Garden E102009

The garden is winding down as the summer draws to a close. The weather here is beginning to cool and the sun is shining less. Every couple of days I cut down another plant.



The broccoli is done. I had to pull out the rest of the plants. It seems that once the florets have been cut the rest of the plant begins to rot.



The herbs are getting ready to go to seed. Many have already sprouted flowers. I cut most of the chamomile back leaving just a few leaves and the cute white, daisy like flowers. Hopefully the plant will come back next year on its own. I’m drying it out along with peppermint leaves and pineapple sage. Once it’s dried I’m going to keep it in an air tight jar and make herbal tea with it using a tea ball.

Garden E092009

The Garden is doing well despite the recent set backs of fallen plants. The tomatoes are producing rapidly and I’ve been surviving on a steady diet of BLTs and caprici salads.







I thought it might be the end of the cucumbers but I picked one today for my pasta salad. There were quite a few small cucumbers and even more small flowers sprouting all over the plants.



I cut down all the celery last week and already new stalks are forming. Hopefully I’ll get another small crop before the first frost.

The gypsy peppers are doing great. All the ones I had to pull down from the fallen plants ripened indoors beautifully. I noticed today when I picked some peppers for my pasta salad that they began to rot a little if I let them get red on the vine. I’m going to have to pick them sooner and let them ripen indoors.

I got another crop of broccoli. I steamed it the other night with dinner and added a little butter, salt and pepper. I’m not normally a broccoli fan but the last two times I cooked my home grown batch it’s been fantastic.



I grow some tasty vegetables.

E082009

The other night we had a violent thunder storm. I went out the next morning to check on the garden and found the large heavy tomato plants knocked over. Only two of the eight plants were left standing upright. Two of the damaged plants were completely knocked over and I unfortunately had to pull them up. I picked the many remaining still green tomatoes before I completely uprooted them. Hopefully the tomatoes will ripen set out on the picnic table in the sun. I’ll probably pickle and fry some of them while they are still green.



The fallen three grape tomato plants knocked over the red beauties and the Hungarian pepper plants. I cut the tomato plants back to a third of their size and put them back in their cages. With the space that was created I was able to stand the red beauty plant back up, packing dirt around it for extra support around its base. One of the three Hungarian plants was bent beyond repair. I picked all the peppers on the plant and then pulled it up. I pushed the other two plants up and picked most of the peppers to keep them from falling back over under their own weight and then packed more dirt around the base for extra support.







The garden had plenty more to be harvested. One of the giant broccoli plants had a large floret that I cut along with a three inch stem. I cut back the plant a little removing some of the largest leaves. I’m going to leave the plant in the ground, maybe it will grow more florets. Two of the other broccolis have florets of their own that should be ready to harvest sometime this week.






Two of the cauliflowers have florets that should also be ready to harvest sometime this week. The last plant has a small bud that should be ready by the end of this month.






I’m not sure if the cucumbers are done. I haven’t spotted any more cucumbers but I did notice some flowers so hopefully we’ll get one more batch before summer is out.



I think I may have picked the last of the green beans. I’m keeping the plants in the ground in the hopes that we’ll get at least one more harvest before summer is over.



I’ve been busy in the kitchen freezing and drying all that I have harvested. I hope to get some pickling done later this week.



These giant scary bugs were flying around the garden

They almost look like a kind of wasp or hornet. any guesses?