The Yellow Farmhouse Garden

October 26, 2012

Autumn Aphid Attack

Filed under: Insects,Vegetables — bob @ 2:16 pm

Our killing frost finished off the rest of the vegetable plants in my garden. The only ones left were the cold-tolerant  types like Brussels sprouts, kale, turnips and a few others.  I thought that I could coast along until it was time to harvest those crops later next month.

Earlier this week, I went out to the garden to check my Brussels sprouts. I was surprised to find the sprouts covered with aphids and the leaves infested with active cabbage worms. Apparently, our warm Indian summer stimulated a population explosion of insects.

I put away the sprayer for the season a couple of weeks ago. So, I dragged it back out and filled it with a solution of Pyola insecticide. This is a very safe and effective spray for most garden insects. It is basically canola oil combined with a small amount of pyrethrum and is approved for use in organic gardens.

After thoroughly drenching my Brussels sprouts, I triple-rinsed the sprayer, dried it out and put it back into storage. Hopefully, that will be the last time it will see the light of day until next spring.

A spray of organic insecticide will take care of the insects on these Brussels sprouts.

October 16, 2012

Other Fall Colors

Filed under: Flowers — bob @ 6:07 pm

Someone mentioned to me today that they had traveled to Northern Michigan last weekend to see the fall colors. He said they were the best he had ever seen in his life. That’s a pretty big statement coming from someone who is over 70 years old. I’ll have to take his word for it because I missed it.

Looking at huge vistas of fall colors from the comfort of your car is a lot of fun. Sometimes you need to get out of the car and appreciate the small color displays up close.

In a spot in our yard that we keep wild,  we have three different species of  wild asters thriving.  There’s the dark purple New England aster growing along side a lighter purple aster and a white species.

Driving along at 55 mph you might catch a fleeting glimpse of our native Michigan asters while on your color tour. But to really appreciate them, you need to get out of the car and look at them close up.

October 5, 2012

For Storage, Leave Stems On Winter Squash

Filed under: Storage and Preservation,Vegetables — bob @ 12:07 pm

We had a pretty decent Butternut squash yield this year. I planted them in a new part of the garden, which I’m sure helped boost the yield. Plus, we had very few insects on the squash. As a result, we now have plenty of Butternut that will go into storage straight from the garden – unprocessed.

If you keep winter squash under the proper conditions, you can enjoy them well into winter. The most important thing to keep in mind is to leave the stem on the squash. This is true of all varieties of winter squash and pumpkins.

Winter squash store best with the stems left on.

If you plan to use them in the next week or two, then it really doesn’t matter if the squash has a stem or not.

Sometimes you can find farmers selling stemless winter squash at a deep discount. Other than cooking them for a meal, you can freeze or can those bargain farmer’s market squash to use later on.

If the stems are breaking off  your squash as you pick them, use your pruning shear to cut the stems from the vine. You’ll find it’s worth the extra effort.

Store your best, unblemished squash  in a spot that will stay around 50F and have about 50 percent humidity. You should be able to enjoy your home-grown squash into early 2013.

Bob

September 28, 2012

Watermelon Harvest

Filed under: Storage and Preservation — bob @ 9:52 am

One of the best investments I made this year wasn’t in stocks or bonds. It was buying a $1.89 pack of watermelon seeds from the hardware store.

I forgot to order watermelon seeds in my regular online seed order so, I bought them locally. They had only one pack of one variety left so I bought it. I mentioned these melons in previous posts.

This week I needed to harvest all of the watermelon since they were all ripe and ready to go.

That one pack yielded 32 full-sized watermelons! What do you do with 32 huge watermelons? After friends and family got their melons, there were still plenty left.

One thing I always wanted to try was dehydrating watermelons. That’s exactly what I did.  About 2 – 1/2 watermelons — minus their rinds —  fit into my food dehydrator. It took almost 20 hours to dry them down so they were no longer moist and sticky. I filled up four quart food storage bags with that batch.

These watermelon slices started out about 1/2" thick. After drying, they were about the thickness of a nacho chip.

The dehydration process concentrated the sweetness so much that they taste like some kind of exotic candy.

My dried watermelon will be a real treat this winter when the snow is flying. I still plan juice a few melons and try out watermelon wine with some others.

Bob

September 21, 2012

Early Frost in Southeastern Michigan

Filed under: Weather — bob @ 11:37 am

Every morning I get outside early, usually just before sunrise. One of the things I like to do is try to guess the air temperature. Unless I’m sick, I’m usually accurate within a few degrees.

Early Wednesday morning when I stepped into the morning air, I thought to myself: “It’s either cold out here or I’m coming down with something”.  Sure enough the thermometer on the porch read only 35 degrees.

I immediately  hurried out to check the garden. The plants in the upper elevation were fine however, the plants in the low spot were frosted. When I say “elevation” it really is not a hill I’m talking about. It’s just a gentle slope with a  couple of feet difference from one end of the garden to the other.

These leaves were white from frost early Wednesday morning.

Apparently, the air was very still Tuesday night. That allowed to cold air to flow down the slope and settle into the lower part of the garden freezing the plants.

My watermelon vines, green beans and three types of squash were killed by the frost. Up the slope, the sweet potatoes and tomatoes got nipped but are still alive.

Squash plant showing frost damage.

Unfortunately, the closest frost advisory that night was for the area near Saginaw, over 125 miles north from me as the crow flies.

From time to time, things like this  happen when gardening — it never pays to let down your guard.

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