Growing vegetables in zone 7

November in our vegetable garden has plantings that are the result of much earlier activity.

If the weather is lovely like it is this year, we continue to have snacks from our little growing space.

This week we are eating beans, peppers, arugula, radishes and broccoli raab. The snow peas are over a foot tall but do not have flowers yet.

Snow peas in November

Calendula

 

Bean flower

Unlike those enviable, energetic souls who enjoy extending the gardening season into a 12-month cycle, we do not  put up plastic row covers or try to grow in greenhouses. By the time the hard freezes arrive, we are content to eat what we have preserved, shop in stores, and give ourselves a break.

The calendula planted around and inside the vegetable garden to attract pollinators is working double time as most of our flying friends are finding shelter under leaf piles every night now that it's in the 30s after dark.


Fall beans

The beets are about 3-inches tall, the Red Russian kale is only 2-inches high so far. The other many seed types I've put in the ground are just starting to peek through during these sunny days.



Arugula

Most years, I just keep planting with the thought that sunny, warm fall days will never end. Some years they stick around until January and like most gardeners, each year I hope this will be one of those .

In the meantime, we planted new fruit trees, a new shade tree, hundreds of daffodil bulbs and have been generally enjoying the time outside. Long may it last!