broccoli

Picked two nice Broccoli heads from the garden today, and a handful of Chard for dinner. I'm mighty pleased with the broccoli, as I didn't expect it to do well. Next year going to plant even more!
Something has been eating holes in my Beet leaves; I put out beer last night and caught one slug this morning, a big fat one. Must do the same near the Broccoli under the kitchen window, it's all full of holes.

pumpkin carving

We carved our two home-grown pumpkins. The flesh was so hard and tough it was cracking, not carving easy at all. One had ugly scaly growths on its skin. I think it's the one that sat on the grass; the other was on a piece of wood. I don't know what conditions made them so tough, but I'm going to find out so next year's will be easier to turn into jack-o-lanterns. Here's how they turned out!

busy

Haven't posted for a while although the garden has been busy. Raking fall leaves, and piling them into the compost. The bin is full but sinks a bit every day so I can add more. Two more Broccoli plants are getting nice heads, the one we cut earlier is growing several more small ones around the main stalk. The Nasturtiums are growing wild and taking over all the space left over from where zucchini came out, and putting out thick tendrils into the lush Lettuce patch. The Bell Pepper plant has a few new peppers on it but I don't know if they'll get big enough to ripen and wonder if I should bring it indoors in a pot. I did so with the Basil, two large pots in the mudroom and three smaller ones in the deep living room windowsill; they've just begun recovering and putting out new leaves. We still have a few green Tomatoes ripening in the window but only three plants left outside; when their tomatoes give a hint of rosiness and come into the house they'll come out of the ground too.

The Green Beans had thick heavy pods from the two weeks they were left untouched; we picked them all to dry and pulled apart the beans set aside earlier; sixty dry white beans for seed and all those others that are now hanging in a mesh bag. Come time to plant in spring I'll choose the fattest ones and hope for the best. I had left the plants in the ground thinking they might produce a bit more after that but they just withered so yesterday pulled out and chopped up for composting. The few Bean plants among the lettuces are giving beans, but they don't have very good flavor so I might yank them, too. Just last week I levered all the droopy old yucky-looking Sunflower stalks out of the ground and chopped them up for compost too. That was a tough job- the stalks thick, the root balls heavy. Daughter picked apart the browned heads for seeds and wants to save them for planting again like she sees me do with basil and green beans. I don't know if they'll grow (or if they were hybrid plants we'll get something wild and unlovely) but package them up like the rest into a jar in the fridge to see.

returning

I expected when we came back from ten days' vacation that most of the garden would be dead but not so. The Lettuce is all thick lush and dark green- growing more vigorously in the plot where old patio came up than in the walled area. The new Green Bean plants are flowering and a few had beans to pick. The older G Bean plants look tattered- and all hung with long, fat pods. Too far grown for eating- we like the beans young and tender- but great to dry for seed. The Beets and Chard are still there, Basil grown wild and thick, and yesterday we ate our first Broccoli head! It had so much flavor. Lots of Tomatoes on the vine (and the ground) even though they look withered. Even the Carrots I planted before we left have begun to sprout, and half a dozen Spinach plants came up, and a dozen Peas. It all looks well. The only thing that really died was the Oregano in a pot on the porch.

peppers

Planted the last of the Peas yesterday. It looked like squirrels dug up a few seeds- or birds? but plenty are left.

Picked all of my Bell Peppers- there were three medium-sized ones left. Last year I got two pepper plants, and three peppers off them. This year one plant grew, and gave me five peppers. If I can get a half dozen plants to grow well next year, I'll be happy. Made a dish of stuffed peppers w/meat and rice and onions and garlic and herbs. The recipe used five things from the garden- Peppers, Garlic, Tomatoes, fresh Basil and Oregano.

One of the Broccoli plants is finally forming its head of florets. I can't wait for it to get big enough to cut! The Beets are nearly ready, too- we'll eat them before a week's out.

tomatoes end

Took out the second plot of Tomatoes today- the cherry tomatoes and another volunteer plant were in that space. The small tomatoes no longer have good flavor but daughter insisted on picked all the green ones to put in the windowsill for ripening. After the vines were all chopped into the compost pile, I turned over the soil with a trowel, picked out all the stones I could find, crumbled the dirt fine and raked in half a bucket of cured compost. I think it's my best compost yet- smelled heavy and sweet. Smoothed and patted the soil down, then made a half dozen furrows with trowel and scattered in what's left of the Carrot seed. (Didn't make strips this time). Then watered with steaming hot. Also planted Spinach (bloomsdale longstanding) in the spot that had cantaloupes before.

Now all I have left for fall planting is peas, garlic and clover to cover crop the bare areas.

seed strips

Picked a nice bunch of Green Beans today. Planted Carrot seed in the first cleared plot. Combined two tips that I learned from reading garden books. First was to make seed strips- cut paper towels into narrow strips, dab on a thin paste of water and flour every marked off three inches, stick the seeds on evenly spaced, let it dry. Then lay them down on the soil, sprinkle more dirt over top and pat down. Easy that way to make sure the tiny seeds are all evenly spaced. Then water with hot boiling water, that worked well for me in spring getting the seeds to germinate quickly. Two lengths of five paper towel squares cut into five or six strips each filled one plot quite nicely.

When it's too cool for the tomatoes to ripen on the vine quickly but they're still growing, I pick them and put inside on windowsill to finish ripening. The row of round, rosy shapes is such a cheerful feel of approaching autumn, for me. More so than falling leaves- we don't have many even changing color yet. But already the tomatoes line the windowsill, in their various hues creeping from green with a touch of rose to juicy bold red (as in this month's header image).

carrots

Pulled up the last few carrots today- only four good enough to eat. Dug in a bit of compost and planted the rest of the Beets in their spot. Pulled up the withering Tomatoes from the first plot on the opposite side of the yard, where the volunteers were growing. Weeded and raked it over, thinking what to put there for fall. More carrots? spinach?

fall bounty

Even though it's definitely fall now with cooler weather and more rain, the garden still gives bounty. Today I clipped the greens off a volunteer onion for chives, sliced a red Onion to substitute for shallots, picked a handful of cherry Tomatoes, two green Bell Peppers (not quite ripe but A will still eat them sliced with a dip) one fat Zucchini and a nice little bunch of Green Beans. The g bean plants are doing better now- far less signs of insect damage and I didn't see a single cucumber beetle. There were a few grasshoppers but then I spotted the preying mantis- a big one, as long as my hand, stalking under the bean plants. So I left well alone, hopeful that he's been eating my pests and will keep the plants defended.

volunteers

In all the places where I let Lettuce go to seed, there's new small seedlings coming up, from seed that dropped before (or while) I gathered. I'm going to let a few rains make them big enough for a baby greens salad, then turn over the plot and plant it new for fall.

salad

Yesterday made a salad using some of the last of summer's Tomatoes, and the first of fall Lettuce. It was so sweet, with all the baby greens. A bit of seedling Beet leaves, too, from the thinned plants.

cleanup

Did a bit of fall cleanup in the garden today. Cut out wilted and yellowed leaves from the heirloom plants, the rest look fine still. Cut down some of the large volunteer Tomato plants- they were all collapsed on the ground and getting bug-ridden. The unripe tomatoes that weren't blemished I brought inside to ripen in windowsill. Pulled up the wilted cantaloupe vines and the smallest Zucchini plant which I don't think will give me any more zucchinis. Those went in trash bag, as I don't want to spread any disease from the cucumber beetles. Weeded the now-bare cantaloupe plot, and found some of my Cilantro has sprouted! It just might grow enough to eat some fresh cilantro again before cold weather. In the other two bare plots at the end of the row, the Clover I seeded for green cover overwinter has come up sporadically. I might rake the bare spots over and seed again, especially before it rains this weekend. A small picking off the Green Beans again. On the plant I left alone for keeping seed the long, fat pods are starting to turn yellow. The one green bushy Marigold plant is still sporting flowers, and a few of the lesser Sunflowers put up small secondary flowers after I cut the first wilted heads off. I found among the blue bindweed growing on the fence a single tendril of Sweet Pea, grown tall and with folded buds, but it never made flowers. Makes me nostalgic and sad, my mom used to grow sweet peas in the garden, but here they didn't flourish for me (yet!) The Beets have all come up, and the young Lettuce is growing lush and healthy everywhere. Now I'm going to have to start slug patrol again.

red and orange

The Tomatoes are going. The cherry ones don't taste good anymore, and the heirlooms are getting wilted, prone to bug holes. I just can't get out into the garden enough to keep it clear of pests, right now. I'm going to pull up the cherry Tomato plants, and coax the larger ones along a bit longer, their fruits are still tasty.

Ate the two smallest Cantaloupes, as the leaves are all beginning to brown and wither. I thought they wouldn't be good, as they were half the size of the two previous fruits, and their skins looked funny- thick web of lines over them. But the little melons were perfect inside- bright orange, sweet flesh. It's encourage me to try growing them again next year!

update

Still lots of Tomatoes, the Green Beans have really slowed down. Some plants don't have any new beans at all, when I check them again. Picked a small amount today. The cucumber beetles have moved onto them- I picked off several, and a stink bug, and yanked out a few plants that were pretty heavily damaged. Cut off all the wilted leaves, and threw in trash. Hopefully it doesn't spread. Looks like the Cantaloupe is done, too- it's getting too cool. The two melons left aren't getting any larger and I want to eat them before the bugs do.

success

Have I conquered the cucumber beetles? or is the cooler weather of fall doing them in? I don't find many on the plants anymore, and the smallest Zucchini plant is putting up new leaves. Yesterday we had some jumbo shrimp for dinner, so I crushed the shells and dug them into the dirt around the heirloom Tomato plants. Heard they like extra calcium while fruiting. Maybe a little late for that, though. Loads of the fall Beets are coming up!

more stuff

I haven't been able to get into the garden for several days, laid up on my foot. Things looked a bit dismal. Lots of the Tomato leaves are yellowing, with spots, and many of the cherry Tomatoes split their skins and get eaten by bugs before I get to them. Still picked at least a pound of good ones today, and two heirlooms. Something is affecting the Green Beans- even though it's been at least five days since I last picked, the plants yielded far less than usual- and many of their leaves are mottled, browning and curling. Then I found the culprit- the nasty old cucumber beetles. I picked off all the ones found, then treated the plants with basil spray and smashed a few more as they tried to fly away. They were all big fat bugs, too. Found a few caterpillars on the large tomatoes that might be tomato hornworms? and tons of grey caterpillars with pale yellow bellies underside leaves of the Broccoli- I'm pretty sure they're from the cabbage moths that fly around, I haven't been dilligent enough at catching them.

But there's tons of Lettuce seedlings, and all the Beets I planted are coming up quickly. In that other G Bean plot I planted all that was left of my seed- at least twenty five or thirty seeds but only fourteen grew. Probably too cool, now, or wet from all the rain.

lettuces

Lettuce seedlings are coming up everywhere I added compost into the soil. I might let some grow a bit bigger and make a baby greens salad. Planted Beets, Broccoli and a few Cauliflower today. The cauliflower didn't grow in spring, but maybe fall weather is better condition for it.

cantaloupe

The Cantaloupe was good, but not great. It's the first thing I've had out of the garden that didn't taste better than produce form the grocery store. Weeded the garden this morning, and picked more Green Beans. Some of the second plot I planted are shoving their curled sprouts up through the soil, I was excited to see that. When I weeded out the plot under kitchen window found another dozen Lettuce seedlings. I need to turn that soil over w/compost and plant the fall lettuce, but my foot is still not healed enough to work a shovel.

garden bounty

More garden bounty. That first Cantaloupe picked last week was a disappointment. It smelled wonderful, but the taste was very bland, faintly like a honeydew. I ate my portion, husb and child refused theirs. Kept a close eye on the rest of the melon patch; today picked the largest Canteloupe when I noticed it was beginning to turn yellow. It smells good; but I won't anticipate much until cut it for tomorrow's breakfast.

A nice fat Zucchini, today. Those plants are all lower leaves covered in powdery mildew, but it doesn't seem to hurt the plants much. They still produce. And I'd rather welcome the rain than worry about a little mildew. It rained heavy a few days ago, enough so that I haven't watered since, and the ground is still dark with dampness.

I can't keep up with the Tomatoes. Shared some with the neighbor to one side of us, gave more to upstairs tenant and told him he could pick as many as he likes. Pick about a pound of cherry Tomatoes every other day, and two or three beefsteak heirlooms on the other days. We eat them sliced on mozarrella with Basil, or diced into green salad, or sliced onto bison burgers, or chopped into husb's home-made guacamole. The volunteer tomatoes (which I will yank up ruthlessly next year instead of coax along) ripen more slowly and don't taste quite as good, but they're still fresher and flavorsome than store-bought ones.


A while ago pulled all the onions; recently ate the last of the white ones, in a chicken soup. They were very small, nesting kind of onions, but quite sweet. They looked so pretty and pearly after dirty outer skins rubbed off I had to take a photo.

Tonight we're eating garden-grown Potatoes and Carrots with a roast. And snacking on cherry Tomatoes all day; and a Zucchini bread for dessert.

produce

I have not been able to do much work in the garden because of my broken toe, but it is still producing! Today dug up most of the Carrots, left a few of the smaller ones to keep growing until I have time to reseed the bed for fall. Scrubbed them all, set aside the smallest and deformed ones (three legs, stubby w/many legs, etc) to chop up in a soup tonight, and the rest went into the fridge. Ripe Tomatoes every day, although the volunteer ones don't seem to ripen as fast as the heirloom varieties. I've read up a bit more on saving seed and realize I can't save tomato seed this year, because my different plants are too close together and will have crossed. Next year plant them clear across the garden and it might keep them pure. The largest Cantaloupe is almost ripe, and the next smaller one turned all yellow, so I picked it, pulling up some of the sickly vines too. Haven't quite been able to keep the cucumber beetles off enough. Since I picked the Zucchini to sautee, there haven't been any new ones- but some flowers, so hopefully we'll get more. Every day or so there's more G Beans ready, we've been eating some and blanching others to freeze for later. Planted another patch of G Beans next to the zucchini where the potatoes came out, used up all the rest of the seed. Marked the best plant of the first plot to leave the beans ripen all the way and save seed. The Sunflower seeds I picked out of birdseed mix and planted have grown nicely, made pretty flowers. They're only three or four feet tall, but nice and straight and cheerful, not drooping from too-heavy heads like the giant ones on the other side.