I was walking around the garden yesterday and spotted a few Tri-Star strawberries and decided to snap some pictures to show you what’s growing in our backyard garden right now.
We live in Western Washington and usually don’t get freezing temps until around the beginning to mid November, so even though it doesn’t look like there is much growing when I post photos of our garden as a whole, we still have lot’s of edibles.
The Fava Beans we planted last month are now about 4 inches tall. If you have never planted fava beans before they LOVE the cool temps and are a great cover crop if you are looking in enrich your soil.
We have oodles of Detroit Dark Red Beets growing right now and will have plenty for a Thanksgiving harvest.
Rainbow Swiss Chard. Yep, we’ve got plenty of that too. 😉
One of the more surprising vegetables we having growing right now is Artichokes. I started these from seed this January and am still amazed at how well they are growing this late in the season.
One of my goals this year is to try and over winter some Danvers Carrots. I’ve heard plenty of people say that growing carrots in the winter is super easy as long as they are protected a little bit. Once the temperatures dip I’m going to cover them with straw and hope for the best. I think as long as we don’t get a super hard freeze, we should be okay.
Mama Mia, check out the Purple Cauliflower. Isn’t it cool? I bet parents could get their kids to eat more cauliflower if they served them purple cauliflower at the dinner table.
All the other vegetables are nice, but this head of Broccoli Romanesco is my favorite. It just has a certain cool factor to it. It’s like what hipsters who play bongos and backpack around Europe would eat.
It’s like totally out there man. 😉
Ha!
So how is YOUR garden doing these days? Are you still pulling up vegetables?
Mavis wants to know.
Sarah says
Surprisingly, yes, we still have quite a bit growing here in Western NY. It’s usually pretty cold by this point in the year, but we’ve been lucky to have temperatures in the 60s and 70s for most of September and October.
Right now, we have one small pumpkin (not ripe yet), a few jalapenos and bell peppers, a few roma tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce, Swiss chard, and green onions. I also planted cabbage towards the end of August but they’re far from ready.
Elizabeth says
Thank you much for the ice cream recipe 🙂
We’re doing our traditional pumpkin themed party for our very last family first birthday (a happy day and a sad day all at once). This recipe will be a welcome addition to the feast.
Marie says
Does straw have weed seeds? One winter we spread
Hay/straw & man oh man did we regret it!
Could it have been the straw?
Laura says
It could have been the straw. It isn’t supposed to have seeds, but my straw last year did. The worst place it grew was in the strawberries. I called the feed store and complained! Don’t use hay to mulch. Use straw, which is supposed to be just stem.
Dale Ann says
The outdoor gardens are pretty much done for this year here in northern Minnesota. It dipped down to 29 degrees early this morning, and the temp forecast looks to be dropping that low nearly ever night now, with highs reaching only into the 30’s and 40’s.
We harvested a beautiful second crop of carrots this last Sunday. Most winters we are unable to overwinter veggie crops, other than garlic cloves for the next year, in the ground. The frost can drive down nearly 3 feet at times, so even with a good thick cover, carrots completely freeze then turn to a slimy mush after the spring thaw.
The good…even with such freezing winter temps certain varieties of apple trees, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, wild plums, lingonberries, blackberries, rhubarb, and for those living close to the Lake Superior shore, some grapes and pears are able to survive and provide us with fresh local fruit year after year.
Uhmuna says
I want to try planting cover crop this year. Do you think it is too late to plant crimson clover in Pacific NW?
Ellen says
You’re in Zone 9, I think, which is the same as Arizona here. I’m just starting my garden…carrots, golden beets, lettuce, swiss chard (for baby salad leaves), and sugar snap peas. It can get down as low as 17 (very rarely), but if I throw a sheet over the stuff when it gets cold, it’s totally fine.
Mindy says
I picked chard today for our dinner tonight, but I’m not a fall gardener even a little bit. I’m completely jealous of your beets, though. I love them with all my heart and I’ve never had any luck starting them from seed in the spring.