Sunday, October 2, 2011

A Sad Unkempt Garden

These zinnias are still blooming nicely.
Tomatoberry is one of the few plants with fruit still on.
The winds did a number on the garden
And finished the hoop house.
I am still letting this watermelon grow as long as possible.
The Thai bird peppers are going to be for the pepper jelly.

My wife and I spent seventeen days in Flagstaff, Arizona working for my parents in the management of their home and getting it ready for sale. So my garden was left to fend by itself for that time and upon my return my garden was a sad site.
Overgrown and unharvested was the basic condition of it all. We have not had a killing frost but the tomatoes show just how much they hate cool nights. Most of the plants are done except for the Tomatoberry's and Candy which are still good. Both of the green grape varieties were poor this season and the Red Peach plants have fruit but most of it is still green and will never ripen. I think tomorrow I will take the tomato rows down and cart them off to the dump.
The hoop house fell victim to the heavy wind storm we had several nights ago. The 45mph plus winds shredded it. But some failure of the covering seems to have been part of the problem too. I had read that plastic on plastic was not a good mix and caused deterioration with time and UV. That seems to be the case so I will have to recover the hoop house and I make make some improvements in the number of ribs I have holding the cover.
The best crop still producing is the apple crop. we have been harvesting apples for over a month and the early fall varieties are now ripe with the later ones still on the tree. I made dried apples and a big batch of apple sauce - great on morning cereal.
The peppers in the EarthBox planters were ready for harvest and so I picked most of them and I am thinking about making some hot pepper jelly - great stuff.
Both the fig trees have second crops maturing so they have been moved into the green house in hopes that the figs will mature. Fall planting begins with bulbs as my order from John Scheepers Bulb Co. came and there are 270 tulips and crocus to get in the ground this month.
Happy Gardening

3 comments:

  1. So sorry to hear about your hoop house. I'm thinking about putting one in, and I read about the plastic on plastic. What would the solution be? Thicker plastic but just one layer? Good luck with yours!

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  2. Bummer about the hoop house. Looks salvageable though.

    Tomatoberry looks prolific. My tomatoes are finished for the year.

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  3. Hi Veggie Pak,
    I remember reading someplace about painting the plastic pipe to stop the deterioration but I wonder if good UV protected hoop house grade plastic might also be the solution and it might last longer too. I was going to experiment, if I have the time, and put up new pipe, paint it, and double the amount to help with the snow load. Time will be my factor in getting it done.

    Thanks for the observation Richard, I do think that the ends can be reused and hope I get the time to set one up - spring without spinach would be a bummer.
    Happy Gardening

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