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Unusually warm weather delays fall garden

 
gardener
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Location: N. California
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Normally all my summer veggies would be history by now and my fall garden would be well on its way.  Not this year. Besides a lot of other stuff the usually warm weather has kept me from removing my summer garden.  Each weekend I think this is it, summer veggies have to go. It's finally getting cool at night. It's time.  Will I be able to get fall veggies in and growing? Don't know for sure, but I'm going to try.
I took a photo of some veggies I picked last night for dinner.  You can see why I've been reluctant to call it quits.
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Sometimes you have to declare the summer garden done even though it's still producing some food, at least in the beds where the fall garden needs to go. Pull it and get the fall garden in.

I find that summer crop production winds down long before it completely stops producing anything, making it easier to declare an end.
 
steward & manure connoisseur
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Jen, we've got your winter down here. It snowed a few hours south of me, a few days ago, first November snow since they've been keeping records. Normally by this time we're grilling, have green beans on the way, and are eating out on the back porch at night.
I am currently still in my fleece and wool socks and wondering if we're ever going to warm up. The seeds I started are in a holding pattern (beans refuse to even poke their heads up), and the winter plants (fennel, kale) are still going gangbusters.
I keep thinking to myself, just another week, it's got to be the end soon. I've been saying this since the first week of September.
 
steward
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Usually, there is a dip in temps right about Halloween, we did have some cooler days though there was no frost.

Next week it will be in the 70s.
 
gardener
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Look at those peppers and tomatoes! I'd hold on to them as long as possible too. What fall veggies do you plan on growing? Direct seeded or transplants? Maybe they can come in under the existing veggies? Cool season plants can tolerate some shade and by interplanting you will save a lot of time too.
 
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Enjoy it while you can! A weather-driven schedule is a fine way to eat, although late season tomatoes are pretty bleh - the cold kills the flavor.
 
Jen Fulkerson
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We are finally getting cooler weather. I started pulling veggies out. For some reason I have more bug activity than normal. I don't normally have to do anything. The few problems I have will usually right themselves.  But the beans have aphid, and I noticed holes in some of the broadleaf vegetables, so something is munching.  Which is a bummer because my hugel beets soil level has dropped about 12", and I was hoping to chop and drop so I wouldn't have to use so much compost and soil. I will compost it instead. Hopefully it will heat up and kill the bugs so I can safely use it at a later date.
I picked the last of the beans, and eggplant from one of the eggplants.  I still have lots to remove, I hope to get it done tomorrow.  I will plant peas (it's very late for peas, but as long as they are out of the ground, they will be fine. Strangely enough once it's to cold to grow, they just hang out until the weather warms up enough, and they will continue to grow and produce.) Lettuce, spinach, broccoli, onions, garlic, cilantro and bok choy. I planted Swiss Chard a couple weeks ago in a new raised bed, and it looks great.  The broccoli I planted last year I cut it at soil level, twice. It's grown back. There are a few heads, but they are pretty bitter. I hope as it gets cooler it will taste better. I also have 3 kinds of kale, and they will continue to grow and taste so much better in the cooler weather.  I will plant seeds. I did buy some veggies starts, but it seems they came with some kind of worm. Cabbage worm maybe? All I know is I don't want to bring them into my garden. They are pretty little, maybe I can remove the bugs by hand and still use them , not sure it's worth the risk.  We will see.
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Jen,

Could you tell me what is your secret to growing these vegetables?
This year was a total failure for me. I have tried four times to grow anything from seed in spring bu nothing was growing in night 35, day 70 temperature.
I improved my soil by mixing it with 10% clay and manure from my sheep, pigs and chicken, built shading tents from the pallets and planted directly into the ground, but it was already too hot. Watered twice per day during hottest days. Tomatoes never produced single fruit (except 4 fruits at the end of October that can not get ripe of course any more), none of the herbs (I planted 10 different species) grew except of parsley, none of the vegetables that can be planted in late summer and harvested in late fall produced more than 2 leaves. I only had success with 3 zucchini plants but they were destroyed by aphids before I noticed the insects.
With the effort I put into the garden I would already have a vegetable stand in midwest (we moved here from Chicago).
It seems that peppers, eggplants - nightshade in general really hate my climate, so do beans, melons.
Now my expectations are very low for vegetables - I would like to be able to produce at least one kind and then multiply the success on larger area. I think I'm going to build a greenhouse for starting the plants from seeds.
 
Jen Fulkerson
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Cristobal I wish I had some magical words of wisdom to give you. Unfortunately it just doesn't work that way.  Most important is don't give up.  It may take a while, but you'll get it.
This has been a super strange year weather wise.  I struggled with my garden this year. Everything produced very late.  
A couple of things I would have you look into are :
Water even in the heat 2x a day seems like way to much.  I would check the soil before watering. In a hot dry mulch is super important. There are lots of options, pick what works for you. I mass plant and also like wood chips.
Bugs I don't use anything for bugs. I just spray them off with water, and that's about it. The way I look at it is the more I do now the more I have to do in the future. I just don't have time to keep the bugs in check. I plant a large variety of plants, and hopefully the good bugs keep the bad ones under control. For the most part this is working for me.  This takes time, and patience.
Manure. This can be great, or kill everything..  You want to be careful with manure. Chicken manure is to hot and if not we'll composted do more harm than good.  Horse and cow you have to be careful because if the hay they are eating has a broadleaf killer sorry I don't remember the name of it. It can pass through the animal and kill or deform your veggies.
Herbs are often hard to grow from seed.  A lot of them have to be cold stratified to germinate, some take a long time to germinate. Don't be too hard on yourself. I start basil, and cilantro (which should be started now for me) but buy starts at the nursery for most other herbs.
Shade ??? I'm not sure about this one.  Tomatoes, peppers and eggplant love sun and heat.  I've heard of people doing this, just haven't tried it myself.
I love permies, you will get lots of amazing advice here. I also like to check out YouTube. I look for as close to my area as I can find growing what I want to grow.  Wander your local garden center and nursery. I find gardeners love to share knowledge.  Strike up conversation, and you will be amazed what you learn.
Good luck to you.  Don't give up, you can do it.
 
Cristobal Cristo
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Location: Sierra Nevada foothills, 350 m, USDA 8b, sunset zone 7
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Thank you Jen for your reply.

I was watering when the soil was dry. I did not use the mulch. I have at least a ton of eucalyptus wood chips and can produce hundred tons more, but I'm reluctant to use them knowing that the are extremely rot resistant and may deplete my soil from nitrogen but maybe I should try?
In June my day temperatures were in the upper 90s and reached over 105 in August and at the beginning of September and that's why I shaded the plants following advises in "greening the desert" section of the forum. The nights are always cool here, even with day's 105 it will not be more than 70 at night. This seems great, but in spring and fall when the daily temps are in the 80s, the nights will be in the 40s retarding the growth of vegetables. Also this year I had last frost in the middle of May and it killed my 6 year old fig and all chestnuts.

The climate I have here is a microclimate within foothills' microclimate, a local valley that acts like as cold pit. The positive side is that I have deep soils and 30 Gal/minute of excellent water from my well. My neighbor - 100 feet higher than me, is growing lemons, the other one oranges. I hardly can grow figs. What seems to grow are apples, pears, quinces, walnuts, pistachios, pomegranates, sour cherries and plums and next year I will focus on planting more of them. They seem to like my sandy loam soil on irrigation.

Last year I managed to produce a few pounds of small red potatoes. Next year I will probably buy small plants and plant them early enough and will build a greenhouse at the end of the year. I basically do not have a warm place to start the seeds and don't have electricity to run some heat lamp.
 
Jen Fulkerson
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Wood chips won't deplete the soil of nitrogen as long as they are on top and not in the soil.  If you're worried about wood chips, you can use straw, rice hulls, just about anything that covers the soil.  I really like mass planting. You would think it would retard the growth and production, but that has not been the case for me. On of my favorites is alyssum.  It's a great ground cover, easy to grow and care for, is pretty, smells nice and is eatable (I haven't eaten it though)
I can see where the huge temperature fluctuations would be a challenge.  Have you thought about a cold frame?  You could make them using fence boards, or pallets, or anything you can get your hands on. Make a frame for the top covered in heavy plastic. You could even staple plastic to one side. Roll up the plastic during the day and cover the top at night using something heavy on the other side to keep it from blowing off.   During the hot months you could add a taller piece of wood, a stake, t post, what ever you have and attach your shad cloth to it.  Just a thought. Greenhouses are great, but you have to learn how to use them.  They being a new set of complications.    ( I'm building a greenhouse too. I guess we will figure it out)  
 
Cristobal Cristo
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Jen,

I heard the term "cold frame" but never bothered to check what it meant and it looks that this is exactly what I'm looking for. When I was talking about the greenhouse I meant to use it as the place to start the seeds, not as the place to grow something. I want to grow a lot of "something" and it would not make any sense to get limited just by the greenhouse space.
I already have some design in my mind for the cold frame - stacked masonry walls for thermal mass, insulated on the outside either with straw bales (rather impossible to get them here in organic version) or with my eucalyptus chips, glass on top.
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