2012 Growing Season Final Harvest Numbers!

After an early season freeze in the beginning of October and Hurricane Sandy hitting at the end, I'm pretty sure the 2012 Growing Season has come to an end for me.  This year I devoted a lot of time to my vegetable garden, from expanding it to experimenting with growing new plants.  As the season progressed I was pleasantly surprised to see that my garden was producing more then I was expecting!  Some of the highest yielding plants include Hot Peppers (which I still haven't figured out what type they are, at the store they were labeled as red cayenne plants), cherry tomatoes and Juliet tomatoes.  I decided to keep a record of all the harvests throughout the summer and fall.  Although I may have missed a few tomatoes here or there, I believe my records are pretty close to what I ended up taking out of my garden.  So without further ado here is my final harvest totals for the 2012 growing season! The list includes type of plant grown and how many fruits or vegetables collected from them.

1. Hot Peppers  =                       192
2. Cherry Tomatoes =                153
3. Juliet Tomatoes=                   118
4. Garden Beans =                       58
5. Cucumbers =                           30
6. Heirloom Tomato =                20
7. Marion Tomato =                   17
8. Big Boy Tomato =                 15
9. Japanese Eggplant =                9
10. Red Hot Cherry Peppers =      7
11. Zucchini =                               4
12. Sweet Pepper =                       4
13. Sugar Baby Watermelon =     2

Hurricane Sandy Garden Damage!

Although my garden was empty, thanks to an early freeze back in the beginning of October, my garden was indirectly impacted by Hurricane Sandy. I was lucky for no big branches or trees landed on my rabbit fencing around my garden!

What did go wrong is I lost all the hot pepper I froze! We went 4 days without power and this caused my hot peppers, which I froze to, defrost. Without any way to cook them I ended up having to throw them out :( which was very disappointing for me!

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.