Transition

It's time to plant seeds for crops that will mature in late November and early December now, so I'm getting my radishes, pac choy, etc. started.

I haven't done a lot, the air in the mornings has been very irritating...so I've been staying indoors during the best hours to garden.  Not sure what's causing the irritation, but there's a strong odor of chemicals before the sun heats the ground and causes the stagnant air to rise.  I don't deal well with sun and heat, so I'm just working in the shade on containers or getting caught up on infrastructure repairs like sharpening the flails on my chipper/shredder.

I did get three varieties of radish planted...Miyashige, China Rose, and Hattorikun...all in containers...plus pac choy, more okra, pepper Jwala, more molokhia, and onions.  The bulb onions I planted withered away, but the bunching onions (Allium fistulosum) are subtropical and they're doing fine.  I bought what I thought was fresh seed in Home Depot, but when I put on my reading glasses and read the packet fine print it was all 2014 seed.  Those are seeds grown in 2013, so they might not be any good.  Note to self...read labels before buying!!!!  The seeds I bought at the hardware store were all labeled 2015, so those should be fine.  I hate it when I get a container or a planting bed all set up, plant the seed, and absolutely nothing happens.  That's why I favor using small pots to start seed, then transplanting.

Daytime temps are still hitting 32 Celsius (90 F), so it's difficult to get some young plants going for harvest in November and December.  So I'm hedging my bets and planting both cool-season and warm-season crops now.  It could be freezing cold in November or roasting hot...no way to know.

I get all my veggies from the garden, so I have to be careful to avoid dead spots in the harvest and failed crops.  The only produce I usually buy includes things like potatoes, garlic, ginger, and occasionally onions just because they're cheap...LOL.  I don't have good luck with bulb onions, but I keep trying every year.  I have had good results, but not often.  Generally I stick with a lot of faithful standbys like bunching onions, pac choy (I grow the sub-tropical Shanghai variety), mustard, blackeyed peas, long beans, kale, radishes (the big ones), turnips, chard, sweet potatoes, broccoli, molokhia, Malabar spinach, oregano, basil, etc.

I'm sure I forgot lots of things in that list.  I'm getting so I'm lost without my gardening notebook.  I strongly advise keeping one, nobody ever remembers it all.  The notebook will help keep you thinking in orderly ways, too.  It's invaluable for crop rotation.  After all these years of gardening, I rarely remember what I planted last in each bed.  That's why they invented paper and pens, computers, and all the rest, folks.  If something doesn't grow well in your garden, don't keep planting it year after year just because you think you should. 

There are so many different varieties and species of edible plants, don't fixate on what they have in those microwaveable dinners in the supermarket...especially if you're gardening in the subtropics.  Don't be ethnocentric about things either...purslane is super-nutritious, incredibly easy to grow, and very good if prepared well.  It's used as food all through Latin America, Europe and around the world. Calling it a weed and refusing to eat it is just stupid.  In Spanish it's called verdolagas and they sell it in bunches in Latin-American street markets.

Time to go look for the mail, I like to keep to a regular routine...helps keep me from going over the edge...LOL.