Garden Wrap-Up

2014 Garden Wrap-up

 This is me this morning with bright sunshine and temps warming.

I planted three rows of onions on October 15th.

A sweet onion known as Texas Grano 1015Y, meaning you should plant them on October 15th. 

I did. 

The middle row is Red Burgundy and seems to have been the best germinator. 

And a row of White Bermuda. 

 This is me this morning showing a row of collards and a row of spinach. 

Did you know that spinach seeds do not keep? 

In other words, I had to buy new seeds and replant the spinach after the first planting ..... did nothing. 

This is the garden on October 29th  with the tomatoes and peppers still going full force. 

 Not all are visible but this plant had 18 tomatoes on it and was still blooming. 

 Eventually I had to shut them down and collect the bounty before hard freeze. 

 Early in November, I happened on an article about green tomatoes.

I knew green tomatoes will ripen inside because I did that early in the summer when a limb broke with green tomatoes. 

But I did not know that after the night temperature gets down to 50ºF and lower for several days that you should pick the produce and bring them inside to ripen.

Therefore, you can't necessarily leave them until a predicted freeze which was my plan. 

I harvested the green tomatoes and peppers on November 11th.

Sure enough, they began to turn.

Each day I pulled the newly turning tomato to the rim side....well just because.

I am so glad for this tomato lesson because, I have fresh homegrown garden tomatoes for Thanksgiving.   

 Of course I also made fried green tomatoes.

My first time. 

Delish!

Here's my recipie.

After coating them with yellow mustard (yep the kind you put on your hotdog), then I toss them in a plastic bag with Zatarain's Seasoned Fish Fri.

Fryed in oil.

Try it.

Cooks Tip: I coat them by squirting about 2T of mustard in a plastic bag. Then I smush the mustard around to coat the inside of the plastic bag. Then, dump the sliced tomatoes in the bag and smush them around to coat. Add the Fish Fri mix and shake the bag. I do the same thing when something needs to be coated with olive oil.

 The other thing I learned in the tomato article is, the small green tomatoes will not rippen because they haven't matured enough to do so. 

This to-ripe or not-to-ripe all has to do with what's going on inside the growing fruit.

But you can make green tomato chutney with them. 

I did. 

Now here is the biggest surprise of all. 

Dill. 

Remember I left the seed pods on the dill so they would self-seed in the spring. 

I didn't expect them to germinate in the fall. 

But the surprise is, we have had several days of freezing and below temperature and here is the dill today. 

Unfazed.

You can see the dill in the top two photos too.

First, to the left of her head.

Then, to the right of her head.

That's it for the garden this year!

♥