The Modern Victory Garden

The weather is not very promising for the coming three-day weekend.   Forecast is calling for heavy rain and breezy conditions on Saturday and only mildly better weather on Sunday and Monday.   Fall has definitely arrived in the maritime Pacific Northwest.   Today was actually quite nice though and I took advantage of that this evening to do a few minor tasks in the garden.   Since the forecast is calling for some significant rain, I thought it would be wise to bring the flats of Walla Walla seedlings into the protection of the greenhouse - so they do not drown from too much water pooling in their base tray.   I also removed all of the branches and leaves from the lower half of the brussel sprout plants tonight and put them in the compost pile.   Removing the leaves and stems channels the energy of the plants into the development of the sprouts and provides the sprouts more room to grow larger.                                                 

This morning I picked a big bowl of strawberries.   I am pleased with the quality of the fall crop this year.   Last year, they ended up mostly going to the slugs and/or quickly rotting.   This year however, most of the fruit is ripening up nicely with only minor amounts of losses to slugs and rot.              

If the weather breaks at all this weekend, I need to do the first of the two big potato lifts.   If it is really wet out, I am going to have to postpone it.   However, the mid and early season potatoes are definitely ready to come out of the ground and given my commitments for the following weekend, I really need to do it this weekend if at all possible.                         

The largest head of the Late Flat Dutch cabbage needs to be harvested this weekend as well.                                                    

I also need to pick a bunch of jalapeño peppers that are getting quite large.   If there is enough of them, I hope to be able to do a few pints of sliced pickled jalapeño peppers.   Finally, I need to harvest the largest pumpkin, which has been ripe for a while now.                          

Since the weather is promising to be so gloomy all weekend, I figure it will be a good time to cook the pumpkin and use some of it immediately for a pumpkin pie and then freeze the rest of the puree in packages of 2 cups each - just the right amount for pie making.                      

Here's my garden "to do" list for this long weekend:

• Remove the remaining Siletz and Stupice tomato plants, which have also succumbed to the blight  (Done 9/5/09)
• Plant the big over wintering spinach patch where the tomatoes used to reside (Done 9/5/09)
• Harvest the big ripe pumpkin and process it for pie making - freezing what is not used immediately (Done 9/5/09)
• Harvest the large head of green cabbage and use it in various recipes over the next several days (Done 9/7/09)
• Lift, cure/dry, and store the Caribe, Yukon Gold, and Red Cloud potatoes - setting aside seed stock for next year as well (Done 9/7/09)
• Harvest the largest of the jalapeño peppers and pickle them (Done 9/6/09)
• If there is enough pickling cukes, I may do a batch of dill pickles as well. I am skeptical that I have enough though, as the cool down in the weather has slowed down production quite a lot (Not Enough)
• Spray the cole crops with Bt on Monday after the worst of the rain events is behind us for a while  (Ran Out of Time and Energy!)

Hopefully, I will get at least a few of these items attended to in the next three days along with a big Costco shopping and some other more mundane household chores.   What are your plans for the weekend?