Mid-October Garden

In one word: DRY.  Of course, that's no surprise.  October is normally the driest of months.  By today's tally, it's been a month and six days since the last rainfall.  There's really no chance to speak of in the 10 day forecast.  I'm all out of the rain water that I sequester in buckets and barrels beneath the drip line behind the house.  All except for one barrel that the honeybees use to drink from.  So I've been running the sprinkler every day.  This is a sprinkler that Mom & Dad got me and we have really put some mileage on it.  We move it from one location to the other in the garden to get moisture in the soil.  This is a photo from a few weeks ago.  Even despite the lack of rainfall, the plants have grown nicely since then.

Amazingly, even as hot as it's been, the bug pressure hasn't been bad at all on the bok choy.  We've clipped all of this and eaten it since I took the photo.  It grows back quickly.  We usually cook these down like you would with any greens, but Tricia adds some ginger, lime juice and grated parmesan to the top of them.  They are really good.  This isn't something I grew up eating, for sure.  In fact, I would have turned my nose up at it, but now, I like it.

We like to plant a big variety of lettuce in the fall.  Even if we get a freeze, if we cover it, we've been successful in saving most of it.  I want to show you a new variety of lettuce we're trying out from Baker Creek (rareseeds.com).  This is called "Flashy Butter Gem" lettuce.  First time we've tried it and we achieved a phenomenal germination rate on it.  We won't know how it tastes for a week or two, though.

The leaves are a nice green color with what appears to be bloodstains on them.  I guess I'll overlook that trait.  Sure is lovely looking, though, with the morning dew beading up on the leaves before the sun evaporates it.  Just a beautiful lettuce.

But you need more than lettuce for a salad.  How about some cucumbers?  We've got some coming!  These cucumber plants looked atrocious the other day as some worms were feasting on the leaves and actually killed two plants.  That's when I dosed them up with some Neem Oil.  I'm impressed with that product.  It killed the pests and the cucumber plants quickly put on fresh new growth.

Lots of blooms coming, too!  I'm excited about some fall cucumbers for the salad.  I've got a few other garden reports coming in the next few days.  Stay tuned (and get out and enjoy this nice weather - it was 52 degrees here last night!)