Fall Broccoli Bloom'n

Yes, indeed.  The broccoli that I have in the greenhouse is surviving even with the extra frosty nights.  The marjoram and parsley are too. I checked on the broccoli today to water when I discovered that the florets are starting to form (finally). Granted, I realize that we had a crazier summer and fall than we tend to have in this region. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen, or if my efforts would turn out to be a big dud.  The cooler nights have probably contributed to the slow development.  Nonetheless, I gently scraped some more blood meal around the stalks, added some center stakes to give more room inside the cover, watered and covered them back up tonight. 

We may have snow next weekend as we prepare for December.  So for the hens, we need to set up the water heaters.  The Welsummers are finishing up their moult, so I plan to add a morning light to their coop next month. Rhodes, one is done with her moult, but the other two just started moulting a couple weeks ago, so we are back to square one with them.  Will probably need to wait until January to start putting a light in their coop. Oh well. That's the nature of chickens. 

This morning a coyote was right up to the coop, sniffing and trying to figure it out.  So far, so good, but that's getting a bit too close. 

Cold Fall Dry Fall 2019

Well, fall hit hard and fast. First, there were a lot of cool rainy in October. Then the last week of October, it turned super cold, frosting at night and daytime highs were only in the mid 40s, but sunny and dry. So that has worked out well for the plants in the greenhouse.  The plants outside, not so well.  Today, I sacked the garden plots and covered them for the winter.  As you can see in the square garden photo below, nothing was thriving. The spinach, cilantro, carrots and peas essnetially gave up. They were surviving barely, but not really growing anything for the past week, despite the sun. It needed its own little greenhouse tunnel.

Inside the greenhouse addition, things are thriving and growing. We might get some broccoli (fingers crossed).  The red sails lettuce, marjoram and parsley are doing their thing, but we have been covering the lettuce and broccoli at night even in the greenhouse, just as an added precaution. Inside the greenhouse is getting into the 80s and 90s during the day with the all the sunshine while the outside highs, the past few days have been low 50s. 

Chickens have fully stopped laying eggs because it has just been too cold and windy. Winds out of the North and Northeast have been gusting up to about 35mph most days, but not all.  Today has been quite mild by comparison to the past two days. Mostly just a breeze with a few gusts hitting about 10mph. So I took time to get more winter prep done while it's not raining. 

One of my winter preps is to beat back the mice. Mice have been moving into the garage in droves so we have been setting out rat poison in "hidey holes" in hopes of combating that invasion early. 

Dead Square Garden Plot	Broccoli in Greenhouse
Marjoram/Parsley Greenhouse	Red Sails Greenhouse
Rhodes on a Crisp Fall Day