October Monthly Review

October began with adding pumpkins and the wooden pumpkins along the potager fence, as you can see above.  Orange is my happy color, so adding more of it to all the gardens is always a fun task.    For the first time, there were even some “Baby Bear” pumpkins from the potager to use in the decorations, along with some colorful winter squash.  The rest of the month flew past quickly, mainly because a chunk in the middle was used for traveling.  Not much happens in the potager when the gardener is away!  However, there was some work early in the month such as garlic planting and the normal harvesting.  After travel there was clean-up from frosts, dahlia digging, bulb planting, and summer furniture storage in addition to more harvests.

The only preserving was the basil freezing mentioned in an earlier post, carrying baskets of winter squash to the garage, drying a few herbs, and pickling a lot of beets.

The harvest total for October was only 71 pounds, compared to 103.5 pounds in 2017.  The main poundage this year came from winter squash, and beets, with some peas, beans, spinach, lettuce and a few carrots.  Various herbs harvested for teas and the kitchen jars were not weighed as the amounts were small. There was only one lonely pot of sweet potatoes (Will definitely do more next year! The difference?  There was no massive tomato harvest just before frost this year.  I planted fewer tomatoes on purpose, but I should have put in at least a plant or two for late harvests.  That will certainly be put in the notes for next year.  The potager’s first year I had it right, but didn’t realize it, so I “improved” last year and had way, way too many at the end of the season.  So this year I “fixed” it, and got it completely wrong!  One would think it would be perfected by now!  Hopefully it will be next year (next year’s garden is always perfect…all winter long!)      And, because I was away, pounds and pounds of peppers and beans succumbed to the frosts so they could not be added to the harvest total.  Just look at all those jalapenos wasted!

Overall, I’m satisfied with October’s results, especially when I think ahead to the bleak upcoming months of little, and then no harvest.  Then my satisfaction must come from the well-stocked pantry and freezer, the garlic, shallot, and onion braids hanging from the allium rack, the baskets of squash, potatoes, and pumpkins, and the jam-packed shelves of dried herbs, jams and jellies.  And just think…next month the new seed catalogs begin to arrive in droves!

If you’d like to read about a wonderful garden in Georgia, or get my new recipe for apple mint bread pudding, go to my October newsletter at Carolee’s Herb Farm.

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