I’ve heard more people than usual talk about putting their gardens to bed early this year. We’ve had so much that gardeners have lost tomato plants to root rot. My tomatoes aren’t producing like usual, but the garden is still producing.
Unless there’s a weather disaster, I typically harvest
fruits and vegetables through October, sometimes even into early November.
Here’s a tour of the garden this week with a few thoughts on the longevity of
each plant.
Come to my house and plants will greet you as you walk up
the steps to our kitchen door. The basil (bottom) will last until first frost.
I’ll bring it indoors before first frost, or put it in the greenhouse, but it
seldom does well after summer. Next are the Gerbera Daisies. They are one of my
favorite flowers because of their vibrant colors. They’ll live inside during
the winter and even bloom every few months if they get enough light. My goal is
to keep them through the winter so I can put them out again next year. At the
top you see the Angel Wing Begonia. I’ve tried to keep it inside over the
winter but it gets gangly. If you have a tip for how to prevent that, let me
know!
Our peaches didn’t do so well this year. The problem was a
double one—too much shade from a still-growing tulip poplar tree and too much
rain. We are getting a few small fruits and they won’t last more than another
week or two. The tree grew from a peach pit thrown into our yard so we’re happy
with anything we get from this unexpected addition to our garden.
I picked about two-thirds of our beans over the weekend. I
like growing beans to dry then store over the winter. This year I grew our
typical Pinto Beans along with two experiments—Pawnee Shell Beans and Hutterite
Beans. I’ll give a taste report on the last two when I try them. The rest will
be dry enough to pick within the month.
I don’t know how long the tomatoes will last. These San
Marzanos are the happiest in the bunch right now. I do have seven plants
elsewhere in the yard that came up as surprises from last year. They all still
have green tomatoes and didn’t get as much rain so perhaps they’ll produce
longer.
In the foreground are the nasturtiums, which have grown
abundantly this year. They should last until late September or October. Behind
them is the perennial Mountain Mint (with the white flowers) that I rub on my
skin to repel mosquitoes. It will be okay until a hard frost.
My peppers did poorly this year, another victim of shade and
rain. They usually last until first frost and sometimes past then if I cover
them.
The kale also continues to flourish, giving me abundant
opportunities to experiment with this healthy veggie from the cruciferous
family.
Yes, we have a walnut tree. Our best walnut harvest was when
a local man collected our walnuts, and what fell into the neighbor’s yard, took
them for processing then brought us a package of ready-to-use walnuts as
payment. I hope he shows up again this year because I’m happy for someone else
to do the work and keep a portion of them.
The miniature eggplant has done well. Will we get another
harvest of it this year? Stay tuned. I’m still relatively new with this fine
vegetable so I’m learning. It has produced several nice fruits in two harvests
so far.
Raspberries, lovely raspberries. The rain has made them plump.
They usually give us fruit until first frost.
Here’s the year’s experiment—squashplanted in straw bales.
Zucchini, Delicata and Butternuts are growing. Will the winter squash plants
produce before frost? I’m not sure but I am hopeful.
We get a few grapes in lucky years. It’s not that they don’t
produce; the wildlife usually get to them before we do. This year, the
cardinals have been chirping happily as they eat.
What’s growing in your garden now?
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