Root crops in the fall

Not everyone knows the secret of root crops in Autumn. Farmers do of course and veteran home gardeners as well, but the casual home gardener may not . Let's set that to rights right now.

The secret simply is that most root crops, grown as a matter of course in spring grow better, heavier, tastier and more disease and damage free growing from the warm days of late summer into cool and even cold weather.

RUS - RADISHES OF UNUSUAL SIZE

A -HAH Uncle Mac, you mendacious old rascal some might say, you are holding yonder overblown radishes a foot in front of a very small pepper to inflate their size, not to mention egos.

No, scoffer, I might reply, those radishes are touching what is in reality a reasonably good sized bell pepper. These are common "French Breakfast" variety radishes but they exceed their Spring grown brethren by a considerable margin both in volume and crunchiness.

The same is true of beets, kohlrabi, turnips of all varieties, and rutabagas. (Which is often called a turnip but actually is not.) Carrots grow well although not necessarily bigger and will overwinter in situ if cared for properly. Parsnips fairly cry out to be grown until the first frost at least, it greatly enhances their flavor. They also overwinter well.

A PRIZE RUTABAGA IN AN EARLY STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT

One of the nice things about fall root crops is many can be kept not just in the ground but in the home as well to provide a food source all the way into early spring. The rutabaga shown above is an excellent example of a long keeping fall root crop.

It is almost certainly too late in most zones to plant a successful fall crop - with the possible exception of radishes - but you now have all winter to plan your "second season" garden for next year.

As always, thank you for visiting Uncle Mac's.

We hope to see you back soon!

THE CHILDRENS HOUR, WITH LEATHERFACE - An appeal for help!

Hallo everyone, its your favorite cut up and baby sitter Leatherface! Usually I run little educational snippets for the kiddies on how to control garden pests and other things but today, I've asked all the parents here because we are having trouble with an old nemesis that we really have had little success controlling in the past. We thought someone might have a helpful suggestion. Help yourself to the beans, weenies and fixin's on the sideboard before we get down to biz here.

Whats that, Mrs. Quackenbush? Nathan's weenie? Well one might have been a Nathan it's so difficult to keep track over the years.

Know your varmint: Here she is folks, the bane of our existence here at the shed. We don't who she is, because we can't catch her to ask so we just call her Pineapple Girl. I can tell you, this is about the only glimpse of her we ever get, scooting around a corner - she's abnormally quick for a short little woman - usually with our best pineapple in her mitts and a goofy grin - well represented here I think - on her face.

Once she scoots around a corner she disappears completely, not even footprints left behind, or a scent for the wolves to pick up. This leads us to think she has found at least one of the worm holes in the garden (not the ones made by our slimy little garden allies) which makes her more difficult to contend with than say, hungry raccoons which although undoubtedly clever little beasts are not noted for their ability to manipulate space-time.

Yes, question, Mallory? How do we manage to grow pineapples here in North Jersey? We like

pineapples, my friend. And we are gardening wizards after all, aren't we? Have another weenie?

Live traps don't work, electrified fencing doesn't work, predator pee - well I leave it to you. Dusts, sprays, CD's on string, pah! She sneezes at them.

Uncle Mac says she can't outrun a bullet but, despite the bizarre trophies he brings home now and then, I don't see him loading the ol' Springfield.

She doesn't confine herself merely to pineapples; eggplant, butternut squash and Kossack kohlrabi seem to be on her list as well. She snatched our biggest Burgermeister Grande termato last summer on a dead run, just as farm girl was about to pick it! A two legged scourge!

We that's it for today, folks, put your heads together and see if you can help us solve the Pineapple Girl Mystery, you might win a valuable prize! (If you consider 10 lbs of Uncle Mac's Special Compost valuable, that is.) As always, thank you for visiting here at The Children's Hour!