Well we finally got the freezing frost this week. The temperature has plummeted pretty quickly. It was 28 degrees outside my door this morning and I had to scrape the ice off the car windows and use the defroster-heater.The first signs of frost mean its time to take in all the late vegetables from the garden. Even though there may be some warm days in the 50’s, the cold nights below 32 will certainly kill most plants.
As I checked my garden, I could see the frost glistening on the tops of all the melon heads (watermelon, pumpkin and squash). Although the crop wasn’t spectacular I got my share for a small garden. Out of 3 pumpkin plants I got 17 small pumpkins. Two were hybrid crosses with squash which most people call SQUMPKINS. I also got some early fall vegetables like broccoli, carrots, egg plant and giant sunflowers.
My biggest squmpkin was 15 inches across and weighed 50 pounds. You can see photos of my pumpkins at the link below … http://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/PumpkinBlog101309
You can also see an article and some photos of the giant pumpkins at the Topsfield Fair. The winner this year weighed 1471 pounds. See the link at …. http://multimedia.boston.com/m/26704718/giant-pumpkin-winner.htm?q=giant+pumpkin&index=1&seek=3.879
The world’s largest pumpkin was recorded at 1725 pounds by a woman in Ohio. See the story at the link below …. http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/dpgo_Ohio_Woman_Grows_Worlds_Largest_Pumpkin_mb_20091006_3900624
I grew the pumpkins from seed and then transplanted them to an area adjacent to my neighbor’s yard. We now call this the community garden. I normally use the area for a compost pile but lately it has overgrown with an invasive plant called American Bamboo. I prepared the area by cutting out all the bamboo trees and removing as many bamboo roots as possible. One tiny piece of root will propagate to a full bamboo tree. I then roto tiled the area and planted 8 tomato plants, 3 cucumber, 3 squash, 3 watermelon and 3 pumpkin.
The plants grew like wildfire in the composted soil and quickly choked out the bamboo. Everything was going great until the tomato blight attacked. Most of the tomato plants had 2 inch green tomatoes until the leaves turned black and shriveled up. Shortly after, the tomatoes all rotted on the vine. Needless to say, I didn’t get any good tomatoes from this garden area but did get some cherry tomatoes from another garden area about 100 feet away.
At the end of the garden season I generally pull out most plants and then mulch them with a lawn mower and after compost everything with the roto tiller. However, this year I pulled out the black tomato plants separately and put them in the trash. Maybe this will get rid of some of the tomato blight and maybe I will find a cure for this garden disease before next season.
Although the garden pests, bugs, rodents, mildew and blights certainly decrease the garden harvest, it becomes a challenge to plan a counter attack and reap some rewards. The battle with Mother Nature has always been one of man’s biggest obstacles but maybe the battle will be a little easier next year.
Comments are always welcome. Send email to markryan82@comcast.net
