The Weekly Digs #182

by Becky

I woke up one morning this week to 40ºF and it truly felt like fall. My green beans are at the flowering stage and I’m still holding out hope that we’ll get a good harvest before a freeze comes. The forecast for the next couple weeks looks to be frost free.

 I also still have an immature crop of corn which I feel very doubtful will come to maturity. It was a last ditch effort to get some corn to preserve so no harm done if it doesn’t pan out. Experiments are part of the fun in gardening for me, even if they don’t work there is always something learned.

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 Fall crops are starting to flow in and we are loving the change in vegetable availability. I’m so glad to have lettuce again! We are eating salads daily.

  • Harvesting: Lettuce, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, basil, kale, arugula, mesclun mix, carrots, sweet peppers, jalapenos, cucumber (a couple were found in the kids garden!), and peanuts

The peanuts were a learning experience for sure. They grew fantastic. But because the harvest was so prolific, I inadvertently attracted every vole and mouse in a one mile radius of the peanuts so they could enjoy a meal on us (we caught 15 in one day!) Then once the rodents gave way the birds moved in to finish it off. 

So I’m about halfway through pulling out peanut plants and I collected literally 10 whole peanuts. I guess I’m still buying peanut butter from the store this year.

In addition to the voles, mice, and birds, the insects are still hanging around causing trouble! Swarms of cucumber beetles were all over the squash and pumpkins. They didn’t seem to cause much damage but there were a lot of them.

I ended up harvesting the squash and pumpkins this week and then instead of the beetles disappearing with the squash plants they decided to stick around. Apparently, the green beans are good to eat too.

Consequently, I’ve been going out with the portable battery powered vacuum cleaner we have and have been sucking them up. It actually worked better than expected. 

The good news is that the majority of the plants are still producing a good harvest despite the setbacks. The pumpkin harvest was excellent this year! 

Marking Garden Rows

Cam and I have been working on staking out where the garden beds and rows are supposed to be. I had them marked with rebar, and we kept tripping on them and I felt like it was a huge hazard. (Sorry I don’t have a photo of this, by the time I remembered to take one it was dark)

So we took the rebar out earlier this summer. Instead we opted for some wood stakes because I felt like they would be a better permanent solution. Cam made me some and we started measuring out where everything should be. 

At this point, the location of the garden bed and rows was lost with the rebar removal. So we decided to go off the orientation of the caterpillar tunnel as the reference point since it’s the most permanent fixture within the garden (aside from the fencing). Everything I planted for fall is so off where it is supposed to be! Whoops. It will get fixed with the next crop that goes in.

Preserving

One big project this week was harvesting jalapenos and preserving them. We harvested ¾ of a bushel. I did some fermented jalapenos. We really enjoyed them last year, the recipe comes from THIS BOOK. I will need to do several more batches. 

Thank you all for the nice comments last week. I appreciate the prayers. I felt a lot better and more myself this week. 🙂

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8 comments

Joanna October 2, 2022 - 1:41 pm

I look forward to you blog every single Sunday ❤️ Do cows eat the corn stalks? I see farmers market silage out of them so maybe you can just throw the stalks into their area when it’s time to pull it? I have no idea 😂🤷🏼‍♀️
I love the pictures of all of the pumpkins and squash. Is that all of the butternut squash you got this year? Did you plant less?
Great idea about the vacuum 👍 Are you still planning on fixing the rows to elevate them? I’m sure all of those broken down wood chips are going to do wonders once they are piled on top of the rows. Fantastic!
I know you are always so super busy but do you have an idea when your next YouTube video will be out? My favorites right now are the last 3 you made with all of the preserving ❤️
Love you, girl
Have a fantastic week

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theseasonalhomestead October 6, 2022 - 3:22 am

I’m not sure about the cows and the corn stalks, I would think they could but I also haven’t looked into and like you, have no idea! Yes, that’s all the butternut squash we got this year. In years past I had way too many, we end up feeding them to the pigs in the Spring. Hopefully this is the right amount! Yes, I planted less. Next YT video is a different one, I sit down and talk about book recommendations for gardening books. It’s uploading as I type this. But since it’s long, it’s a huge file. Sometimes those can take up to two days to upload!

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Karen October 4, 2022 - 2:38 pm

I felt every word of your war with the pests. I spoke with our local extension agent yesterday and he said it was a rough gardening year for most growers in our area. All the more reason why I appreciate your sharing your trials and errors.
You mentioned in your last post that you like to read. Curious what is currently stashed in your reading nook.
I’m finishing up “The Healthy Vegetable Garden” by Sally Morgan. I am thoroughly enjoying the UK perspective.
Have learned a lot. Was thrilled to find “The Living Soil Handbook…” by Jesse Frost at my local library. This guy is a genius. All the knowledge gained in recent years makes me feel like I need to relearn how to garden. I also follow his you tube and he’s a hoot!

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theseasonalhomestead October 6, 2022 - 3:17 am

I love new book ideas, thanks for sharing what you are reading! I just finished up a book recommendation video, should be up on Youtube in the next day or two. The Living Soil Handbook is on my list of Favorites on the video! I also have watched Jesse Frost on YT and listened on the No-Till Podcast, he definitely is entertaining!

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Elise October 4, 2022 - 2:51 pm

I have planted peas three times this fall and the chipmunks have gotten them all! So frustrating.
I released assassin bugs into my garden this year when I started seeing cucumber beetles and I think it helped a ton!

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theseasonalhomestead October 6, 2022 - 3:19 am

Yes, I feel your pain on that for sure! That’s so cool that the assassin bugs helped!

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Kelly October 29, 2022 - 3:46 am

I would very much like to know where you get your potato, sweet potato, and peanut seeds. Do you grow other nuts? Thanks so much.

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theseasonalhomestead October 30, 2022 - 2:35 am

Sweet potato slips I got from a Walmart literally 5-7 years ago. I just grow the slips from the previous year’s potatoes now. I’ve heard they don’t sell them anymore. Potatoes are organic Kennebec variety from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. Peanuts came from Southern Exposure Seed exchange. I planted pecans 2 years ago, and almonds last year, but the nut trees can take up to 10 years to produce.

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