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The garden has changed quite a bit in the last two weeks. Here's what it looked like on September 14th.
Two weeks later on the 29th, I had taken down the cucumbers, harvested and weeded the potato row, pulled the last of the winter squash, and brought down the tomatillos. I seeded winter rye in all those places, except where the tomatillos were.
Only a few days later on October 2nd, the tomatoes came down, the hoop house went up, the pumpkins went out, the cold frame windows went on.
A few details. Around September 20th, I dug up four pepper plants and put them in pots.
From Left to right: Habanero, Hungarian Wax, Purple Bell, Cayenne. I sprayed them daily with a soapy water solution. This past week we got some rain and then a bigger storm was forecasted with cold temps to follow. I brought them in on Wednesday because I didn't want them water logged when they came in the house. They are sunning themselves in the front windows and so far are doing ok. I'm continuing to spray hping that I don't have aphids with them. I'm hoping to overwinter them.TomatoesHere's what the tomato support looked like after 5" of rain. It was worse, the metal props had fallen away and it was leaning even more. I propped it back up so that I could at least cut down the tomatoes.
Here's the after photo from the other side. I haven't weeded it yet, nor seeded it. The bed to the right is where the winter squash were and has been seeded with winter rye.
Here's how the winter rye looks in the potato bed, seeded a week before.
I also planted garlic in the former pumpkin bed. I ordered 6 heads of Red Russian and 3 heads of Music.
All total it was 60 some cloves planted. It took up half of the bed.
So in all the garden is looking a lot more like fall. Many peppers and eggplant remain in the garden and that's the only thing I'm covering to protect from frost. We had a light frost in the back field again on Saturday night. Each time, it creeps closer to the garden. I'm sure it will get the last of the beans soon.
A reader reminded me that I hadn't shown what the garden looks like in a while. When I look at this photo I see the cucumber vines on the trellis that I should have pulled weeks ago and the poor melon vines that got downy mildew and I didn't do anything about in the same row I need to get some cover crop seed this week and pull the dead plants and seed to protect the soil from erosion and weeds.
I do seem some good here too. I do see the cold frame filling out with greens, and the Brussels Sprouts looking good. The peppers and eggplants are still lush. You can't see them, but my fall peas have sprouted along with radishes. The pumpkin vines resisted the downy mildew and have spread into the grass as the pumpkins ripen.
Hiding in the back are my tomatoes. The ones that fell in August and were tied back up are suffering from leaf spot and dying back but the tomatoes continue to ripen. The frame is crooked and rigged to stay up until the end of the season. Next year we'll need a stronger frame.
So are beautiful and ugly parts to the garden right now. There is work to be done and I hope I get to it. And the garden continues to produce.
The tomatoes continue to ripen, but slower now with the cooler nights. This week I harvested 14 pounds of tomatoes. I'm not canning any more, but rather am freezing them whole for use in soups and sauces this winter.I also picked kale and a few carrots.
I also harvested my second eggplant. There are a few more that may mature before the season is over. In all, the eggplants weren't much of a success this year with only 2 so far from 6 plants.
I shelled the dried beans that I picked last week and weighed them. They were just over a pound.
I also harvested my first and probably only sweet red pepper. There are some green ones on the plant finally, but they don't have time to ripen.
Ripe winter squashes were harvested and set on the front porch to cure. I picked 25 pounds of buttercup, butternut, and Delicata squash. I also picked one 15 pound Jarradale pumpkin. There are 3 more Jarradale pumpkins that are not yet ripe, as well as a few butternut squash that are still developing. There are also about 6 pie pumpkins that are turning orange and I hope to pick soon.
Sunday night's harvest was at dusk, hence the flash in the photo. I picked 2 oz of arugula and spinach to make a pesto, along with tomatoes and 2 very small melons. The tomatoes are all larger then the melons.
I picked the melons because they smelled ripe, though they only the size of tennis balls. The larger one tasted alright, but the smaller one was bitter. I hope to do much better with melons next year.
Total this week: 58.48 pounds
Total this year: 297.7 pounds
You can see what other gardeners harvested this week at Daphne's Dandelions.