Somehow It’s October

Somehow it’s October. I wasn’t sure it would ever feel like fall…but we finally had some cooler, overcast days. However, we’ve had no rain to speak of. My tomatoes still have green leaves and tomatoes, thanks to the dry weather keeping diseases at bay. The pepper plants also continue to grow strong. At the Christian Care Center, we are still getting cucumbers and pole beans every week as well. I finally finished digging potatoes in the gardens I tend. The potatoes in raised beds seem to produce better than those I planted in the ground.

This dry weather has hampered me from establishing a lot of fall crops. However, in the raised beds of my home garden, the sugar snap peas are beginning to produce, the spinach is growing well, and I’m encouraged by the beets, Swiss chard and kale seedlings. I’m having to water quite often and had to put up new fencing around the beds to keep rabbits from demolishing these young plants.
In my garden, I still need to dig sweet potatoes and peanuts. Moles and voles are a huge problem in my sandy soil so I’m not so sure what my harvest will be like. I’m planning on grinding leaves this fall and putting a layer on part of the garden in the areas I haven’t planted with fall greens. The remaining areas I will sow a cover crop in the next couple days. Hopefully, a good rainfall will follow soon. I am praying for rain!
Vegetables harvested at the Christian Care Center in October 4th.

Purple beauty pepper plant going strong!