outside

Fall has definitely struck the garden; I don't know if I got a head enough start on the cole crops to get some broccoli and cauliflower this fall, but have good hopes for the lettuce.

My Bell Peppers are still making lots of small fruits, even though some of the plants have started to fall over.

The Strawberry plants still look fresh and pretty, I'm not sure at what point they'll die back and need mulch.

The Rhubarb is looking peaky, but still growing new leaves in each center. Again, not sure if I should wait until all the stems die before covering it for winter? do they need to save energy from spent foliage like tulips do? Have to look that up.

The pumpkin patch is pretty much a dead mess I need to clean up when I can get to it. That one nice-looking plant in the back left corner is the monster Zucchini, just sporting nice leaves now.

And of course the cold-loving ever-lasting Swiss Chard is doing fantastic. It's the most beautiful plant in the garden right now!

celery

Harvested celery. I simply cut most of the bunches off, leaving about six small ones in the ground, and brought them inside. It was a huge heap on my table

but after chopping for compost all the pithy ones and saving aside the good green stems, I was left with this:

Pretty pathetic. The good stems were for the most part right in the center of the plants; I only got one or two, at most three, off each bunch. Flavor too strong to eat raw, I just use them for cooking. Next year definitely going to try blanching the plants so I get better taste.

carrots

My baby Carrots are getting thicker! I love their delicate ferny leaves. Pretty soon I'm going to have to thin them out.

in the ground

The little plants in my coldframe were starting to look crowded, so I finally put them all in the ground. They'd been kind of neglected; I lost three Lettuces to slugs and pill bugs (which were crowded all around the bottom of the cardpots; I squished many) and the Broccolis and Cauliflors all have holes eaten in them from teensy caterpillars which I think I finally found and squashed them all too.

The Lettuces look a lot smaller set out in their plot. I only filled one garden space with them this time; as we never eat them all when I fill two. The left side is Simpson lettuce, and the right side Romaine. These were grown from leftover seed that I bought at the store two years ago; not my saved seed this time.

The Broccolis all got plastic-bottle cloches over them to keep slugs off while they recover from the onslaught of caterpillars (I do hope I got them all and haven't trapped any in there!)

And here's one of the little Cauliflowers. At least I think it is. When they're this young I have trouble telling broccoli and cauliflower apart. But I did plant all of one kind in square pots, and all of the other in round, so I knew they're all each with their own kind at least. When they get a bit larger I'll be able to tell them apart!

My mature Broccolis in the garden are still giving me some small heads, but it almost feels like too much trouble to cut them all and clean off the bugs...

herbs

I've dug up some herbs from outside to bring in and protect from frost. I've done this the past few years; they usually last several months indoors before fading away, giving me fresh flavors halfway thru winter.

Potted up five Thyme plants; this one is the nicest. I think if I pinch off some top shoots with newer growth and stick in a new pot, it should start a new plant. Going to try that (as soon as I get more potting soil).

 I'm very happy with the Oregano. My plant is huge this year, twice as big as last year's! This isn't really a good picture and it's quite crammed into its pot I didn't have a bigger one but I know it won't last long like this the roots all crowded. I'm going to have to get another and give it space then I'll take a better pic too. But I just love the way oregano looks as a table centerpiece. The round leaves growing out in a whorl, it's just such a pretty plant. Last year's oregano plant is in a picture on the bottom of this post.

I also brought inside (a few weeks ago) a stump of Basil that was sprouting new leaves. I'm not sure how it will do. (I didn't manage to get an entire tall plant like last year and the year before). The lower leaves keep dying and falling off, but it is also growing new leaves on top, so perhaps it will be okay for a while.

new things

I've been cleaning up the garden today. Cleared out all the fallen-over Basil plants, and composted the last of my Tomato plants. A handful of green tomatoes are sitting on the windowsill now; we'll see if they ripen.

Happiness was seeing Beets finally sprouting in the second plot!

And my Peas are coming up with little folded leaves, in every spot I planted them.

nasturtiums

When I took the zucchini out of the garden a few weeks ago, I also dug up all the sad little Nasturtiums that surrounded them, and stuck them in a pot. They didn't look too well:

But since then have recovered and appear very happy now!

Maybe they like cooler weather? I still doubt I'll get flowers out of them, but I'm glad they look more cheerful now.