Planning Ahead for Fall

About a month ago I started a new round of cucumber seeds hoping for a great fall harvest to fill the pantry with all varieties of pickles. Cucumber plants don’t like the heat of summer, they prefer temperatures in the 70′s, yet they can’t take a frost. Since we have hot hot summers here in Ohio, cucumbers seem to languish once the temperatures hit the mid 80′s, which is usually right after they start producing. Since this summer has been a particularly hot one, my cucumbers quit producing about a month ago, although I did get almost 2 gallons of pickles from my five plants. This year, I decided to try to grow a fall crop of cucumbers, I’m hoping that they get through their productive season and I’ll have tons of cucumbers to pickle in late September, let’s hope we don’t get and early frost.

I started a whole flat of cucumbers back in July, hoping to get a large number of cucumbers at once so I can make a few large batches of fermented pickles. The seed packet says they take about 57 days to produce, which should be just about right. I transplanted them 2 weeks ago. I planted about 15 plants at my mom’s house and about 20 plants here in my raised beds in the back garden.

I’m once again growing ‘Boston Pickling’ Cucumbers since I really like them. I’ve actually never grown another variety, this is the first I’ve tried and I’m very happy with the pickles that I make from them. This year I’m trying to save a few seeds for them since the place I order most of my seeds from no longer carries them. Not to mention I’ll be saving myself a few dollars, I’ll make sure I post all about it and offer some free seeds.

I’ve read that a lot of gardeners grow second crops of beans and of zucchini to extends the harvests. I tried beans last year, but an early fall frost did them in right when they were starting to produce. It’s always hard to time second crops in a short growing season and with the drastic weather changes we can have here in NE Ohio, but seeds are cheap so I’ll keep trying!

Do you have any crops you grow a second round of for fall harvests?

Quote of the Day: Michael Perry

“This is the time of year when the countryside truly thumbs its nose at the subzero purge of winter. The greenery is full-blown, the dew-drenched morning reverberate with a tropical chirp and twitter, and everywhere there are babies: tiny rabbits beneath the apple tree, speckle-chested robins begging worms from mama, a spotted fawn by the mailbox down by the driveway, and now and then a glimpse of the pheasant hen leading her loyal brood.”

Michael Perry, Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting

We saw this fawn with it’s twin and mama a week ago in the back garden. Not that I was happy to see it since it will be eating my blueberry bushes this winter along with my apple trees and strawberries. It was peeking around the garage, that’s my cold frame right in front of it. (thanks to Mr Chiots for running out and getting this photo).

I’d have to say one of my favorite things about summer is all the activity in the garden. Bees are buzzing on every thing that blooms, butterflies flit about and you see birds everywhere. The gardens are alive with color and life.

What do you love about summer?

The Days Were Clear and Bright

The days were clear and bright. Laura and Mary stood on chairs by the window and looked out across the glittering snow at the glittering trees. Snow was piled all along their bare, dark branches, and it sparkled in the sunshine. Icicles hung from the eaves of the house to the snowbanks, great icicles as large at the top of Laura’s arm. They were like glass and full of sharp lights.

Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House in the Big Woods)

One of my favorite things to see in the winter are icicles. We don’t get them very often since our home is well insulated, but when the sun shines brightly on a cold day it melts the snow on our dark roof. This makes icicles form on our front porch. They’re so lovely with the blue skies behind them and the sun making them sparkle. They don’t last long, one moment they’re gracing the front porch and the next they’re gone. I’m glad I got out to capture a few photos when I did, they were beautiful.



It took me a few patient moments to catch this drip falling from the icicle. If you look at the large image you can see that the drop reflects the ground upside down, wonderful!

Icicles are one of my favorite parts of winter, they always seem to come as the days get longer and sun gets warmer. I especially love them on days like this when they sparkle in the sunlight, it’s almost as if they’re announcing the coming of spring! Most likely there will be no more icicles this winter. They will give way to leaves that will clog the gutters.

What’s your favorite part of winter, the snow, the ice, the cooler weather for your southerners?

Tap Tap Tap Maple Sap

These are the words to the first song I ever learned to play on the piano when I was a little girl. I still remember sitting at the old piano in the basement plinking out those keys while singing along, all the while waiting for kitchen timer to ding so I could quit practicing. You can guess why I was humming this song yesterday.

It was a beautiful sunny day and the temperatures climbed slightly above freezing. Not quite prime sugaring season yet, but we wanted to get some of our trees tapped since tomorrow the temperature is supposed to be close to 40. We were just going to put one tap in the tree we can see from the kitchen window, so we could watch it. When it started flowing we would install the rest of the taps. As soon as we tapped the tree a little drop of sap appeared on the end of the spile. It was warm enough yesterday to start the sap flowing.

Since the sap was flowing we put in all 12 taps that we had on hand. We ordered a bunch more spiles a week ago, but haven’t received them yet, they’ll be put in as soon as we get them. The taps produced about a gallon of sap by dusk, it will be stored until we get more before boiling it down. It’s forecasted to be almost 40 today which should produce good sap flow. But then it’s supposed to get cold again next week which will probably stop the flow. We’re hoping for a good sugaring season this year resulting in a few gallons of syrup.

What kind of syrup is in your cupboard, the real stuff or Aunt Jemima?

No Winter Garden

Last year at this time I was harvesting my first batch of spinach from the garden. Notice the sun and lack of snow, we currently have around 3 feet of snow on the raised beds.

I planted some spinach last fall hoping for the same results, but the weather turned cold very early. That coupled with a really early frost delayed the growth of the spinach enough that I don’t have any to harvest at the moment (not to mention all the snow). I should still have an early spring harvest, perhaps in late March or early April if the weather warms.

Sadly I will have no mid-February harvest of spinach this year. I’ll have to buy my greens at the market.

Do you do any winter gardening?