The fall garden

Posted on by
8

I live in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 8 – the “Lower South.” On average, our first frost occurs between November 1 and 10 and our last frost between March 21 and 31. This growing season is long enough to have two seasonal vegetable gardens – the spring garden and the fall garden.

The spring garden usually starts in February, with prepping the soil and then planting the early, frost tolerant crops. The fall garden begins in late August with prepping the soil and starting seeds for planting in early September.

I grow a spring garden every year. Every year, I learn more about what I’m growing and the weather conditions and pests that affect production and I get better at it.

This year is only my fourth attempt at a fall garden. My previous three tries had not gone very well and rather than invest any time or money in it, I’ve skipped it rather than fail at it.

But, this year, I decided to give it another shot. I mean, the whole purpose of living in the lower south and having a 5+ acre chunk of ground and living more simply dictates that I learn to get better at it.

So, on a smaller scale than previous attempts, I planted a fall garden and finally, I am having a bit more success this year and am learning a lot, so I will do even better next year.

I’ve planted green cabbage, red cabbage, collards, broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts. Looks good, doesn’t it?

Here is one of my green cabbages. A nice head is starting to form.

See the buttons on the stock starting to emerge? These will be brussels sprouts!

This is my second growth of broccoli on this plant. I learned on You Tube, to cut the main crown off and then let the small shoots grow for a bit! Below is a photo of the main crown that had been cut from the center of the plant.

We’ve eaten broccoli and collard greens several times now and I’m getting very excited to pick some green cabbage heads.  My red cabbages were getting eaten by bugs, but I think I’ve finally got them under control and they are perking up. The cauliflower isn’t doing much yet, but I’m still optimistic.

I’m thinking I just might get the hang of this fall gardening thing yet. Now, if I can only figure out how to get my indoor Christmas cacti to bloom.

Share

Day Trip, Savannah

Posted on by
4
And of family, fish sticks, junk and hookah bars.

 

Brian and I made a day trip to Savannah on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to visit Carrie and Steve. It is always wonderful to see our only child, and her husband, who is quite charming and witty.

 

This light Pilsner was an excellent choice for fish.

 

We had lunch at The Distillery, a watering hole in the Historic District. It was my first time there and I liked it, but it had way too many beers to choose from – over 100 beers with at least 21 craft beers on tap. I wanted something light since I was having fish sticks. And, what awesome fish sticks they were!

Light, crunchy cod.

 

Then on to the shopping. We traversed Bull Street, Broughton Street, and streets in-between perusing numerous antique shops and since my mind is in its “renewed” mode of salvage, re-purposing and shabby chic décor thinking, I had my eyes peeled for unique finds. I bought two small tins. I’m going to drill holes in them and make some kind of homemade wind chimes.

Taking a little rest at City Market.

We stopped at Starbucks on Broughton Street for a refresher and while the gang went in for our orders, I stood outside and had a cigarette.  A woman, sitting at a Starbucks outdoor table on the corner, asked me for a “light,” which in smoker lingo means, she needs a “light.”  She was wearing a bright green babushka, and holding a dark brown cigarillo, and I lent her my lighter. After she lit up, she asked me for a dollar. It’s Thanksgiving, I thought, so I reached in my pocket and gave her the money I had.

We passed at least two Hookah bars in our travels.  This is super significant in that after I got home and did a bit of internet research I saw just how naïve I was. You see, I thought Hookahs were illegal in the states. I envisioned Hookahs as these illicit Turkish wacky weed, getting high, kind of places that were only legal in other parts of the world. I thought hookah was just one degree shy of marijuana! And, when I saw these Hookahs on the streets of Savannah, good ole USA, I sorta flipped about it!  I reckon that maybe inhaling special Turkey blends of tobacco through a water pipe while lying around on pillows and listening to sitar music gets you high, I dunno.  But, yeah, I’ve added doing this to my bucket list.

No one wanted leftover turkey for dinner, so homemade spaghetti and a fresh lettuce salad before heading home.

The two heaping pasta filled plates closest to camera belong to the guys!

 

Share

A South Carolina Chain Saw Massacre

Posted on by
10

This is the chainsaw that Brian’s mom and sister bought for him and presented on Thanksgiving Day.

What had happened, a week earlier, Brian’s sister came for a visit and while helping us dig out stumps, she noticed the difficulty Brian was having using his 18’’ Poulan.  The new chain saw is a spectacular gift and Brian is very thankful!

We have much chain saw work to do on our little five acre spread. Most of it has to do with big stumps left after the wrath of Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Not only was there tremendous damage along the South Carolina coast and the city of Charleston, but damage was incredibly extensive inland, too.  Folks out our way were without power for weeks and in our yard alone, probably 20 huge trees came down, leaving broken stumps throughout the yard.  Over the course of time, different owners of the property either planted bushes to camouflage the damage or just let nature take over the areas around the stumps.

We’ve cleared out several of those areas already.  It’s hard work cutting away all the tangled brush and digging around old root systems. One time, a couple of years ago, we used my 4×4 Ford Explorer to wench out a big old azalea root ball and about pulled off my rear bumper!

So, back to the stump we were trying to dig out when Brian’s sister was here.

It’s the stump of an old pine tree and the wood is harder than concrete. Once we got all the brush around it cleared away we could see that some previous homeowner had tried to burn it out with no luck. We dug down around the stump about three feet, with the intent of putting our little chain saw to it to cut it below ground level so we could cover it with dirt and then grow some grass. (We would never be able to pull this stump out, it probably goes down at least six more feet into the ground!) Of course, Brian’s little chain saw couldn’t handle it and after much struggle, we gave up. I guess we could hire a back hoe or stump grinder to defeat it. But, we’d also need to hire one for the 15 or so other huge stumps that need to come out, too.

The picture below is one of many wild growth areas that need cleaned out. Each one, I’m sure has a huge stump in the middle.

So, we’re excited happy resolved to do this project ourselves with the new chainsaw. Winter is the right season around these parts to tackle such an undertaking.  There’s nothing (other than any little excuse we can find) to stop us now from finally getting more of it done. I’m calling the project, The South Carolina Chain Saw Massacre.

On a side note, this is the turkey we smoked for our Thanksgiving dinner. My good friend, Pam Groth, shared with me her dad’s secret brine recipe several years ago and it is killer good! We also used apple wood chips in our cylindrical smoker and cooked the bird upright on a utensil we call “stick up its ass,” (for obvious reasons) for about five hours.

And, I also made some kick ass collards and BACON with greens just picked from our garden.

Share