Turnips All Harvested

The turnips were definitely a success this year.  The variety I grew, Golden Ball, didn't give me indigestion and produced a nice heap of turnips in just one planting bed.  I'd say as a guess I got twenty pounds of them altogether.  They had some RKN on the roots, but they grew anyway.  RKN stands for root knot nematodes.

So if I need to increase my calorie production in the garden, turnips would be a good choice for the cool season.  I've been growing them since the seventies, and they're always very reliable.  They're nutritious too, it would be hard to find a greens crop with better nutritional analysis than turnip.  Next year I'll plant even more if possible.

The cool weather quit at just the right time, when the turnips were done.  They don't like heat.  If we don't get more chilly weather, I've got to start thinking about switching to the heat-tolerant crops like molokhia, Vigna, and sweet potatoes.  We haven't really had any significant frost this year...so far.  I have sweet potatoes in the South Garden that just keep right on growing.  If it stays warm, I can start new potatoes by snipping off the growing tips and planting them in new pots and beds.  The coldest temp I've seen this cool season was two degrees Celsius on the flagpole next to the South Garden.  Right now I've got Hannah, Porto Rico, and Liberty potatoes growing out there.  I used to wait till the frost killed most of the vines before digging, but the past few years they just kept growing.  If we keep getting frost-free years like this, I might have to change the name of the blog from subtropical to tropical.

The new container garden is coming along well.  I'm working on the second row of pots, and I've been harvesting loads of salad greens from the pots with lettuce and mizuna.  Haven't really kept up with things well lately, had some difficulties that kept me busy. But I'm almost done with setting up the final compost bin with shredded landscaping waste, that will give me a tumbler, three bins, and an open pile going at once.  With that amount of compost, I'll be able to set up lots of larger pots for the new container garden...and maybe a planting bed in the South Garden too.

Been harvesting lots of eggplant and hot pepper, two of my favorites.  The turnips are done, the radishes almost finished...time to start some new seedlings of peppers and maybe some molokhia...it makes an outstanding soup.  But I think I'll wait till April 1 to plant okra and Vigna.  They'll grow now, but not vigorously.  I like to plant crops that really grow well, not just survive.