Cold sets in

As we have had a few mild frosts, I am protecting my tomato plants in main bed with a frost blanket. I wonder if I will get any tomatoes before it is too late... I'm thinking that the ones in the greenhouse may be much safer. I may need to pick my eggplants out because the weather is supposed to get colder still.
The snap peas have made a couple of little pods and I got one snow pea yesterday. There will be hundreds of them soon. I guess I better get busy thinking of stir-fry possibilities.
I'm gearing up for Thanksgiving. I managed to get a turkey from the Cranks last weekend, it was beautiful. I got sweet potatoes from a roadside seller in Hempstead, an old black guy who barely had a voice, but he seemed sweet. I have a small pack of cranberries that Vicki got on her trip to New England. I have a couple of butternut squashes from Vicki, a few onions and peppers from Alysha and Vicki. I have some herbs in the garden and a shopping list for tomorrow's Farmer's Market. I don't know if I will get oranges in time to make fruit salad, but I still have apples from http://www.organicfujis.com/ so, I guess I have a good beginning. Hopefully I can acquire green beans, broccoli, potatoes, more onions, sage, carrots, and eggs tomorrow. We'll see, I have too many stops to make on my route, but I'll do my best.

Update

I'm not sure if I can keep everything alive...I have a bit of a pest problem in the garden. The tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, carrots, herbs, snow peas, snap peas, beets, radishes, garlic, etc. seem fine, but all of the cruciferous vegetables are hit pretty badly. I may try some conventional stuff to kill the worms or perhaps some pyrethum(sp?). Vicky had beautiful broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage--so I know it must be possible. My broccoli starts in the greenhouse are not affected. I may keep them in there. The kumquats are ripening, I have tomatoes forming in the greenhouse and in the garden. I bought a frost blanket to try to keep them going in case of frost. The lettuce needs a replant, as does the spinach to keep it going. I may start over with some of the plants...the cabbage at least because the leafing is compromised. Anyway, I guess that is what happens when you work more than fulltime and try to keep a garden...but it is in my heart to continue in spite of this set-back.

More new stuff

New pansies arrived at the garden center...tiny violas and two toned pansies. They are so beautiful...I picked up several and planted them yesterday, along with a large flat of petunias that are streaky purple colored.
Yesterday, I dug some soil in the covered bed into small rows and planted nine more broccoli plants and some purple hull peas(I'm not sure if purple hulls will survive the winter, but I decided to plant them because I had not yet eaten them, they had been in the frig for a couple of weeks).
The covered garden was repaired by Jerry this week. He took off the greenhouse panels that had broken during the hurricane and replaced them all with shadecloth. My hope is that rain can get in, making plantings more viable. Watering with city water is not nearly the same as nature's water from the sky...
My hubby asked what I wanted for our anniversary, 18 years on the 25th of October, and I told him that I already have it. I have him and the kids, pretty flowers growing in front and gardens to take my mind off of a hard day's work at the end of every stress-filled day. I consider myself to be quite fortunate, truly.

New stuff in garden

I saw pansies in the garden center for the first time this year...so I had to get a couple. I planted pansies, mums, and some other flowers in the flower beds yesterday. Clearing the beds was much easier than I thought it would be. I put the lantana into the bed between the flowers and the cherry bushes and put some hyacinth bulbs under the flowers(annuals).
I bought some compost and big pots to do potatoes since the potato order from Ronnigers is coming today. I'm going to do the garlic in a pot, too, I think. If I have to sprout the potatoes, this may take a week or so, but we'll see.
Speaking of sprouts, I think I like alfalfa sprouts better than mixes because my current mix is trying to go mold, yuck...the alfalfa did so much better.
The side bed now has snow peas coming up all over, beets and cabbage are all beginning to germinate. The small bed has snap peas, radishes, and turnip greens all coming up. My whiskey barrels boast lettuce that can be cut soon, oregano, basil, and cilantro that are ready for small cuts and some eggplants beginning to form with many purple blooms.
I'm amazed daily by my nice garden. I suppose that this new obsession with gardening has taken the place of some bad habits I seriously needed to be rid of. I always had a knack for gardening, but now my heart feels the need to experience gardening daily, at least in some small way.

Yesterday-side garden

Yesterday, I managed to work the side bed of the main garden enough to get it into shape for planting...this wasn't easy without a tiller. I did it shovel and rake style. I put down some organic garden soil and planted snow peas, cabbage and beets in the "new" bed. If anything doesn't come up, I'll put in some more snow peas probably... my cabbage seeds are a couple of years old, so I'm not holding my breath that they will germinate. I already have a few cabbage plants in my small bed, along with broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, tomatoes, and cucumbers(all plants). I added some radishes, turnips, cauliflower, and snap peas in seed form yesterday there.
I noticed spinach, lettuce, cilantro, carrots, and basil are coming up in various containers on the patio. The onion sets look alright, the eggplant are blooming profusely. Of course, the oregano and garlic chives look fine, as does the old-timer, rosemary.
I have two more beds I can play with if I get time for more veggies, but they will be a lot of work without a tiller. I still need to get my flowerbed in order and clean up the pots around the house. The flowerbed will be full of pansies and violas later...the pansies haven't started showing up at the nurseries yet, anyway. The bright colors always make me feel better on cool winter days. I think my favorite part is choosing the colors to plant.
Today is Farmer's Market day. I hope to find plenty of veggies to put me in the mood for more garden work. I want the best fall garden ever, perhaps it will come.

Neglect

I've neglected my garden because I've been working on getting bread in stores every spare moment. Hopefully it will be fine, I only missed watering yesterday and now today because there is a 100% chance of rain early tomorrow morning. Hurricane Ike is on its way and now, I am as prepared as I am going to be. I didn't need anything really since I am a grocery pack-rat. I should've gotten milk, but I didn't have time to get to the farm(I'm not out anyway).
I sincerely doubt that there will be a Farmer's Market. That is sad, but everything will be okay, I might need to go to the Farm Patch to pick up the good stuff to fill in.
It has been a very long day. Good night.

Garden Update

I managed to get some seeding done, spinach, lettuce, some herbs, onions and carrots- I hope it all grows. I still have more to do. I had my brother weedeat my most neglected garden plot and I watered it down really well. My tillers are officially both broken, so I guess I will have to turn it all by shovel if I want that done soon. He planted my peach tree and put down mulch around the other fruit trees- pomagranite, apple, pears, figs and peach trees, maybe a plum tree, but I can't remember for sure.
Perhaps if I take really good care of them all over the winter, I will get some fruit next year. I do want to get some strawberries in the ground this fall...I love strawberries.

Too Busy

I've been so busy on the routes that I still haven't made it by BNF. Fortunately, HEB has had kombucha the past two mornings to get me through my morning addiction(at over 50 cents more a bottle-yikes). I even thanked the Nature's Harvest manager. He just smiled, knowing that he hadn't done anything, but could at present take credit anyway.
I have managed to water all of my new plantings, so I still have high hopes of broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic chives and oregano. The kumquats are beginning to turn orange ever so slightly, so it won't be too much longer. I still need to get more planting done, even as I wait for a CSA share from Long Bean farm, which should be end of this month.
I need to get to the Cathy's farm for milk, which is more difficult because Cathy now has a part-time job as a computer programmer at a print shop. I think that working will do her a world of good, but I miss being able to call her early to decipher her plans for the afternoon. Well, as long as I can take care of it before I have to buy milk from the store--*yuck*, it should be alright. Perhaps I could get a little extra to make some cheese.

Fall Garden

I decided that I wanted a small fall garden, rain willing, it may survive. I bought plants--some broccoli, tomatoes and what I think are cucumbers(canteloupe plants look pretty similar and it had no tag). I added some oregano and garlic chives to my rosemary for herbs. I recently bought a kumquat tree(seedless, which may work better when it comes to eating the little buggers) and I have a peach tree that needs to get into the ground before winter. All of my trees need some mulch to keep the mower from getting too close.
I want some pansies up front in my almost completely dried up flower bed, plus some strawberries to plant soon so I will have strawberries this Spring. I need some snow peas and peas, lettuce and spinach to round everything off. Hopefully I can refrain from killing everything this season. Fall is usually pretty good for me. I'll check my seed stash and see what I can come up with, perhaps there is some inspiration in there somewhere. Something so simple as a seed that grows into something so great may be enough to inspire me.

Farmer's Market

Well, I managed to get to the Farmer's Market today. I saw Heather and Karen from Yadi's milk group which felt a bit like deja vu without essential cause, except to say I met Heather rather briefly yesterday, for the first time in person. Karen, I have known much longer, not just from the milk drops, but also because we happened to show up to pick tomatoes at Gendron Tomatoes the season before last. She will forever remember me as the crazy white girl who ate a very hot pepper sans water (they dared me) while picking a bounty of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and squash that crazy Saturday morning...and I will forever remember her as the one who wore a two piece swimsuit to pick veggies. I prefer more cover-up, but I can pick veggies all day in high sun if I have the time, the veggies and plenty of water.
I scored lots of great stuff at the market; salsa, chocolate sour cream bread, garlic chives, yellow squash, green beans, parsley, red potatoes, and 2 cucumbers. After finishing my route for the day, I put my steamer to use on a very tasty lunch. Now perhaps I can get to BNF before they close...