Veggie Growing Season Is Not Over!!!
You asked for ‘em, so we got ‘em. Pull up your crops that are finished and extend your growing season with fresh, new broccoli, cabbage, lettuce and other cold crops.
In the past I’ve heard people ask for cold crops (veggies that get planted in late August and early fall) but there wasn’t much available. But due to the interest in home veggie gardening, some of the growers (especially our Growing Division in Woburn) are growing some of these great tasting veggie garden season extenders.
What. When.
These cold crops can be planted now through fall and can include things like broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, kale, Chinese cabbage (bok choi), Swiss chard, spinach, and more. So if those summer crops have run their course or maybe some unforeseen (rhymes with Irene) problems cut your season short; these cold tolerant plants can extend your season late into the fall or even winter. Harvest timing is between 30 to 60 days, so plant now and harvest greens with the goblins – usually end of October, but I remember picking my broccoli last year in December and harvesting my carrots (that I covered in hay) in March.
Contain your enthusiasm
Guess what? These veggies also grow well in containers! Better yet, things like the kale or cabbage can serve as a decorative fall plant as well as an edible. They can sit on a doorstep and be very decorative just like the fall mums, asters, kale and cabbage. ALERT: The typical ornamental kale and cabbage shouldn’t be confused with the edible varieties – they look the same but have a bitter taste and rough texture. So make sure you get the edible ones if you’re looking to eat them.
So if you’re not ready to wave good-bye to the garden season just yet, or you just want to try something new, we got ‘em right now.
Tell us what you’re going to grow. If you want to confirm the availability of a particular variety, please call the Mahoney’s you plan to visit.
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No Pumpkins
I got beautiful flowers on my pumpkin plant — but no pumpkins. What did I do wrong?
Linda
Tewksbury, MA
Re: No Pumpkins
Although you had flowers, it sounds like you didn’t have pollination.
Pumpkins have vines that produce both male and female flowers. They usually start with mostly male flowers, then later female flowers will come out and be pollinated by the male flowers. So if you have multiple plants you have more flowers and this will increase your chances of successful pollination. If you planted to late or if insects or disease knocked down your plants early, this would also lessen your chance of pollination. For best results plant 5- 7 seedlings in a hill in full sun with good well drained soil and feed with a granular fertilizer when planting, water and weed when needed and this should give you pumpkins.
critters like eating the ornamental cabbage
Not sure if it’s bunnies or deer or a woodchuck, but something has eaten all my ornamental cabbages down to the stem. Probably not a woodchuck, he would have eaten the stem too. First time this has happened to me, I’ve never had them eaten before!
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