I’m still picking tomatoes daily but they’re calling for a possible frost Saturday night so that’s probably coming to an end. Grapes are realy at there peak and im knee high in walnuts. A slow sad end to our growing season has begun…
I started pulling up my cherry tomato monster. Seems v sad, as there’s lots of new growth and flowers, but the day length means that any that set probably won’t ripen, so it’s time. I put in the cole plants (cabbage, cauli, broccoli and kohlrabi) a few weeks ago, and, wouldn’t you know it, the community garden gets infested with begratta, a nasty pest who happens to love coles. Some kind person is vacuuming the bugs daily, but they’re making lace of my plants. The butter lettuce got snailed pretty bad (they’re hiding under the tomato monster) but the red romaine looks good and is growing well. Still getting lots of fruit off my wax peppers, and it’s been in the 80s all week, so I’ll leave them a bit longer. My lettuce leaf basil is starting to go to seed, so I think pesto will be in my future soon. I let the Thai basil dry out and have harvested a bunch of seeds for next year, and also for making jelly drinks! And a passionfruit fell off my vine today. Not sure if I should hang onto it until it’s wrinkly or just crack into it now… Last year they stayed on the vine for MONTHS, and wrinkled up outside. And were delish!
So, I thought I should resurrect this thread as my winter garden has been AMAZING and we’re eating a ton of broccoli and cauliflower. The cabbages are just starting to head, but I’m worried about the aphids potentially lurking within - I couldn’t keep enough neem oil on them with all the rain (YAY) we’ve had this winter. The begratta didn’t seem to be an issue, and once the temps dropped enough that the cabbage whites died off, the leaf damage went away.
I did learn the value of keeping my patch tidy though – I found some thrips on an old yellow leaf. Since then I’ve pulled off anything touching the soil, any leaf past its prime, to keep these, and the pillbugs and snails, down.
Up the other end I have red onions and garlic, which will be in for aaaages before I can even eat the greens; I also have some very poorly peas, including a handful of volunteer seedlings rescued from last year’s compost heap, hoping they’ll pick up when the temp rises a bit more, I have a few bok choy but they’re pretty snailed, and I put in some turnip and beet seeds right at the end of the fall season, which are just poking through for an early spring crop. Ah, California! It really is a magic place to garden!