Garden Fatigue

 

[This was taken 3 weeks ago, but was still fairly accurate until we started ripping things out today.]

I'm done with the vegetable garden for the year.

It was not done yet, as the giant zucchini and mounds of green tomatoes on my counter can attest.

But I am done.

It happens every year about this time.

It's like Jack Frost and I have a handshake agreement somewhere around the beginning of October:

"Yep, 'bout time to wrap things up around here." 

Really, that last frost comes just in time--usually.

 

 

This year we have yet to have a killing frost, and won't for at least another week, if my phone's weather app is to be believed.

There was a part of me that felt guilty today, pulling up live tomato plants.

These could have had another 2 weeks!

On the other hand, will I care more about the garden in 2 weeks? No, I will not. 

Up came the tomatoes.

Plus, today was mild. It was not raining or windy. I had time to do it.

None of those things are guarantees in the remaining days of garden life.

 

 

[Petrified pea patch intact, as of a week ago. Keepin' it real around here.]

 

 I enjoy vegetable gardening, and I marvel at it. It's amazing how those tiny seeds, sown in the warming soil of May can produce many handfuls and bucketfuls of delicious things to eat in just 2 or 3 short months. Also, I'm grateful that our family is not solely dependent on what I grow for our yearly food.

 

Even as late as August, I'm usually still gung-ho, despite the heat.

30 more tomatoes? Bring it on! Homemade tomato sauce all winter! Hooray!

Zucchini bread, yum.

All of it. Awesome.

 

[From 2 days ago: dessicated pea patch gone. Everything else the same.]

 

Then along comes September, and my enthusiasm begins to wane. I see another round of ripening tomatoes on the vines and my eyes start to glaze over.

I stop watering.

Completely.

I have already pinched off the growing tips of all the vines, in hopes that what is on them will ripen up before frost. That's kind of how I feel, too.

Pinched back.

Ready to take care of what I've got without a bunch of new stuff cropping up.

 

 This year I've had it especially bad, due to the marathon backyard work project that's been going on. I haven't set foot in my backyard in 2 months.

To even get to the garden, you have to make a trek out the front door and all the way down on the side wall. There's a somewhat dry spot where you can step to climb up onto the garden wall, then finally make your way over to what you're hoping to pick.

Then you get to carry it with you as you do the whole thing in reverse.

Heaven help you if one of the kids has to use the restroom RIGHT NOW!

(Run fast darling, but whatever you do, don't fall off the wall and crush the grass seedlings!)

 

[Everyone look at me! Ha! That's about right.]

 

I've talked with friends who are big into extending the season.

They start planting peas and beets and all those cold-weather veggies again in July or August, for harvesting in the fall and early winter.

I admire their energy.

I just...I can't do that right now. I don't have it in me.

I may not be ready for winter, but ready to winterize?

Yes, I am.

 

[This year's potato harvest, with the last of the carrots.]

Spinach rules!

We are excited to be harvesting our first garden vegetable: spinach!

 

These smiles are not staged.

We really do love it.

The kids know they are free to pick it and eat it straight out of the garden.

So they do...often.

I'm not about to put a stop to that!

 

In addition to the spinach shown here, we've harvested at least that much another day as well.

So far we've had it in salad, soup, and vegetarian burritos.

I had half a packet of seeds left.

Surely I can fit another small spinach patch in somewhere, once the garden walls are finished, to extend this leafy green goodness for as long as possible!

Garden Evaluation: Herbs & Vegetables

Bottom Terrace

 

oregano, covered in bees

 

Oregano: grew like crazy this year! We cut off the stems in June, dried the leaves, and ended up with 3/4 of a quart. I divided it way back this fall and gave some of the starts away. The bees absolutely love it! I need to find room for it up front in my "bees and butterflies" garden.

Oregano = bee heaven. 

 

Rosemary: 2 varieties: 'Madelene Hill' and 'Salem'

Overtaken by the oregano midsummer. We didn't dry any, and I haven't done anything to protect it this winter. We'll see if it survives.

 

Basil: 2 varieties: 'Purple Ruffles' and 'Sweet Basil'

Overtaken by the beans. We did use it several times in recipes. The purple variety was a bit spicier, and added a nice dash of color as well. I might try these in a pot next time, just to give them a little more elbow room. 1 of each type of plant was plenty for how much we used them.

 

 

Onions: Mixed yellow and white.

These grew fine, without pests or diseases. They all stayed quite small. I don't know if that was due to lack of nutrients, or what. In any case, I'm on the fence about planting them next year. I use them often to cook with, but having to peel 5 or 6 very small ones to equal 1 regular-sized gets old fast. Maybe if I figure out what I'm doing wrong I'll give them another shot. If not, onions are pretty cheap at the grocery store.

 

 

Peas: 2 varieties: 'Little Marvel' and 'Super Sugar Snap.' 

The Sugar Snaps didn't come up, so I bought new seed and replanted. Second time around they did fine. They both produced well. I don't know that any made it into the house. I need to allot twice the space for peas next year (garden expansion project #2 is in the works--woohoo!).  I liked the flavor of the shelling peas better, but I think the kiddos liked eating the pods of the Sugar Snaps.  I wouldn't mind doing 2 packages, 1 of each kind, next year.

 

 

Beans: 2 varieties: 'Tenderpick' and 'Royal Burgundy'

Can't get enough purple beans! Having planted one whole package of them this year, we actually had enough for the dinner table a couple of times. I want to do some low supports for them next year. Even though they're the bush bean variety, they tend to flop over. I think they would do better up off the ground more. Plus, they would be easier to pick. The regular old green beans did fine, too, just not nearly as fun for the kiddos to pick!

 

Tomatoes: 'Cougar Red' x 4, 'Sun Sugar' x 2, 'Oregon Spring' x 2, 1 roma

Very poor showing this year. The soil in the new addition must not have had enough nutrients. Several handfuls of small tomatoes is all. Since I did not can any tomatoes or salsa this year, next year needs to be a bigger crop. Soil will be amended!

 

I had to add this picture of the Topsy Turvy planter, because I kept forgetting to include this tomato plant in any updates all summer. Which is about how I did with watering it, too. The planter wasn't my favorite--since I had plenty of herbs planted elsewhere, I didn't use all those extra holes. So they let soil and water stream out every time I watered. And since I'm so short, the cold water would usually run up my arm or splash down my front. No harvest from this one. Not that I'm holding a grudge or anything, but next year this nice little hook will have a basket of flowers hanging from it.

 

Tomatillo: Ground Cherry 'Little Lanterns'

This was fun and a little different. They were supposed to mature to orange, according to the tag, so I was surprised when they all turned purple. These were also very very small and slow to mature this year. I realized that, other than fresh salsa (which they were too small to use for this year), I don't have any idea what to use these in. If I plant another next year, I need to look up some recipes!

 

Marigolds: planted amongst the tomatoes. Also did poorly.

 

Middle Terrace

 

 

Potatoes: 3 hills of purples, 6 'Yukon Gold'

We must have had 2 varieties of purples, but I don't know the names. The bright purples had white flesh, and the darker purples had purple flesh. The kids didn't want to eat the darker purple ones, so I don't know that we would do those again.

Potatoes are great fun, especially at harvest time. A couple of things we would do differently next year: put seed potatoes in a sunny window, in an egg carton, to sprout them prior to planting.

Let them stay in the ground until frost.

Our 9 hills produced enough to share with friends. We didn't end up blanching & freezing any this year, and we just ate the last of them about a week ago. The itty bitty ones are perfect for throwing in with a roast in the crockpot, but I wouldn't mind having some grow bigger next year (hence leaving them in the ground until frost.)

I could see doubling the potato patch next year, but if so, I would need to get a better cold storage system figured out.

 

Carrots: 3 leftover seed packets from years past: 'Scarlet Nantes,' 'Tendersweet,' and 'Royal Chantenay'

Since these ended up here, there, and everywhere, I can't speak to the different varieties this year. Processed 6 quarts (frozen) and still have some in the freezer. They grew well, with no pests or diseases to speak of. I would like to do a big patch next year. They freeze so well and we eat them often. When buying new seed, I will probably go with the 'Scarlet Nantes' variety. 

 

Beets: No luck with the beets this year. Died long before any were ready to harvest. Not sure what happened there.

 



Spinach: 'Tyee'

We liked the spinach. We left on vacation for a week in June, and that was about it. It finished before I was ready! I may try a few varieties next year just to see if there are any that really stand out. I wouldn't mind doing a bigger patch of this as well, and freezing any we don't use right away.

 

 

Cucumbers & Zucchini: None of these did much this year. I think we harvested about 4 zukes and 2 cukes. Give or take. I had to beg for some from friends to even make zucchini bread. Not that I had to beg too hard. ;) Once again, I think the soil in the addition is to blame. Next year should be better, as we will amend it heavily in the spring.

For next year, I want to try a slicing cucumber, rather than the bush pickle.

 

Broccoli: 6 plants

I'm not doing broccoli next year. After the main heads were harvested, I just couldn't keep up with it. The side shoots were small enough that it would take 2 or 3 pickings to make a meal and they kept flowering before I got out there to pick. Plus, I got all squeamish about the bugs, when I realized you're supposed to soak them in saltwater for at least 30 minutes before cooking them. PLUS, there was some that went bad in the fridge and let me tell you what--rotten broccoli stench is enough to put you off eating entirely. It was disgusting.

So in the end, we will just buy the frozen kind and be happy that we don't have to deal with it.

The kids might miss it, since they got to raise a cabbage white butterfly from a caterpillar.

It's going to be okay, though. Really.

 

So, with expansion #2 in the works, next year I want to add:

sweet corn: yes, I'm going to try it again!

pumpkins & gourds: for jack-o-lanterns and for decorations

sunflowers! I missed having them in the garden this year

beans to dry

possibly lettuce, celery, leeks, or sweet potatoes

 

If you made it all the way to the end of this marathon post, you deserve a reward.

Preferrably something chocolate.

Vegetable Garden Update

Overall, I have been quite pleased with the garden so far this year.

Bunnies have stayed away--not sure if it's the neighborhood cat who makes a pass through twice a day, or the garlic cloves I cut and stuck into the squash mounds.

Either way, I'm glad we have not anything munched yet--by animals, that is.

 

Bottom Terrace

 

Tomatoes and tomatillo growing slowly.

My tomatoes are all looking rather shrivelled.

They did get frost-nipped early in spring, and I'm wondering if that's effecting them now. I've been making an effort to water them extra deeply, but their leaves are still mostly curled up rather than flat. However, some have green tomatoes on, and most have blossoms.

We'll see how much it affects the harvest. 

 

The tomatillo has been loaded with blossoms ever since I planted it, but I haven't seen any fruit forming yet.

 

 The big bush on the left is oregano.

I whacked it off by about half a month ago, and then dried all the leaves in my dehydrator. (Couldn't let them go to waste!) After they were dry, we crumbled them up into a bowl.

We ended up with about 3/4 of a quart jar full of home grown oregano.

It's even organic!

My husband said the price for organic oregano is $144/lb (he looked it up.)

Now we want to weigh our finished product and see if we can become rich!

 

The beans (in back) are about to take over the basil in front.

I may need to transplant the basil for it to survive.

 

Not pictured: the 2 rosemary plants behind the oregano.

They are still alive and seem to be growing fine.

Holding their own, anyway.

 



 Peas!

So, my pea trellis hideout didn't quite work out the way I was hoping. There's no space for the kids in there! That's okay. They still go out several times a day to pick the fat ones.

Or sorta fat ones. Or whichever ones they can find.

With a week of picking behind us, nary a pea has made it into the house.

 

Even the baby has learned how to pick peas.

He toddles over, grabs the first pea he sees, and gives it a good yank.

It's a little hard to teach him which ones are ready, since he can't even talk yet.

At least he's getting some fresh vegetables in his diet.

It's all good.

 

Several of the ones on the left side of the trellis have a disease of some sort, which makes the pod fill with a white substance, and many of the pods are deformed and small.

I used some old seed this time, but I will definitely have to start with all new next year. 

On the right, the sugar snaps are just starting to come on. I had to replant them, so they're a few weeks behind their fellows.

 

 The onions.

I cut off all the flowers this year, in hopes that the onions themselves will grow larger.

They're looking pretty good.

Haven't picked any yet to bring in, but I probably could.

 

Middle Terrace

 



The potato patch is doing much better than it did last year.

I probably need to mound up more dirt under all those bushy leaves.

 

Spinach and beets have all been yanked out.

We didn't harvest any beets this year. The leaves were all shrivelled and dead about the same time the spinach started to look ragged. Not sure what happened there.

 

Carrots are getting big and crowding the broccoli.

(Or is it the broccoli crowding the carrots?)

By the way, I really like the contrasting leaf shapes and colors.

 

This was the broccoli we had for dinner tonight.

It was tender and sweet.

We have harvested one other bowlful about this size, as well.

 

The plants that we cut off the first broccoli heads from are now producing lots of little heads on side shoots. So I'm hoping we'll continue to get a harvest for the next few weeks, at least.

 

This being my first year growing broccoli, I'm impressed.

It's has been hardy, easy, and tasty.

Like with most things in my garden, I'm already scheming to put more in next year!

 

 Cucumber making a start.

I'm going to train this one away from the giant broccoli patch, once it starts to spread.

Otherwise, we may never find the cucumbers!

 

There was a second hill in back, but it has not survived.

The ones in front are the 'Bush Pickle' variety.

Likewise, my zucchini has had a really slow start this year.

Hey, at least it's growing.

Last year I couldn't even get it to come up.

I'm wondering if I need to give it some extra compost or something.

This is zucchini we're talking about here--usually it has garden takeover plans.

I'm hoping these next few weeks of consistently warm weather will give it a jumpstart.

 

Top Terrace is the berry patch now, so I'll have to make separate report on that.

 

Last but not least:

 



Pea patch in the weeds.

I gave the kids the extra pea seeds that didn't fit in my garden this year, and they planted them in the dirt mound/weed patch next to the garden.

Well, would you look at that!

Their little plants are loaded!

They were so excited to have their own plants to pick from.

I'm amazed that the plants even survived right there.

Yay peas!



Last of the garden

Jacob and Becca helped me harvest the rest of the potatoes and onions last week.

Then, the forecast said it was going to frost!

Unfortunately, time got away from me all day to go out and harvest the all the other vegetables.

It was a dark and stormy night. (I should have started with that, right?)

I grabbed a flashlight, a jacket, and my trusty basket and went out to harvest whatever I could.

A few more tomatoes.

There were a bunch of green cherry tomatoes, which I left on the vine.

I could have been out there all night picking those off, and it was cold!

Those 3 great big ones were about all I got from the Early Girl variety.

Potatoes--of several varieties.

 Chock full of potatoes and onions.

I plan to peel, chop, and freeze all the onions.

Also, I'm going to peel, dice, cook, then freeze the potatoes.

Otherwise I'm sure they would go bad before we got to them.

We don't have the cold storage to really keep them a long time.

I didn't get a picture of the sunflowers peeking out from behind the corn, but they did finally do it.

Picked these tiny corn cobs.

I actually haven't even husked them yet, since I'm pretty sure they will be worthless.

I may use them for an art project with the kiddos tomorrow.

I was glad I had picked everything. I think it has frosted every night since then, with the possible exception of last night.

If I'm going to get another shrub put in the back flowerbed, I had better hurry!

Harvest: tomatoes & beans

Not too bad for tomatoes.

Enough to eat fresh without going bad.

Becca and I like the little ones, Jacob doesn't.

That oddly shaped green thing is a cucumber, with one more beneath it.

Not much harvesting going on for cukes this year, for some reason.

A nice mess o' beans.

The kiddos love eating these fresh, and I love letting them!

So the fact that this many actually made it into the house means there were probably twice as many on the plants themselves. The purple beans are their favorites, since they turn green when you cook them (magic!)

Carrots! Lots and lots of carrots

We've had an awesome carrot crop this year!

These short, fat ones are the 'Scarlet Nantes' variety.

Good tasting.

August 15 harvest--"thinning the crop"

The longer, skinnier ones you can see are the 'Tendersweet' variety.

Also good flavor.

Round 1 with carrot processing: 4 quarts to freeze

These were from just a week ago (Aug 29) 

We harvested what was left.

Some of the Scarlets were so big they had cracked and were unusable.

We pulled up some of the fattest and longest carrots I've ever seen.

It was fun!

carrot processing, round 2

6 quart bags to freeze

WOW!

Harvest

Our first cucumbers, a decent amount of purple beans, several Sungolds, and a few regular tomatoes.

Not too bad.

Harvest

Carrots picked by Jacob and a few more tomatoes.

Don't those carrots look great?!



First tomato

From the 'Early Girl' vine.
A full month earlier than our first last year.

It was delicious.



More Peas and Raspberries

This harvest was from July 9 

July 15

The kids kept the peas and raspberries pretty well picked down and sure enjoyed going out and picking their own snacks each day.  I love that about having a garden.

It's so fun to pick and eat that they don't realize they're getting healthy veggies and fruits in their diet.  Yay!

So these pictures represent the most we got actually in the house at any given time.

Most of the time it was mere handfuls, and most of those were eaten before they made it to the house.

Guess we'll just have to plant a few more!

First Harvest: Peas & Raspberries

Yum. Peas!

So all the ones that survived are the shelling kind. Mistake with little ones.

They want to chew the pod, and they pick all them all too little.

I can't remember why I chose that type, but next year I'll have to go back to the sugar snap, so my little helpers can munch away to their heart's delight.

We've had a few handfuls each now.

Very few have made it inside.

Yup, more tomatoes

I've decided to make tomato sauce (plain, not seasoned) to can with all these tomatoes.

So with that in mind, I bought some more pint-sized jars.

Today I blanched, skinned, and seeded all the tomatoes from the last picking which had finally ripened on the counter.  Not enough yet for sauce, so I froze one big gallon-sized bag, and one quart-sized bag. 

 Just in time to pick this many more today!

I'm picking them more and more orange these days, but I keep thinking it's going to frost any time now.

Plus one more regular cucumber, and lo and behold, 4 small lemon cucumbers. They are covered in black spiky hairs, and I have no idea if they're ripe. I'll have to taste one. Unless it is out-of-this-world good, I don't think I'm planting them next year!



Bell peppers, mini-pumpkins, and more tomatoes

No frost yet, so we continue to harvest.

 I had Jacob help me pick all the rest of the bell peppers. Look how many there were! I was surprised--just passing by, I thought there might be 5 or 6 out there.

I think these are probably the last of the green beans.

These adorable mini-pumpkins--must be the 'Jack Be Little' variety, since they're orange--are not much to show for such a huge plant/garden space hog. I think I've seen maybe 2 more out there. I'll have to think about that for next year.

Just look at all these tomatoes! More and more and more!

So far I've frozen some plain & chopped, made oven-roasted tomato sauce, and I need to try just oven-roasted tomatoes (you bake them longer until they're chewy and more dry.)

Can we be done with zuchinni? Please? 

Today's Haul

I think this was our best harvest yet!

I can't believe it, since it's so late in the season.

I did have Jacob pull up all the rest of the carrots. According to the weather man we may still have a couple more weeks until frost, but I don't think 2 more weeks will make much difference for the carrots.

A handful of beans, one green bell pepper, a few good-sized cucumbers ('Bush Pickle'--still none from the Lemon plant), and look at all those tomatoes!

There are some of each variety planted in that bowl. One roma finally got ripe, a few Early Girls and Golden Nuggets, and the rest are Cougar Reds.

I still have a whole bunch of green ones out there. I hope they keep on ripening like this!

Now I have to figure out what to do with them. I could freeze some more, or maybe try to can a few.We'll see. I think the zukes may go to a neighbor. We still have some in our fridge (which doesn't even count the 5 I gave away last week!)

I may need to buy some lettuce for a big, yummy salad bar!