First Day of Fall

Can't believe its been over a month since I last posted!  Today was the official first day of Fall for 2013.  It was a beautiful day with high in the mid-80s and sunny weather.  Its been welcome relief from the hot dry weather we've had.  Summer was stubborn leaving, and we were in the upper 90s  for most of Sept so far.  Earlier this week we had a good soaking rain, and it brought in the cooler weather this weekend.  

Like I said earlier, here in N. Texas, we have 2 growing seasons.  The beginning of fall marks the beginning of the second growing season.  We have a good 2 months of good weather, and then by late Nov. we are likely to get our first frost.

Fall Plantings

I tried getting an early start in the beginning of Sept, but had mixed results.  I do almost all my plants from seeds. I am a very practical and frugal gardener, and would rather start from seed than spend $3 or so for a plant from the nursery... just doesn't seem that cost efficient.  

 I started many seeds indoors in small pots, since I was concerned about germination and the heat. I had a few lettuce plants come up, and I put them in the ground as soon as possible.  Many of them died, or got eaten by something once I transplanted them outside. I only have like 4 small plants that are still alive.   I  also sowed a few cabbage  and Brussels sprouts seeds indoors too.  I've had some difficulty getting good germination, and many of my seedlings have died while real small, (probably damping-off) so its been a bit frustrating getting them going.  So I put them into the ground while they were really small  and they have been growing pretty slowly.  I am guessing the heat has been affecting them, but hopefully they'll take off soon.   On the right are the cabbage plants, (next to a small okra which will probably shade the cabbages pretty soon... oops!!). And on the left are the Brussels sprouts. 

 Right below them I have a few mustard and turnip seedlings, These I directly sowed in the ground a couple weeks ago, and they are just starting to show their secondary leaves.  Since many of the turnips did not spout, there are many gaps between the plants, so I put in a few extra seeds yesterday in the hope that those come out and fill out the small rows.

I also started some spinach too.  I stared 2 batches. One was seed from last fall's seed packet I used, and the other was seed I saved from my plants this spring.  I put both in ziplock bags in wet paper towels. The saved seed sprouted real well, while the seed from last year's packet has not sprouted at all yet!  I've heard how short shelf-life the spinach seeds have, so that makes sense.   I planted the sprouted seeds in these small containers and will transplant when they get a bit bigger.  I put a few of the other sprouted seeds directly in the ground too, and will use these guys in pots to fill in holes here and there.  

I am also starting some herbs too.  These I intend to keep in their containers, since I don't have any space for them in the garden. In this first planter I have some basil and sage. Much of the basil came up but only one little sage plant has come up. I also have some Summer Savory in another container. 

 Here are a few more herbs I planted... More basil, oregano, marjoram, thyme.  They are tiny, especially the organo!  I tried planting them in the spring but all except the basil died. I think I watered too much, and they got damping-off and died, so hopefully I have better luck this time.

Okra

Last time I had talked about my Okra.  Its gotten really big but has been disappointing so far because of the lack of production.  

The plants are very big, and have huge leaves. But they've gotten attacked by a number of pests.  Some caterpillars have  attacked them but the wasps have been keeping them in check.  The worst by far has been the aphids.  They have been terrible, covering may of the young leaves and flowers.  I have seen some lady bugs and their larva, but there are so may aphids, its been overwhelming.  So I've begun blasting them with the sprayer on the hose, and also spraying them with soap spray.  I think I've made a good dent in their numbers.   Some of the leaves have also looked curled up and stunted.  Probably from the aphids and cucumber beetles.    

Squash

Hubbard Squash- I still have a few vines growing, but they have produced nothing recently, probably due to the heat.  Barely any male flowers either.  The heat plus the Squash Vine borers...  I've tried burying vines when possible, and the vines have been growing quickly but the older parts of the vines have all rotted. So the plants are surviving via their secondary roots.  I have debated just pulling it all out, but have decided to keep them and see what happens. Same with some of the old Rouge Vif D'etampes from the spring. I have a few runners still going.

Decided this week to crack open the big Hubbard from this early summer. Here is what it looks like inside:

Already make some soup from it, and the rest is pureed and ready for making pies, or bread or whatever. 

Rouge Vif D'etampes - The two hills I started in the end of July are doing fairly OK.  At the end of August I had to take off the tulle netting since the plants were getting way too big for it. Once I took them off I have been burying the vines where possible and picking off SVB eggs too.  For next year, I think I will start my fall planting later, probably sow the seeds a month later than I did, in the last week of August. The main reason being that early Sept is often still too hot, plus the SVB are really bad then.  Only recently have I noticed their activity slow down.  I did  kill a pair that was mating today. That really surprised me because I had not seen as many eggs recently, so was wondering if they were almost done for the season.  These vines had not had any flowers yet. But they have been growing very quickly.  Unfortunately some of their runners have also shown signs of mosaic virus :(

I think its the cucumber beetles.  There were tons of them, and the leaves were showing signs of damage.   So I waged war on them earlier this week, and sprayed the vines with Sevin. Since I had no flowers I was not worried about bees.  It really helped, as the next day, most were gone.

I sure hope all this hard work pays off.  Its a bummer I haven't had any fruit set on them yet. I sure hope to soon!  Otherwise its a waste of space and effort.   The tulle netting in the picture above is covering a few small acorn squash plants that I also put in recently.   

Summer Squash - The yellow crookneck and Bening's green tint squash did pretty good. I also had to uncover them because they got too big. Unfortunately the tulle did not prevent them from getting aphids, and when I uncovered them I noticed the infestation. So I have also been waging war against them too, as with the okra.  I remember last year too that in the late summer/early fall the aphids got bad on the pumpkins.  But then eventually the beneficial bugs start making their appearance.

We have gotten a good number of yellow crookneck, they produced well early, but the plants have lost their vigor recently

 One  yellow crookneck plant died, and the others two are looking pretty sickly. Maybe the heat, and aphids have done them in. Didn't notice much SVB activity on them yet.  The Benning's Green tint have done better. Their vines are actually pretty long, longer than the Yellow Crookneck for sure.  But they also have been attacked by the aphids.    I have 4 small seedlings in pots that I started. At some point I'll pull out the existing ones and plant the new ones.  I am doing 2 Benning's green tint, and 2 Ball zucchini.