Zone 9 Fall Gardening

[cymbeline]

Zone 9ers, how are you??

After a nasty, nasty summer, we are grateful for lots of central TX rain lately, but a terrible fungus has taken over one of my beds and destroyed my remaining watermelon, eggplant, corn and tomato crops. Also, we have some kind of rodent pest (squirrel? rat? possum?) that has eaten what little tomato, corn and watermelon we have been able to produce, grrrrr. And our dogs got hookworm from the manure we used to fortify the beds over the summer.

That said, we had a terrific eggplant harvest a few weeks ago and I made a ton of eggplant stew. It was wonderful! Our second round of fall corn seems to be doing well, we will see. We've got some spinach and chard ready to harvest, and tons of basil. I think our canteloupe got a late start, I am not expecting much from it. Jalapenos are ready to harvest.

I'm planning to put in some broccoli soon, and I'm considering trying tomatoes again even though the 20+ plants I babied over the last 12 months did nothing but attract pests and spread disease. What I wouldn't do for some tomatoes!!!

How did you do this summer? What did you learn? What are you planting now? Any suggestions for natural pest and fungus control?

[sidandspencersmom]

okra grew like mad! tons of watermelon and peppers. Lots of cherry tomatoes, and a few eggplant. The pumpkins never grew.

This fall, we planted about 20 tomato plants, which are being attacked by pests, as well as the 4 cucumber plants.
The cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli are doing fine so far. I hated spraying, but didn't want to lose a whole tomato crop. I figure I'll get things figured out the winter and be more organic in the spring.
Good luck to you!

[Abarat]

I'm 8b, close enough?

Pickle worms almost have me beat, I may pull my cucumber plants in the next week or so because of them.

Sweet potatoes were harvested a month or so ago and did phenomenally. They loved the clay soil we tried them in.

Our pencil cob corn (dent corn, for cornmeal) did beautifully. I've never tasted better corn meal! Plenty to grind fresh by hand and plenty of seed for next year.

Tomatoes didn't do well this year.

Put beets in the ground not long ago when the temps dropped for a bit but we're having record highs so they're not doing as well as they could be, just watering them plenty to compensate, we'll see.

Broccoli is up, carrots and peas are doing well so far but they're young yet. We're trying peas for fall because they are instant aphid magnets come a warm spring.

Just about ready to pull green bean plants for seed....they did well this summer.

Stevia really loves us and we grew way more than we can use, just about to harvest seeds soon.

Bell peppers are still going strong.

Lettuce and spinach are just starting and need to be thinned out soon. Fire ants hauled off most of our lettuce seed so we've had to plant 3 times just to get some!

For pest control we use neem and bt. Can't remember what hubby uses for fungus...I'm the new gardener in the family.

The south has a wonderfully long growing season but does have it's challenges with the high heat and humidity. Lack of rain doesn't help. Glad to hear you're getting some rain TX!

[cymbeline]

Does anyone have chickens? I should say -- in an urban backyard! We're planning to get three layers in the spring. I'm wondering if this might help with the pests since we plan to let them roam the garden daily. If anyone has any advice in this area, let me know!

Planting kind of sucks right now... love the rain, but it keeps washing away or water-logging my seeds and seedlings!! Hoping to get some broccoli, collards, spinach, kale, and winter squash in the ground soon...

Tomatoes were so bad this year, I'm thinking of putting them in containers in the spring to keep them from spreading pests and disease to everything else!

[Abarat]

Yeah, we'll be re-thinking tomatoes as well.

About the chickens, we've had some for 2 years now. We keep them out of the gardens because they'll eat some things and it's in their nature to scratch the ground, which will wreak havok on any new plantings, seeds, etc. They are great for housing them in your garden areas in moveable tractors to help turn and fertilize the area between plantings. Just be sure they're not there too long because fresh chicken poo can burn your plants.

I'd heard that guinneas aren't supposed to harm your garden and are great about keeping bugs at bay but a friend of ours had guinneas and they ate their plants. They don't scratch like chickens do though.

But I love to see people have chickens. There's nothing like watching and listening to them and enjoying fresh eggs. It's a basic connection to our heritage that's vanishing.

[ms.shell]

i am in zone 8b and was glad to see this thread- i was wondering what was going on with gardeners in these climates about now. i am surprised that folks are harvesting spinach and stuff already- maybe we were late planting this kind of stuff.
as far as summer went, our tomatoes were prolific for a nice while and then something happened and they were all done. i know we had a horrible infestation of leaf legged looking big bugs, and also some things that were red and shaped kinda like giant ants...these were certainly a factor if not the cause of them petering out. next year we are going to stagger the planting of them much more; it really sucks that we dont have tomatoes now! we LOVED the yellow pear, by the way, which was the tastiest and one of the best producers.
We are still harvesting pole beans and loads and loads of peppers (bells in all colors, jalapenoes, tabascoes, bananas, chilis, cayennes), all of which have been producing solidly for months now. the basil was amazing, although i grew lots too much and let bunches of it bolt. we had a terrible time with squash and zucchini and pumpkins, the latter which never produced anything at all. Herbs do really well for me- our rosemary bushes are getting huge, the pineapple sage has spread wider than 4' all around (and is starting to bloom), stevia, feverfew, echinacea, bloomed like mad and spread...the saint john's wort flowered and has spread so much that it choked out the lemon thyme and a planting of oregano. another oregano is still looking quite lush. the comfrey mysteriouly vanished, along with a valerian that was previously quite nice...chocolate mint is growing like a weed all through the strawberries. Zinnias have bloomed and bloomed. Right now blooming are roses, zinnias, mandevilla, the pineapple sage, and moonflowers, also lantana. i havent harvested the sweet potatoes yet, was waiting til closer to thanksgiving.

we pulled out everything else but some beans and the peppers and planted for fall the second half of september. We had a big box of crumbly compost (our first batch) to spread that has randomly sprouted hundreds of tomatoes and also lots of basil...i have been digging most of these seedlings out of the garden and putting in pots to hopefully raise somehow over winter...tho there are plenty i have left still all about in the garden so far. we planted many varieties of lettuce which are sprouted and growing, still small, in cool square designs. and peas are coming up nicely. the carrots still need more thinning and we lost part of that planting to a huge antbed so i need to plant more carrots. i plan to mix the seed with grits and then sow. i also planted swiss chard for the first time which didnt come up well and does not seem to be growing much....same with beets...
the onions and garlic i planted at the same time are all well up and looking pretty. i am hoping this will work well for us, as i planted garlic and onions around february and it got too hot for them to still grow...all we ate were a few garlic green shoots and dug up red onions that were no bigger than golf balls (but edible and good). i started some artichoke seeds in pots but i dont know where i have room to grow these in the ground. i also have some nice cilantro in pots to put soon in the ground. and much more lettuce and some other seed, including mustard that i would like to still get in the ground. can i try to plant more chard still? there is a large square where i sowed spinach seed that hasnt ever up.....not sure if i should try again or maybe put the artichoke here instead.
i am concerned about winter; i have a feeling it is going to be much colder and sooner than last year. we definitely plan to come up with some kind of protection for our beautiful pepper patch but i am hoping the lettuce and stuff will continue to grow overwinter. this is our first time to have such a winter garden...last year we only had peppers in pots and herbs and strawberries in the ground, and some lettuce. My strawberries desperately need dividing but i dont know where i can move them to, thinking i dont want them in the (annual) vegetable beds, but the perennial bed is so incredibly overcrowded i really need to do something.

another thing i am wondering is whether i should dig up the mandevilla and maybe put it in a hanging basket to bring inside...it looks very tropical and is too long and pretty to let die back...or should i cut it back and mulch it or something...does anyone know? also wondering what to do about the passion flower vine if it needs cut back or brought in or mulched or what.

i am wondering about chickens myself. we are in the city, but i found out our zone is commercial, which i think means we would be allowed to have them. not ready to take on the commitment just yet, but very interested in reading and learning and considering over winter for spring.

its cold all of a sudden already, i hope we all are happy with our gardens for the rest of the year!