Back to the garden

I've hardly touched the garden in a month. It is a quite ragged and forlorn, though not actually damaged by my absence-- it is, after all, December.
In past Decembers I have done some clean up and some construction, as well as tended fall plantings. I made a conscious choice not to plant for this fall. Instead of working in the garden I worked in my garage, rebuilding the home rock climbing gym that was dismantled two years ago when the garage roof was reinforced to accomodate solar panels.
That project ended two weeks ago, but I have not begun to clean up the garden. Tendonosis in my wrist and shoulder intervened, and I have spent restless days of recovery watching movies with ice packs draped over my body.
But the garden calls. It has been mild and snow free, and weeds are still spreading their green tentacles across the beds. The grasses need to be cut back, and their straw spread over paths. The cold frames need to be dug and assembled, ready for the february planting of spinach. I'm a doer, not a watcher, and I'm tired of movies. I want to be in the garden, listening to an audiobook as I clean and prepare for spring.
Here's a picture I look at to remind me that the garden will be coming alive again soon:

Storing and eating delicata squash

I grew a nice crop of delicata and butternut squash this year, despite the fruit lost to nibbling rabbits.
Storing squash is a bit tricky-- it needs different conditions from potatoes, my other major winter storage crop. Potatoes want cool temps just above freezing, and some humidity.
The squash store best at higher temps, between 50 and 60, and in drier conditions. This year I'm storing them in my upstairs back bedroom, in a handy wine box.

Here's a pic of the squash crop:

And here they are tucked into the box:

Delicata squash does not last as long as butternut in storage, so I've been using it in a dish or two every week.  I really love that the skin is so tender that it does not need peeling, which makes prep easy- split the squash, scoop out the seeds, and chop.  

I have oven roasted the squash tossed in olive oil with sweet potatoes, turnips and garlic -- about 45 minutes in the oven at 450 degrees results in roasted vegetables that are crunchy and brown outside and soft and sweet inside. 

 I also pan braised the squash and added chickpeas and my own pesto. Delicious with pasta!

November garden surprises -- cilantro and raspberries

Although I did not plant any fall crops, the garden had other ideas... including this nice crop of self sown cilantro by the deck, which I found while cleaning up the garden:

A handful of fresh cilantro was  delicious on my beans and rice tonight.
I also found a handful of late raspberries for my husband:

Just more proof it pays to keep the garden tidy.

Early Frost and beauty at the BJ's parking lot

We had an early hard frost last week. According to my records, the first frost was on October 31st in 2011, but this year it hit a full two weeks earlier, on October 13th.
I'd just harvested a big bowl of assorted peppers, as well as some small squash and a handful of Goldmarie pole beans the day before, so the sight of these peppers wasted on the plant was not too painful:

Since then we've had an indian summer, with lots of rain and warm temps. I took this picture in a parking lot while I was shopping -- this just proves you can find beauty anywhere if you look!

The vines shake before the fight --moonflower and trombone squash

It finally happened-- my 40 ft trombone squash vine and 20 foot moonflower met and began there wrestling match for dominance of the fall garden:

The squash made the first grab, and a couple of days later the moonflower went for a reverse pin:

My simple wire fence is the perfect place to let these two heavyweight vines battle. Tonight will be the coolest night of the fall so far, with lows in the 40's, which may finally slow down these two tropicals.

Trombone squash still going!

When all all the other squash have succumbed to fungus the trombone squash is still going. It is a bit ragged near the roots, but thirty feet away, at the growing end, it is still bright green and making more fruit:

So Happy Separate -- morning glories and pole beans

As summer ends the morning glories are finally blooming -- this season not sharing a structure with the beans like last year (a bad idea, the beans were overwhelmed!).
I have grown many different colors and patterns of morning glories, and they are all beautiful, but the blues are my favorites. Last year I grew a swirling white and blue variety, but this year I went back to the classic 'Heavenly Blue'.  They look so clean and fresh in the ragged late summer garden.

Nearby, happy alone, is a  planting of 'Goldmarie' pole bean:

And also nearby is a new variety, the productive and tender (even when large) 'Rattlesnake' pole bean, which in this picture has escaped it's poles and is climbing up the adjoining 10 foot tall Sunchokes:

Here's the  beans I picked yesterday - a mix of both pole varieties and a few 'Dragon's Tongue' bush beans. They were  delicious cooked five minutes (until  just tender) over a bed of mashed 'Yukon Gold' potatoes (my own, of course).