The Hohlen Homestead

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10/20/2026

Your garden doesn't have to end on Labor Day. You can keep going! You just have to plant the right things, cold hardy things. Plants like kale, chard, lettuce, peas.

Fall gardening is an enjoyable season with tasty produce. With some of the more mild winters we have had lately, your fall garden can last for quite a while. Make sure you try it next year!

The cold weather has been very confusing. We expected it to get cold enough to freeze and finish our tropical plants, ba...
10/19/2026

The cold weather has been very confusing. We expected it to get cold enough to freeze and finish our tropical plants, bananas and cannas included. Truth of the matter was that almost everything came through unscathed. We only saw damage on a few leaves of things and most the green beans.

In anticipation of frost or freezing weather we needed to save our banana plants. We bring them inside every year. This year we chose to save a pup instead of the mother as the mother has gotten too big. We dug up a pup from each one and then potted them up to be moved inside with the next chance of it being too cold. Their they will live until next June where they will go back outside.

The bananas are a fun plant even if they will not fruit!

With the frost there was a lot to be done. One of those tasks was to harvestge unripe large tomatoes, so the kids and I ...
10/17/2026

With the frost there was a lot to be done. One of those tasks was to harvestge unripe large tomatoes, so the kids and I got to work.

We harvested these three large baskets. We may have overdone it. The missus used a few pounds to make enchilada sauce and we still have a few pounds left.

Anyone have any other ideas to preserve them or want to buy 20 - 30 pounds?

Also don't eat tomatoes from freeze damaged plants!

If you look at the first four images you will see a border overrun with the wrong goldenrod and gaura that has reseeded ...
10/15/2026

If you look at the first four images you will see a border overrun with the wrong goldenrod and gaura that has reseeded too well. Since these two have begun to push other plants out of the border, it has never looked as well as it did two or three years ago. I tried by deadheading as much as I could but it just wasn't enough to slow the spread.

I started by pulling as much of the goldenrod as I could. This is either Canada or tall goldenrod that I planted as they had been labeled as a different species. I expected the gaura to behave better but it rested well. As it is a biennial, I removed as much of the seeding material from this year as possible. Next spring I will go and remove all the seedlings or second year plants that emerge.

You can see the change in the last five images. It opened a lot of spaces and I have started planting into those openings. We are going to get this border back into great shape to look better for the future.

I didn't think I would still be seeing this many Monarch butterflies at this point in October but yesterday I saw three ...
10/13/2026

I didn't think I would still be seeing this many Monarch butterflies at this point in October but yesterday I saw three females. One of the females was freshly eclosed. The other two females were of good size and enjoying the zinnias.

I found another chrysalis under the eaves of the house as well. Just think how far that little caterpillar travels to make that chrysalis. Hopefully it will eclose in time!

After some really poor germination this year I was worried how our carrots were going to do. It turns out they did very ...
10/11/2026

After some really poor germination this year I was worried how our carrots were going to do. It turns out they did very well. Thess carrots are probably 10-12 inches long each. And these are not the only ones. We will harevst all the carrots before the ground freezes and prep them for storage. They will be great cooked or in soups this winter.

These little to***co hornworms were found devouring some of my tomato plants. Well at this point they weren't really eat...
10/09/2026

These little to***co hornworms were found devouring some of my tomato plants. Well at this point they weren't really eating anything and these tomato plants wete more of w**ds that had grown accidentally. They had eaten a fair share of the leaves in the plants but now they were covered with those little rice looking things.

Thise rice packets are actually cocoons of braconid wasps. Their mother had laid her eggs inside the caterpillar where they hatched, ate the insides of the caterpillar, and now are pupating ready to hatch and repeat the cycle over again. Since they had eaten the innards of the caterpillar it wasn't doing anything anymore and will die in short order.

If you find a to***co or tomato hornworm on your peppers or tomatoes and it looks like this, leave it be. By leaving it you are allowing the benficial insects to continue to populate your garden and do pest control for you. And at this point the caterpillar won't be doing any further damage. The wasps also do not sting humans.

I am glad these w**d tomatoes grew so that this little cycle of life could continue as most of the hornworms I find on my main tomatoes become chicken treats. Unless I find braconid wasp cocoons on them.

I have had terrible luck growing peas for our fall garden. The past two or three years I have grown shell peas in the sp...
10/08/2026

I have had terrible luck growing peas for our fall garden. The past two or three years I have grown shell peas in the spring and then attempted to again in the fall. The spring crops did well but the fall crop never reached maturity. The season was too short and frost hit.

This year I grew snap peas instead and that is what I will be doing each fall going forward. The snap peas have put in a bunch of pods and have been great to use in stir fries. We have picked 3 or 4 additional harvests the size of what was on the counter in this picture.

Snap peas have been a great way to get an additional crop from our garden!

October is back. The light is vecoming dimmer and the air is cooler. There have been many crisp nights and mornings alre...
10/04/2026

October is back.

The light is vecoming dimmer and the air is cooler. There have been many crisp nights and mornings already. The leaves and other foliage are starting to change each day. Fall is here and the garden and the gardener are ready for it.

10/03/2026

Our irises were crowded and not at their best. They needed to be divided to give them appropriate space. We alsonended up dividing the geraniums and moving the veronica. The beds will look great going forward!

This video is also a few weeks old. I had a backlog to work through.

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