re: 2023 Fall Garden Thread

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But is it too late to plant anything?

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If, going by your screen name and location of Houma, there's lots you can plant.

Some best to start with plants already started from a nursery that include:

Broccoli
Cauliflower
Brussel Sprouts
Cabbage
Collard Greens

Stuff you can plant by seed are different varieties of leaf lettuces, Swiss Chard, Kale, Spinach, onions, garlic, beets, turnips, carrots, sugar snap peas, snow peas, etc.

Our mild winters will allow all the above to thrive well into the spring in most cases.

I'd not think about tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. since just a couple nights of below freezing temps could easily kill them.

Decent harvest today. Okra is slowing down, but still flowering. The Clemson spineless is over 7'.





Carrots I seeded 2 weeks ago have germinated and look ok. Glad for a cool spell this week, should help them out. Broccoli and cauliflower had mixed results getting started, so I reseeded a few of them.

Sometime in November I'll cut out the okra and butternuts and replace them with spinach and onions.

i was out of town for a week, and of course something stupid has to happen while i'm not home.
wife shows me a picture of a cucumber that's been basically hollowed out. It was like something ate almost all of the inside and left the outer peelings.

I thought maybe it was a possum or raccoon, as my cucumbers have been gigantic, and they are still tasty even being the size of my forearm.

Then she shows me a picture of the one pumpkin i have thats big, almost the size of a basketball yet still green, and it's gotten little pieces of it eaten out all on the outside. and then the other pumpkin i had growing that was only the size of a baseball was just wrecked.


stayed up saturday night, the first night i was back home and found the culprit, or culprits. bunch of god damn rats. set two traps last night and killed 3 rats (got a two for one with one trap).
I can't believe rats were able to destroy my garden.

The reason i thought it was a possum or raccoon is b/c the chicken wire fence i have around the garden that's about 3.5' high was leaning as somethign obviously had been trying to get over it. that something was my dog, as he was trying to get in there to catch the rats.

I bet if we had a cat, i wouldn't have this problem right now.

My fall tomatoes have been going missing. The dogs usually get the low ones but these are 5 ft off of the ground. Looked out the window and my wife's dog was walking on two feet so he could pick the high tomatoes.

i have a ton of tomatoes going as i watch these predicted temps for Wednesday night hover around 35-36. Its gonna be close.

I have low hopes for almost everything I have green right now. I may cover a few things I am attached to, but everything else will just have to tough it out. I can bring some pots inside. What temps can peppers survive? 28* Thursday morning.

With the exception of my tomatoes & carrot seedlings, the rest of the new stuff I planted got wiped out by a groundhog. Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, & Brussels sprouts gone. Of course, the little bastard won't touch the stuff I baited the trap with.

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ton of tomatoes going as i watch these predicted temps for Wednesday night hover around 35-36. Its gonna be close.

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This fall we've had is brutal. It was too hot for most stuff just 4-5 weeks ago.

I have literally hundreds of habanero peppers that are ripening but not there yet. I am hoping we do not get frost tonight in Denham Springs. Too many plants to cover.

I have been told that they are just like tomatoes and will continue to ripen after picked, if they have begun to color up. I know for a fact that jalapenos with start to shrivel up if left on a dead plant though. Something attacked and killed one of my jalapeno plants and all the peppers started shriveling up within a day or two. All of it went to the trash.