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SM was watching the college football games in yesterday and would yell at me to take a look at the "white-out" conditions.  Has there been a snowstorm before Halloween in recent memory?  Wow!

SM also pointed out that we were due for our first frost this weekend.  Now I been very neglectful of the garden this fall.  (That is on today's list of to-do's)  So I figured I'd better take one more tour before the frost.

SM's been very curious about the carrots, so we pulled one.  Eureka!  The carrot we pulled was about 5" long and actually looked like a carrot.  (Not a baby carrot.)

I wanted to snap a photo, but we ate it first.  But you can see it had some size to it.  So the secret to growing a carrot in the South is to plant it in July, under a wet towel to germinate in a raised bed.  (*My other test carrots I planted a month later (in the ground) and they have no root formed at all.  Just tops.)  

I'd left some of the healthier bell pepper plants alone after the big "Summer Pull" in September.  I'd noticed they had blooms on them and wanted to see what would happen with the cooler Fall weather.

Shazam!  Now that's what I call a bell pepper harvest.  No bugs, no skin disease and some of them grew to a pretty good size.  There's about 10 pounds of peppers in the sink.  I must find a cooler, shadier spot for next years crop.  Just too freakin hot during the Summer months down here.

The Hungarians also grew to a good size.  Whats your favorite way to deal with these?  Can em? Freeze em?  SM asked me to stuff them with sausage and bake them in sauce.  Really?  Any ideas out there?

So that's it for this years garden, then.  SM and I tossed a sheet on top of the salad patch to keep the frost off.  We'll likely have salad for a few more weeks at least.  The carrots will stay in the ground.  I'll pull them as needed.


All in all, this years garden "rocked".  Still some improvements to make but considering it's only our second year, I feel that we've made some BIG strides in production.  Probably the biggest lesson I learned this year is that the raised beds are great for Spring and Fall production but completely suck during Summer.  It's just too hot around here and the roots responded poorly to the hotter soil temperature.  Summer produce MUST go in the ground where it's cooler.

I want to say "Thanks" to all of you out there with your garden and farm blogs.  I can't tell you how much I've learned reading all your tips and tricks.  Sharing what you know, the successes and the failures, have really helped me get to where we are today.