All the Dirt on Gardening

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 Russ...

Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly caterpillar - 4th instar Bumblebee on native Monarda - don't know which bee, do you? Paw Paw tree in our little herb bed Calendula - started from seed late winter, blooming and making seed now for next year Black Swallowtail butterfly caterpillar on Rue Moon Carrot flowers - seeds were started Dec 2010 Check out the seedlings at http://allthedirtongardening.blogspot.com/2011/01/transplanting-tiny-seedlings.html

Calendula officinalis , or pot marigold, is a wonderful beneficial for the vegetable garden even though Wikipedia says not to plant it there. It's used medicinally by some and to color custard, vinegar, etc. Easy to grow from seed in full sun, it prefers the temperatures of spring. Here's a biennial Salvia, started from seed last year. The size of the fuzzy grey-green leaves set it apart from others. Once we see the flowers we'll be able to identify it. Of course, since I order new salvia seeds every year, the exact identity of this one is to be determined. Broccoli heads are almost ready to harvest in the vegetable bed. These seeds came from HPS . Chocolate Orange Rudbeckia - huge flowers on every plant. The seeds came from Ivy Garth. Most of the seeds started successfully, though I started them WAY too early last winter and many of the plants checked out...not enjoying the conditions I could provide in a record cold Oklahoma winter in a slightly heated shed. This is Rudbe...