of Oregon rain are coming. Although, we desperately need it. I can’t get over how dry the ground is!
BTW, I made your crock pot gratin potatoes last week. Num num! We had leftovers for breakfast. Good stuff!
Your beans and maters look fantastic! Thanks for sharing the info about them. Enjoy your harvest!
I wonder how those beans would survive the S. Texas heat? I would really like to find a variety that could just survive July and August and then produce again in Sept. without replanting.
I’m so super sad that next week is the last garden party until spring. We can grow pretty much all year and I get so much inspiration from you guys.