Fall Garden/Winter Prep

[Cherry Kelly]

Fall brings the end of the garden season for the northern half of the USA. Light frosts will kill the tomato vines, but as long as its not the deep killing frost, pick those greenies! You can store them in dry dark place to let them ripen, turn them into green salsa mix, fry them with the various coatings or yes make them into a cold soup.

The pepper plants need protection! Unlike the tomatoes either pick them before the frost or cover them as they do not do well with even a light frost.

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Remove the dead plants, top your garden with good fertilizer and allow to sit until spring! Some years we have tilled in the fertilizer, but this last year the frost/snow came before we could do so. We found that by this spring it was even a better idea to let the fertilizer sit over winter.

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I was gifted with a "baby banana bush" last fall. It grew indoors over winter in a large pot and was planted in late spring. It grew -- oh ya 12 foot and taller. It had four pips. pips are baby banana bushes. We dug the 12' huge bush and brought it indoors where it tops the ceiling. The leaves (palm leaf) will die off. The two larger pips have nw homes and the smaller ones are growing indoors. One has a new leaf already. It will be just keep the plant moist and put it out again in spring. It should produce bananas.
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Pepper potted plants from last year were left in pots and set outdoors where they grew and produced more.. they are now indoors and loaded with ripening peppers.

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[Shirleypal]

TX for the fall cleanup information.........I actually spend the afternoon yesterday cleaning up my Clients courtyard, left the inpatients as they are still blooming......haven't had a frost here but expecting it this week sometime.

So nice to see you Cherry and missed your valuable updates.

[Nightingale]

I was gifted with a "baby banana bush" last fall. It grew indoors over winter in a large pot and was planted in late spring. It grew -- oh ya 12 foot and taller. It had four pips. pips are baby banana bushes. We dug the 12' huge bush and brought it indoors where it tops the ceiling. The leaves (palm leaf) will die off. The two larger pips have nw homes and the smaller ones are growing indoors. One has a new leaf already. It will be just keep the plant moist and put it out again in spring. It should produce bananas

Good luck with your Banana bush, it would never have occurred to me to grow one, it will be really something if it produces.

[Linnea]

Going out now to pick the green tomatoes left on the vines... Green tomato soup? Guess will go with the salsa.

How do you find the time for all these projects, Cherry?

Pretty amazing.

[Nightingale]

Linnea another great way to use Green Tomato is to slice, dip in egg wash and Parmesan bread crumbs and saute......hmmmmmm.

[Cherry Kelly]

Nightingale - a banana bush will usually produce bananas in a 2nd or 3rd year - not always, but many will do so even if those little bananas are not the biggest ones in the world. The gift came from someone who also started with one - This past summer they had five banana bushes that produced little bananas.

One thing you need is a large pot to plant them in. They do not have deep roots. The other thing -- tall roof! room roof - this poor thing is already at ceiling so its leaves will have difficulties. Some take these yr old bushes and cut off the tops, wrap roots in burlap and lay them in heated garages, moistening the roots to keep them alive until spring planting.

Try it you really might have fun with growing one.

[Cherry Kelly]

Green tomato soup is a chilled soup. It was shown on one of the food channel shows and you might find the recipe by searching in your regular search engines.

Linnea -- time is spent in a few hours doing one thing or another until each project is completed.

[Psychicwolf]

My garden is done for the winter.
I took the fence down and let the elk herd come through this weekend. They cut everything to the ground, left me several nice "mounds" which I will till in and then will cover with the hay the goats didn't use this summer. New hay coming next weekend. I borrowed a friends press and we are having a cider press party next weekend and making apple butter. Then I am done until spring! Yaaaa!

[Cherry Kelly]

With a killing frost on the way, the last of the peppers have been picked, the plants removed and some compost scattered across the bedding area.

Straw works better for covering some of the garden areas. The problem with using hay is that hay contains seeds, and I have yet to find a hay field that didn't also have some weeds. Weed seeds winter over and will grow in the gardens requiring extra work the following year. Straw is shaft and while it might have a few seeds has far less than what can be found in hay.

The rhubarb will be covered with straw.

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Two new pepper plants were dug this year - red Caribbean habaneros. When chosing a pepper plant to dig and plant in an appropriate size planter, I pick the ones with the woody stems. These seem to grow better and survive transplanting problems. Some will survive to be put outdoors next spring. WIth enough sunshine they will or should continue to produce over the winter - not as many as when outside, but enough to use for those great pots of chili.

[tiffany]

My garden is done for the winter.
I . New hay coming next weekend. I borrowed a friends press and we are having a cider press party next weekend and making apple butter. Then I am done until spring! Yaaaa!

It sounds like so much fun..wish I was yer neighbor.