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Thank you again memph for your insights and information.
I've lived in this area for 8 years now, and I don't remember a frost (although I'm not saying it hasn't happened). And it usually doesn't get COLD (for us that's anything less than about 50) until January/February.
You have encouraged me to try some seeds. Looks like a run to Home Depot is in my plans for this weekend!
An interesting anecdote - about two weeks ago as we were looking over a project of mine, we found watermelons growing in the space between a sidewalk and a roadway. Not just one or two but about 20. The biggest one was about football size with lots of smaller ones. It was obvious that they were not planted there (who would do that?) nevertheless they were definitely in a good spot. The area is a depressed one so I hope the folks who live there got some free watermelon!
My point being - we spend time and energy making conditions "perfect" for things to grow and here were these watermelon just growing in the breeze!!
I get "volunteer" plants all the time. Tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, ground cherries, squash, pumpkins, melons, lettuce, parsley, etc sprouting from seeds of fruits that fell on the ground, or that animals ate and pooped out, or that I threw into the compost and then applied the compost onto my garden.
The volunteer peppers and tomatoes generally struggle to ripen fruit in time since our growing season is short, but squash, melon, lettuce, parsley and ground cherry volunteers are able to produce well here. That's why I have to start certain things (like tomatoes and peppers) indoors when it's still too cold outside. The growing conditions indoors aren't as optimal as they are outdoors during the summer, but the indoor conditions are still better than the outdoor conditions in March and April when we're still getting frosts up here.
My wife is still picking tomatoes, but she will pull up the last plants next week. The cucumbers seeds that she planted are growing like weeds with a lot of blooms.
We’ve picked 2 quarts of dried bingo beans and canned 2 1/2pints of ground cherry jam and 5 1/2pints of strawberry jam. We got a few more tomatoes off this morning and we had fresh BLT sammiches for lunch. Fall crop of radishes and spinach is doing well- hope to get some good radishes.
Our veggies are slowing rapidly but the wildflower patch my wife seeded is just incredible.
It seems like every week there is a new flower that pops up. The blue flowers are morning glories that shot up along with the bingo beans. We still have honey bees hitting the garden.
We had a few potatoes try and escape so my wife pulled them.
These are the purple variety, or crimson- I forget. I don't like the taste of them compared to a German butterball. However enough blue cheese dressing and I'll eat them. Just 4 potatoes were over 2lbs. I suspect we harvest 50-60lbs of spuds this year.
Got some more beans, strawberries, a pepper or two and some ground cherries. We have enough beans for another 7 pints to be canned.
Oh and the blue flowers above are 4 O'clocks, not morning glories- at least according to SO.
So I took memph's advice and planted carrots and radishes on September 9. The radishes sprouted up quick and they are going right along. The carrots are just starting to peek up. Tomatoes seem to be taking their time establishing their roots.
I was wrong. Instead of 7 pints of beans we have 9.
All ready for the pressure canner. I think we have one more harvest yet to go on the beans if the weather cooperates. I think we have 60 pints of green and yellow beans in the cupboard now. We can them in chicken stock, so just pop a can, heat 'n eat.
Tonight is snow above 6,000ft and rain in the valleys. Yesterday I spent the night in Niehart MT near Showdown ski hill (lower than the hill) it was 30 deg overnight. They're calling for up to 10" snow in the high elevations tonight and tomorrow. Summer to winter- BOOOM.
I was wrong. Instead of 7 pints of beans we have 9.
All ready for the pressure canner. I think we have one more harvest yet to go on the beans if the weather cooperates. I think we have 60 pints of green and yellow beans in the cupboard now. We can them in chicken stock, so just pop a can, heat 'n eat.
Tonight is snow above 6,000ft and rain in the valleys. Yesterday I spent the night in Niehart MT near Showdown ski hill (lower than the hill) it was 30 deg overnight. They're calling for up to 10" snow in the high elevations tonight and tomorrow. Summer to winter- BOOOM.
I think this year will be a hard winter by watching how much the squirrels have been storing away my hickory nuts. It has been a constant trip of many squirrels going up the trees and down the road with a nut in the mouth. They have been doing this all day for days.
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