The Garden in November, 2011

It's time for an overview of the garden for the month of November.

I've got a temporary addition to the garden, I'm raising 3 new chickens to add to the existing flock. They will be in the cage for a couple more weeks and then they get to join the old girls.

They do love their kale treats.

Here's the bulk of the winter brassicas. Di Sarno Calabrese broccoli in the rear left, Piracicaba to the right of that, Lacinato Kale in the front right, and some laggard Portuguese Tronchuda cabbage to the front left. Buttercrunch lettuce is interplanted with the brassicas.

The Piracicaba broccoli is already forming heads. I harvested this one yesterday.

I took these photos just before I cleaned out the old bean trellises. That area has now been cleaned out, turned over and is ready for the spinach, chard, and beet transplants that I started a few weeks ago.

The Lacinato kale is really happy this fall. I'm really looking forward to experimenting with kale caesar salad recipes.

Pixie baby cabbages are in the foreground. They have a way to go before they start forming heads.

One of the Buttercrunch lettuces is something else, very pretty, but definitely not a Buttercrunch.

Guntmadingen spinach getting quite big and not minding the weed competition very much. I've got another sowing of these ready to plant out.

The solanum bed is in all stages of decline. The Amish Paste tomatoes are half dead but still producing.

I think this is Katja, dead dead dead.

Fiaschetto is dead but still hanging on to the old tomatoes. The chickens have been loving these.

The intertwined Chianti Rose and Japanese Trifele are still hanging in there

And still producing tomatoes. The last couple of Chianti Rose that I harvested like this and let ripen on the kitchen counter tasted pretty good!

The Japanese Trifele just doesn't want to quit.

The Aunt Ruby's German cherry is still looking might green as well (including the tomatoes).

The Pimento de Padron peppers are hanging in there and I managed to harvest enough peppers for a nice appetizer the other night. The short days and cold weather have really slowed them down though, there are still tiny young peppers on the plants but they are growing very slooowly.

The same goes for the eggplant, there are young fruits on most of the plants but they just aren't getting very big. I'll probably harvest them as babies, but I'm waiting for that first frost warning, well, actually the second frost warning, we already had one but the frost didn't hit here.

Orient Express eggplant

Rosa Bianca eggplant

Diamond eggplant

Across the way, the napa cabbage patch is thinning out.

The last Hybrid One Kilo is looking good.

This Tenderheart is looking overgrown and when I harvested it the other day I found it to be spoiling. I did manage to salvage about half of it.

I tucked some Ear of The Devil lettuce seedlings into the cabbage patch a few of weeks ago.

And what's left of the Sweetie Baby romaine lettuces look like they will hold for a while. I was harvesting most of the patch as they started to bolt in a warm spell last month. These seem to have resisted the urge.

The oldest part of the beet patch is looking scraggly, the ants and aphids created a mess and disfigured much of the foliage but most of the remaining roots are ok.

The newer beets are not so infested so they look a lot better but they are in desperate need of thinning. 

Shishito pepper plants and amaranth.

Late planted pepper plants are happier, healthier, and more productive than the plants that went into the garden "on time". Hmm, I wonder if I shouldn't put off starting and planting my peppers until much later, they just seem to languish in the cool summer weather. I'm going to experiment with more late planting next year.

Dorato di Asti celery is showing it's tendency to golden hues.

The spring planted brassicas are showing their age.

I'm still harvesting shoots from the Di Sarno Calabrese broccoli.

But I've allowed the old Piracicaba broccoli plants to bloom.

The bees are taking full advantage.

 The ants and aphids pretty much did the Golden Chard in. This plant is making something of a recovery.

But this one is a goner.

Basil is on the way out, most of the leaves are spotted with some sort of disease. I managed to salvage enough good leaves to make another batch of pesto.

The Purple Sprouting broccoli that I planted in the middle of the basil patch is pretty happy though.

And the Stregonta borlotti beans are ready to be harvested as shelly beans.

Here's the Diamante celery root patch.

I can start harvesting them any day now.

Golden Sweet snow pea blossom.

Too bad the critters only left a few plants.

And let's not forget the Glory frisee seedlings that I slipped into the spot where the sugar snap peas met an untimely demise at the jaws of the local rodent population.

Doesn't it figure that the rodents don't go for the Portuguese Dairyman's kale that volunteered in the path?

So, that's the garden in mid-November and the prospect of the harvests to come in the months to come. What do you have in your garden now?