I'm thinking of putting the screening over the beds since something uprooted my lettuce late Friday night and dug out an empty bed, but I'm not sure how important sun is to the growing root system....there's nothing that's going to stick out from the ground until spring, so would it be so bad if the soil didn't get sunlight until then?
Any thoughts would be really helpful.
We had a neighborhood picnic last night and bought three lovely little pie pumpkins for decorations. Today, I took some time and baked Granny's pumpkin pies. The first two got pulled out before the end of the cooking time because I hazarded a peek and sure enough...I burned the crust. I had enough left for one more pie, the one on the left. It also came out way before the time Granny said to cook it because it was getting burned as well. I should have kept eyes on them and covered them when they got too toasty. All in all, they taste wonderful, so I'm not complaining. I put the dark ones in the freezer for later and we tore into the lighter one tonight. I don't have a food processor, so it was still a bit fibrous, but I liked the texture.
We also had some split pea soup going in the crock pot and added cornbread with that for dinner.....it's our first real chilly night.Not to let the pumpkin seeds go to waste, I roasted two batches. The one on the left is cinnamon and sugar and the right has garlic salt.
They turned out yummy as well, but those seeds from the pie pumpkins are really, really tiny and almost not worth the effort to eat. I'll try it again with the pumpkin we're carving for Halloween.
The morning comes early...and it's going to be a chilly one.
Sweet gardening dreams.
It's gonna be 28 here tonight....I can't wait to try pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, as I have enough pumpkin puree in the freezer for 2 pies. Oh! we had some of the sweet potatoes for dinner tonight, and they were goooood!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if the garlic needs sun. A cover might keep it from freezing, if it were going to. You really don't expect it to sprout? I'm pretty certain our garlic sprouts in November here. . . very different seasons.
ReplyDeleteEG, we need to eat more of our sweet potatoes as well. Thanks for the dinner idea!
ReplyDeleteStefaneener, from what I Gather, garlic here should grow good roots in the fall, but not sprout until the spring....we'll see how this turns out.
I don't knnow if growing garlic down south is different from up north or not.
ReplyDeleteI planted mine Sept 3-right before my trip. I separated all the bulbs into individual cloves and planted them pointy side up, mulched with some dried grass clippings.
When we got back this month, they were well sprouted (looked like scallions). They will continue growing in the spring and be ready to harvest late summer. I've always had good luck keeping them mulched. I don't know if this helps you or not, being as I'm WAY up at the tippy top of Michigan!
I don't think any sun is necessary in the fall (just in the Spring and Summer). I wouldn't worry about it. Most of my garlic last year didn't sprout until spring. One variety sprouted in the fall, three didn't. Currently my garlic bed only gets about an hour of sun every day. In the spring when the sun is higher it will get a lot more.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to make my first pumpkin pie. I'll wait until after Halloween so I can use the pumpkins for decoration.
NC Georgia, your garlic should sprout before winter. I am in Z5 and plan to get about 4” of growth before winter. When I break the head, what ever sticks to the cloves goes in the ground with it. The Vodka is an excellent idea, put some in a BM mix and sip on it when you are planting the garlic. :) John
ReplyDeleteYour garlic should be fine. I planted mine a little over a week ago, with paper skins - and they were from last year's planting bulb sack - lo & behold, they all look to be sprouting! They will peek their heads up when soil temps are right for them. For me, it was the last week of cold 40-50 temps and lots of rain. Pumpkin pies & seeds sounds good to me right now...
ReplyDeleteI think mulch is going to be my key if they sprout before the winter is over. I'm hoping they won't be disturbed in that bed even if I don't cover it, but I also know I'm asking for trouble if I don't. Hmmm...maybe a cover of straw will do just as well as a screen cover.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I can't help but imagine how good garlic infused vodka would be in the perfect BM.
The best thing I ever made from scratch: chocolate chip pumpkin muffins. I just used the blender to get the pumpkin smooth. They also froze well.
ReplyDelete