Hurricane Preparation! 10/27/12

Hurricane Sandy is on her way to pound south western CT with hurricane force wind gusts, rain, storm surge and power outages. The storm is arriving on Monday October 29, one year to the day of "snowtober" (an early and destructive freak snow storm, where trees still had leaves!).

Saturday the 27th I spent some time prepping my garden stuff. Since we had an early frost this year most of the preps were cleaning up and winterizing. Here's what I did:

-Put all pots away in the shed
-Picked basil seed pods for drying and gathering seeds
-moved potted blueberry bushes into basement
-moved potted rosemary plant into basement
-moved new, and yet to be planted blackberry bush into basement
-I was surprised to pick some hot peppers 7 to be exact!
- put all bamboo stakes in garage

I Saved a Tree today!

Well it wasn't actually today it was last weekend, the first weekend in October. Earlier in the year we noticed a maple tree growing behind a rose bush up against the siding of our garage. We knew we had to remove it or it would be trouble for not only the other plants but our foundation as well! However the tree was so nice and after successfully transplanting another maple last year I really wanted to do it again!

So we waited all summer leaving it be, hoping the fall would produce excellent conditions for transplanting. In the mean time the tree went from 5 feet to 8-9 feet tall!!! The rapid growth was unbelievable!

So last weekend we decided to transplant from the south facing side of the yard to a hill on the north side. It was difficult to dig up the roots with the rose bush next to it but we did it!

Then we went straight to the other side of the yard and planted it. Once it was away from the house I realized it was a very nice shaped tree!

So instead of just pulling it out and destroying it I saved another tree that day! Lets hope it takes!

First Freeze Preparation: 10/12/12

With tonight's freeze warning in effect and temps barely getting above 50 degrees today I decided to do some preparations for winter.  First I went through and picked all the tomatoes I could, all were green and will need to ripen but at lease they won't go bad because of the freeze!  At frost I thought I would cover some of the plants considering next week will be warmer but I think I'll just sit back and see what happens.

Besides harvesting the last of the tomatoes and peppers I also decided to bring in my pot of rosemary and my new, unplanted blackberry bush.  This will give me more time to prepare and harvest the rosemary while also allowing me more time to figure out where to put the blackberry bush!

I also took some evergreen branches from a bush we chopped down last week and placed them around my potted blueberry bushes just to give them some extra warmth tonight!

Looks like after tonight ill be doing more preps and planning for next years garden! I wish the 2012 growing season didn't have to end so soon!  Stay tuned because ill have to winterized plants too!

Eve of a Crop Killing Freeze: final harvest? 10/12/12

Harvest on the eve of the first freeze:
(Many tomatoes are not ripe yet!)
7 green Heirloom tomatoes
2 Hot Cherry Peppers
3 Green Marion Tomatoes
1 tiny Japanese eggplant
1 small sweet pepper
18 cherry tomatoes (green)
29 Juliet Tomatoes

The end is near! Freeze Warning 10/12/12

Yesterday National Weather Service (NWS) issued a freeze watch and now this morning it's a freeze warning for the whole state of Connecticut! Even near the coast where I am!

If we get a freeze I guess that means the end to the 2012 growing season!

Weatherbug is forecasting a low of 36 which wouldn't be a freeze but a heavy frost, the Weather Channel is calling for 35 degrees, and Accuweather is calling for 36 which is also above freezing.

The Freeze warning is calling for temps to range from the mid 20's to low 30's from 1am till 9am killing crops and vegetation.

By no means am I disappointed in 2012 growing season but I didn't expect it to end so early! I will try to protect some plants because next week looks warmer with temps back in the 70's (possibly an Indian Summer?!)

Below is a photo of the freeze warning from NBC Connecticut's Facebook page.

Future Plans: Raspberries

Now that the growing season is coming to an end with a freeze watch up for Friday October 12th I'm already looking forward to expanding my edible gardens next year!  One thing ideally want to do is start growing more berries in my backyard!  I have 4 blueberry bushes, a blackberry bush and some strawberry plants but what I'm aching to grow is Raspberry bushes!  I will go further into what varieties and where I want to grow them in a future post but right now I wanted to share. A link to a very simple raspberry recipe which I'm super excited to try once I have enough berries and a dehydrator lol!

I just came across this online about using raspberries for Raw fruit leather and how it's very similar, yet healthier then fruit roll ups of my (and probably your) childhood!  This recipe calls for just organic raspberries, organic honey, a blender, wax paper and a dehydrator!  Simple ingredients and some pricier equipment.  All you do is blend the raspberries and honey together till its a paste then place flat on wax paper in the dehydrator for hours and then wait till dry yet sticky.  Once it's done you can roll them up like fruit roll ups and they can last up to six weeks!!! (That is if you don't eat all of them!)

http://www.yumuniverse.com/2010/08/16/raw-raspberry-fruit-leather/

Harvest 10/10/12 Last of the hot peppers!

Today's harvest:
5 Hot Peppers
2 Juliet Tomatoes
2 Cherry Tomatoes
1 Marion tomato
1 Big Boy tomato

Harvest before cold front 10/6/12

Today's Harvest:
3 cherry tomatoes
2 Juliet tomatoes
1 Japanese Eggplant
1 Sweet Pepper

Surprise Fall Strawberries!

My potted Blueberry Patch!

Handful of Tomatoes! 10/3/12

Today's Harvest:
2 Cherry Tomatoes
4 Juliet Tomatoes

New Growth on one of the Blueberry Bushes with Raindrop