I decided to dig one of my dozen sweet potato plants today to see how they were progressing. I think I'm going to have a few more taters than I was planning on! 16 yams from that one plant. The size 10 moccasin is for size comparison!

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Think it's time to harvest the rest this week.
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I wish we could grow yams here.
I'm starting to get used to those Caribbean Red chilis. Next year it can be ghost peppers.
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Good looking sweets there, Cliff

Lance, you're a dang madman! Those things would tear my guts up then burn up my backside. I bow to you!
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I know a lot of people who can eat really strong peppers. The burn in your mouth turns to numbness pretty quick after a while. The burn in your gut goes away after a couple of minutes and it actually improves your digestion and speeds up your metabolism. My lower back pain has gone away. The end burn is very temporary. Capsaicin depletes neurons of the ability to transmit pain and gives you an adrenaline rush so it is a little addictive.
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I'm expanding my garden intentions. Many of the sweet tater vinse were putting out roots and the start of tubulars where they were touching ground. I took those vives, and recovered the "roots" with dirt, and am watering them. I'll be interested to see what grows over the fall. I also took a double handful of the smaller remains of my red potatoes (that were starting to sprout), and planted them. If we have another mild winter, I might be eating fresh taters in January!!!
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does grass count? this is what i spend the most energy on :-)
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Awesome looking property.
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Hugh, where's the deerstands??? I thought on the post-harvest pic we'd be able to see them in the background.

You have to have some kind of loss managment, aka hunting to kill off the deer who eat your crops.
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:-) For some reason, seeing a plowed field makes me think of hunting too.
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Grass does count - it's harder to manage than most garden plants. Looks good.
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Never got the chance to plant any fall type veggies in my raised beds. But did manage to get my garlic in the ground today. 5 varieties (German Hardy, Music, Stull, Roja and an unknown variety I've been planting for a few years) for a total of 38 heads for next year. The 5 named varieties are all hardneck types that produce 5-8 large cloves per head. Can't wait to see how they do.
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Kinda a "gardening" thing. My fall haul from two afternoons of "harvesting". I wish I could say these were from my two trees. But alas, the crows shredded my crop while it was still green. My trees were heavily loaded, but after the crows, I was left with a grand total of 8 pecans on the ground. These are mostly from a friend's house a couple of miles away. The table cloth the pecans are on is a 6 ft square. The dvr remote is to give an idea of the thickness of the pile. Going to let these dry for a couple of weeks before I start cracking and picking them.

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My "harvester" is basically this"


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That's a beautiful pile of pecans you have there Cliff. I can already visualize a few pies coming forth:-)

Aunt and Uncle in Oklahoma had a pecan tree in the back yard about 8' from the picture window. Gathered many a pecan off the ground from that tree. Use to be fun watching the Cardinals and Jays trying to position themselves to snatch a pecan from the Squirrels:-)

A 12ga works wonders on Crows you know:-)

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I know, and a 20 gauge does too. Plus I have several .22 rifles and thousands of rounds of .22. The only problem.... The trees are in the front yard, and almost any angle, I'd be shooting with the street and one or the other of my neighbor's house as a backstop! It's a real tricky placement for gun work. I'm already past any pecans this year. If I can drop one or two crows, even in the yard, I can place the dead crows in the trees, and that will deter the rest. But they are crafty little devils! I have a master bedroom window that faces the pecan trees, and slept with it open in the early fall/late summer. The crows would wake me up around 5:30 - 6 am, but would be gone by the time I got up, got dressed and got a look off the porch. I was up already one morning when they started cawing. When I peeked out the kitchen window, the damn crows had a lookout quietly sitting on the ground under the window, where it could see me coming around the bed in that window. That's how they were staying ahead of me. dammit! I was up early another morning, grabbed a seat in a small pine grove near the road that gave me a shot away from any houses or the road..... The stupid crows never got close to the pecan trees after having been there all week. Frustrating.
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Try an air cannon...I'm sure your neighbors wouldn't mind...:-)
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I found some lettuce seeds today. Going to break out the tiller once we get back from Disney and prep the beds to get something started again.
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got some Collard seedlings coming up, hopefullyI can get them in the ground soon.

On another note, my tobacco grew, but not enough. I had a bad storm come through early in the season and whiped out half of them. The ones that did make it had damaged (bent) stalks. I do have a few that are making flowers, so, I'll have more seeds for next year. going to let them do their thing and try again next year. Then I'll be a little more prepaired and have a bit more time to tend to them.
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Spinach, onions and turnip greens. All doing well. I got about 25% germination on the snow peas I planted (to the left of the turnips, not really visible). Not sure if they are going to make anything.

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Nothing like greens in the winter. Good job, Cliff!
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I still have to pull my tomato stakes out and cut down some more corn stalks to have the garden ready for the snow. It's time to cover up the deck furniture, too. The yard and garden is a wrap for this year.
We still have wildflowers beside the house, it's pretty amazing. Real nice to see this time of year, too. :-)
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