Late November Harvest

On the last day of November, we started the day at 26F (-3.33C), so why not blog about gardening?

My spouse has two community garden raised bed plots this year in our zone 5b area of New York State.  In the spring of 2023, my spouse planted onion plants in one of them.   He harvested them in August.

He decided to try to grow fall crops in there:  a Chinese green, carrots, broccoli, and a sunflower developed for container culture.

Successes:

The sunflowers in October.

This was taken October 13, right before harvest.  Sadly, around October 6, we had discovered some larvae got hold of many of the leaves and ate them.  One day I might blog about that because I would love to know what those larvae were.  But the flowers, already budding out, opened. It's hard to see the damage in this picture.

These are carrots, harvested November 27, along with what was left of the Asian greens, and the rest of our Swiss Chard (aka silverbeet in some parts of the world).

Failures:  the broccoli, which never flowered.  No sign of any bud activity.

We also have some kale plants at home in a large container, and have been eating off it (soup) now that we've had some freezes.  Before frost, it is too bitter for me.

Not bad, considering it's been as low as 21F (-6.1 C) where we live so far this fall.

Now that the seed catalogs are coming in, it's time for what I call the hot stove league of gardening, where hope springs eternal and all things are possible.