On this day
16 Oct 2021 06:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ursulas_alcoveWe usually have frost. Every year. Always. We got a good rain. The temperature dipped. No frost yet but soon. Next weekend we are due to hit 39 degrees. I won't be here so the end of the garden is nigh! But what is there to harvest at this time of year, you ask?
For starters, I planted a late crop of yellow beans. I planted the purple beans early and the yellow beans late. It gave me just enough beans to freeze some and have fresh beans for soup as well as some for seed. Saving seed is important, now more than ever. Sometimes I let them dry on the vine. Other times, I wait until the beans are obviously overripe. They get picked and go into a basket to dry.
I did go through some of the stash of seeds drying on top the fridge. Some were in a pie pan that rusted. I composted those. Another pan looked like cantaloupe seeds but were not marked. I had also dried the neighbor's zucchini seeds. I guess we'll find out what they really were next year. I like surprises, don't you? The dill seeds have been on the kitchen table longer than I can remember. I don't know what year they were from. I packaged those. I think they are probably dry enough by now. I packaged the Amish tomato seeds. I have more seeds marked in trays. I am waiting for the furnace to be on to make sure they are dry. Even my summer clothes feel damp to me. I am waiting to stow those until the furnace works it's magic.
The garden produce is tallied every Saturday. The total to date is 283 lbs. As you can see, there is still more to be harvested. The Long Island Cheese Pumpkins are tinier this year. I'm not actually sure why. The early season ones were big, normal sized. The late season ones, not so much. Perhaps it was the summer heat. The butternut vine thinks its spring and is producing small fruit right now. They won't reach maturity.
There is more to be harvested besides pumpkins. Celery needs to be cut and dried for winter. It'll be nice to run the dehydrator overnight since the temperature dropped. There are only a few tomatoes left to be picked. In every year prior to this one, we pulled in up to 30 lbs of tomatoes on this date. I haven't looked closely at the front yard production, however, I believe there is less than 10 lbs left on the vines.
I am hoping for the biggest yield in the sweet potato bed. There is also a second round of beets in there. The bugs this year have been brutal. Hopefully they didn't destroy the root crops. Swiss chard also needs to be harvested and frozen for winter. Not sure I'll have time to get at that before I leave for SAFF.
The final garden total won't be in until December. I will have a small winter bed for salad greens. Today's rain really helped. I'm excited to see the final totals as well as plan for next year. The garden needs nutrients. I predict compost shoveling in my future.
For starters, I planted a late crop of yellow beans. I planted the purple beans early and the yellow beans late. It gave me just enough beans to freeze some and have fresh beans for soup as well as some for seed. Saving seed is important, now more than ever. Sometimes I let them dry on the vine. Other times, I wait until the beans are obviously overripe. They get picked and go into a basket to dry.
I did go through some of the stash of seeds drying on top the fridge. Some were in a pie pan that rusted. I composted those. Another pan looked like cantaloupe seeds but were not marked. I had also dried the neighbor's zucchini seeds. I guess we'll find out what they really were next year. I like surprises, don't you? The dill seeds have been on the kitchen table longer than I can remember. I don't know what year they were from. I packaged those. I think they are probably dry enough by now. I packaged the Amish tomato seeds. I have more seeds marked in trays. I am waiting for the furnace to be on to make sure they are dry. Even my summer clothes feel damp to me. I am waiting to stow those until the furnace works it's magic.
The garden produce is tallied every Saturday. The total to date is 283 lbs. As you can see, there is still more to be harvested. The Long Island Cheese Pumpkins are tinier this year. I'm not actually sure why. The early season ones were big, normal sized. The late season ones, not so much. Perhaps it was the summer heat. The butternut vine thinks its spring and is producing small fruit right now. They won't reach maturity.
There is more to be harvested besides pumpkins. Celery needs to be cut and dried for winter. It'll be nice to run the dehydrator overnight since the temperature dropped. There are only a few tomatoes left to be picked. In every year prior to this one, we pulled in up to 30 lbs of tomatoes on this date. I haven't looked closely at the front yard production, however, I believe there is less than 10 lbs left on the vines.
I am hoping for the biggest yield in the sweet potato bed. There is also a second round of beets in there. The bugs this year have been brutal. Hopefully they didn't destroy the root crops. Swiss chard also needs to be harvested and frozen for winter. Not sure I'll have time to get at that before I leave for SAFF.
The final garden total won't be in until December. I will have a small winter bed for salad greens. Today's rain really helped. I'm excited to see the final totals as well as plan for next year. The garden needs nutrients. I predict compost shoveling in my future.
