Advice for late gardeners

Viewpoints

Related Photos

Ike Adams

August 12, 2009

Ike Adams The Richmond Register Wed Aug 12, 2009, 08:26 AM EDT

This week is your last chance to get mustard and turnips seeds in the ground if you expect to have a crop. And that is assuming that you live in central Kentucky or the mountains of our commonwealth.

If you live in Wind Gap, Penn., for example, there’s a chance that you can still sow spinach there where the sunflowers used to be and have a marvelous crop come late winter or early spring. Otherwise, you should give up anything other than cleaning up the residue left this fall from your dead and dreary stalks — assuming you live in northern Pennsylvania or thereabouts.

And not many of you readers, other than Fred Beste, choose to live such a northern and desolate lifestyle, but I do know that FJ passes the column along and I feel obliged to offer you free gardening advice if you live there on the swampy tundra or on the salty flats of the normally miserable east coast.

If you live in Kentucky, and your tiller still is running and you want to take a chance on something, RomaII beans will still make it if you get them in the ground this week and if we don’t have an early frost. All you have to do is plow up a little bit of ground and dig some rows and plant ’em. At this writing, I have seven different varieties of late beans climbing the trellises. No more perfect time will happen for late lettuce, radishes and name-your-favorite greens.

But, if you have a big piece of plastic or a tarp to cover them come frost warnings, there’s no reason you can’t have green beans from the garden for Thanksgiving. Same thing for your cucumbers and tomatoes and peppers. I have mine planted, but we did cucumbers on Labor Day last year and had them crisp for Thanksgiving, along with fried green tomatoes.

I spent most of the cool hours of the day on Saturday plowing and then sowing about a dozen different varieties of lettuce, mustard, beets, turnips, squash, kale and beans. All I need right now is a good hard rain and I will have a good fall garden. In the mean time, I have seven different kinds of beans just ready to vine and about 300 feet of waist high Bodacious sweet corn. New cucumbers and late peas are just coming up and the mystery of what I’ve sown in haste that has yet to appear.

The wind, rain and early frost may get it yet, but I’m betting that that my late fall vegetable garden will be better than anything anyone had come on in July.

In the mean time, I’m putting my old tiller in the garage and anything I have to do from here on out, tilling- wise, will be done with a hoe. Stay tuned. Unless you live in Wind Gap, in which it’s way too late.

E-mail me ikeadams@aol.com.

Text Only

Viewpoints

Education a focus in Senate this week
FRANKFORT — The Senate passed several bills this week. Of these bills, three education bills are of particular importance.

February 5, 2012 1 Photo
Redistricting ruling offers collateral benefits for voters and taxpayers
Slowing down Frankfort’s redistricting march offers collateral benefits for voters and taxpayers.

February 4, 2012 1 Photo
In defense of southern-fried Paula Deen
Celebrity chef Paula Deen lustily massages salt into "a mighty fat hog,” as the dogs circle the cooking island. For the yams, “I’m only using half a stick of butter,” she drawls before breaking into high laughter. Deen’s popular Food Network show does southern cooking with no brakes on the pork fat, butter, sugar or other dietarily incorrect ingredients.

February 1, 2012 1 Photo
GOP makes Obama look good
The Republican field debated for the 19th time Thursday night, and once again, the media promised us it was going to be a “make or break” event.
Don’t believe the media.

January 30, 2012 1 Photo
The real State of the Union
Has Barack Obama learned nothing in three years?
During his State of the Union address Tuesday night, he promised “a blueprint for an economy.”
But economies are crushed by blueprints.

January 26, 2012 1 Photo
Looks ain’t everything
I guess we can blame it on television or the movies, that looks are so important in America, especially to young folks. These two mediums place such a premium on beautiful, shapely women and handsome men that most young people believe if you do not possess these attributes you are nothing.

January 25, 2012 1 Photo
It’s politics as usual
FRANKFORT – I’m betting that if you’ve followed the redistricting contortions birthed by the Democratic controlled House and Republican controlled Senate, you’re hardly shocked.

January 22, 2012 1 Photo
Cherry picking and charter schools
National School Choice Week is Jan. 22-28.
There’s little to celebrate in Kentucky – one of only nine states without a charter-school law.

January 21, 2012 1 Photo
House knee-deep in important issues
Last week was filled with impassioned and sometimes heated discussions about redistricting as we struggled to meet the constitutional mandate to redraw boundary lines based upon U.S. census data.

January 18, 2012 1 Photo
Senate considers budgetary, drug issues
The second week of session saw several significant issues begin to be debated in committees. Drug abuse, weaknesses in child-protective services, and the state’s debt level were all topics of discussion. The committee process is intended to inform the legislators of the pros and cons of each bill. Lively debate accompanied each piece of legislation.

January 17, 2012 1 Photo
More Viewpoints Headlines

Viewpoints

Search Results

Related Photos

Advice for late gardeners

Have you ever attended a meeting of a local government agency or taxing district?

Site Map