I asked you all on Friday how you feel about the rain. I go back and forth on it. It saves me an evening of dragging hoses around. It also means the season is turning, and there is a short list of things I still want in the ground before it does. That is most of what I have been thinking about this week. The rest of the week was about tools.
The tool math
The Guy Math video sits at 141,833 views, 3,942 likes, and 206 comments. Biggest thing I have posted anywhere in a month and a half. It is also the first time one of my videos did better on YouTube than on Instagram, and it was not close. The same cut on Instagram is at 43,963 views. YouTube ran about three times that.
The comments were the good part. "He who dies with the most tools wins." "There is literally no such thing as wasting money on tools cuz tools can always make you money." And one that stuck with me: "I see it as my time i have free access to. I don't have free access to money unfortunately." That is the honest version of the whole argument.
On the channel
The newest one up there is a run of plant facts, and you can watch it here. A few of you went straight to the music part. One greenhorn wrote that you do not even need classical, and listed off the ambient and orchestral artists he grows to. Another one told me to keep my plants away from the Alexa hub. I have no data on that.
Is it too late to plant
Every year around now somebody asks whether there is still time to put something in. Here is the arithmetic. You can do it on the back of an envelope.
Start with your average first frost. Zone 5 is around October 5. Zone 6 is around October 20. Zone 7 is around November 1. Those are averages, so your own ground runs a little early or a little late.
Then count backward by days to harvest. Radishes are 22 to 35 days. Arugula is 30 to 40. Bok choy is 40 to 55. Turnips are 40 to 60.
Do the subtraction from today. Today to October 20 is about eight weeks. That is radishes with weeks to spare, arugula with a little, turnips if you go this week and do not dawdle.
Two things the arithmetic leaves out. Days get shorter from here, and growth slows down with them, so a fall crop takes longer than the seed packet promises. Give yourself extra room. And every crop I just listed handles a light frost fine. The tender summer stuff does not, so first frost means something very different depending on what is out there.
If you plant one thing this week, plant radishes. Nothing else pays you back that fast.
In the app
Greenhorns have logged 357 harvests across 57 different crops since June. More variety than I expected, and it is all real gardens.
What that changes is your recipe list. My mom's recipes are matched to the crops they truly feature, one by one, by hand, so a garden with tomatoes and basil in it puts marinara and pesto on your shelf, and a garden with kale in it brings up the kale and white bean soup. Growing the thing and cooking the thing end up in the same place. That is the whole idea of Garden to Table Companion.
I said last time that logging a whole garden at once would get faster. Still not done. It is the next thing I am asking for.
From the comments
One greenhorn pushed back on the tool math: "Or, i rent a drill worth 150$ for 10$ saving the money and using it for something else." Fair, and for a one time job that is the right call. I have rented plenty. What changes it is reaching for the same tool a second and a third time, and a drill is one you reach for. A post hole auger I use once a decade, I would rent every time.
One thing this week. Work out your first frost date and plant whatever still fits before it.
Most watched this week: Guy Math and fun facts about plants.