The October Garden

The October Garden is zone 9 is similar to many zones spring garden. We’re planting seeds and transplants for plants that will grow all winter and into the spring. This is such a wonderful time to garden for me, the temperatures are much cooler (today’s high is 86 degrees), there are fewer pests and the pace is so much more relaxing for me than with the spring/summer garden.

This is our sweet potato patch that we grew from some volunteers from last year’s sweet potato patch. This was our most beautiful harvest ever. We planted these in a bed that had loose soil and it has made all the difference in the world. 

So, I’m trying something new this winter. I’m saving some of the sweet potato vines and planted them in a big pot and put it in our bathroom for the winter. The thing with sweet potato vines is that they will root in the middle of the vine. See those roots in the photo above. I also took some roots that were still thin and wrapped them in some damp paper towels and put them in a zip lock back that isn’t closed quite all the way and put them in my refrigerator with out other seeds. We’ll see what happens. 

This is about 1/4 of our harvest. Aren’t they beautiful? 

The butterflies and bees are loving the last of the buckwheat blooms. This bed will be planted with garlic next week. 

We planted some lettuce and Chinese cabbage transplants that I bought from the feed store. I planted lettuce seed in between. Hopefully, this will be a carpet of lettuce soon. 

After a few weeks this is what the lettuce seeds are looking like. 

The carrots are coming up. I never have good germination rate with carrots so I’ll be re-sowing this bed. 

Our kale and swiss chard has gotten hit hard by worms. I know it was some kind of worms because after I sprayed with bt they are bouncing back. This is always a hard decision for me. I don’t mind really mind having holey leaves, but I do mind when the plant is completely demolished which is what was happening. Bt is a bacteria that just targets worms and catepillers and is an approved organic pesticide and it won’t hurt the bees, which is my priority. 

We are still harvesting an handful of okra a day. We love fried okra – don’t just, I fry in coconut oil so it’s healthy, right? 

This is the last of our tomatoes; we are still getting a few cherry tomatoes. This will be pulled and cleaned and onions will be planted in this bed soon. 

The pecans are almost ready. The hulls are drying out and opening. They will be dropping soon.

These are giant lilies that my dad gave me about 7 years ago before he passed away. This spring I dug them all up and separated them and this is the first time they have bloomed. They make me smile every time I drive up to my house. 

Our flame tree was covered in yellow flowers just a couple of weeks ago and the seed pods are so pretty. 

Here is a close up of the seed pods – they remind me of Chinese lanterns. 

 This post is shared at Tuesday Garden Party,

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