Finally Fall Fell

Friday’s temperature dropped to a comfortable range. Everything in the fall garden has sprouted except for the spinach, carrots and beets. I thought the spinach had come up, but Saturday morning, it was nowhere to be found. It will have to be replanted next weekend. This weekend saw another bed renovated and planted with a follow up crop of radishes, beets and carrots.

Tomorrow there will be another trip to renfrow’s to purchase onion sets and mesclun seeds. That should round out the fall garden except for more follow ups on radishes and carrots. The beets will probably not have time to get a good start for first frost if they are planted any later.

The cucumbers and squash have some female blossoms now. There is a chance they will start producing before the tomatoes totally quit. The arugula is almost ready to pick, so we will have a complete garden salad with any luck at all. The lettuce may even be big enough to pick by then. Mesclun and spinach will probably not be.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

A Plague of Possums (O’possums)

This must be possum season. My wife saw a whole line of little possums walking up the driveway. The next day there was a baby in the bucket where compost is accumulated before dumping it in the compost pile. It got a soft landing in the compost bin. Instead of running away, it just buried itself into the pile. Saturday morning when I went to the greenhouse, there was a horrible stench, like something dead. There were three baby possums in the potting soil barrel. One was dead.

I turned the barrel over and left the greenhouse to give them some privacy. After about 15 minutes the two live ones had left. The smell was gone too. Evidently possums smell better dead than alive. The dead one was discarded and the barrel turned back up. Sunday morning there was 1 baby possum in the barrel. I turned it down to let him go, which he quickly did.

Yesterday afternoon, there was a young raccoon under the fig tree watching me pick the garden. He does not seem to have done any damage, so I rewarded him with some overgrown okra. Maybe that will placate him so that he doesn’t destroy the garden.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

The Ghost Lives

The first little ghost peppers appeared this weekend. The peppers do look like the ones in the pictures of ghost peppers. Maybe they are real!!

Lots of lima beans and string beans are coming on too. The second planting of cucumbers is climbing and blooming, but no cukes yet. The new squash plants are growing well, but no blossoms. The turnips, mustard, kale, spinach, arugula, cabbage, sugar peas and radish are up. The carrots and beets are not up but they usually take a while. The late crop of figs seemed to have made a false start. The trees produced a handful and then quit again. They are loaded with figs.

The old squash plants really look scroungy and they are not producing anything but a few patty-pans. Even those have pickle worms. They still have blossoms though and I am loathe to pull them up. Once they are gone, the beds they occupy can be reworked and put to sleep for the winter.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

Fast Germination

The fall garden is amazing for the fast germination. Arugula was planted Sunday and came up on Monday. Turnips, mustard and kale were planted on Sunday of the week before and sprouted on Saturday. Cabbage and spinach were planted at the same time as the Arugula. They have not sprouted yet, but the soil may be too warm. They need temperatures of less than 70 degrees.

The next crop of figs seems to have started with a handful on Monday (Labor day). The previous crop was the largest we have ever had. This crop appears to be the sweetest ever. We make a lot of fig preserves because they are so good on biscuits or toast on cold mornings. The late cucumbers already have blossoms and runners so they were put onto a trellis this weekend. See the picture above.

A late harvest of cucumbers and squash is always iffy because there are so many bugs to eat them. The first plantings of cucumbers are dead already. The first plantings of squash are still alive, but they are producing almost nothing.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/