Reply to Michele: September Harvest

Michele,

Yes, I would love to hear more about your Ayurveda treatments. It sounds fascinating!

The garden has been growing and growing since I last posted. Mostly various vines with very little to show for it. The pumpkins and various squash varieties all produced massive vines which took up most of the space in the garden but I only ate one zucchini all summer. One. For all the cucumbers I planted I mostly grew vines with a handful of fruit. Disappointing. However, I did have many gourds.

I didn't plant gourds so this was a surprise. I think they are volunteers from last Halloween's decorations which ended up in the compost. Anyway, I have gourds. Hooray!

The grape vine is producing.

I have both red and green peppers. These are a Spanish variety of pepper. Some are very spicy but others are mild. So eating these is always a surprise. I also planted a Caribbean hot pepper that didn't do much of anything.

The tomatoes have been a disappointment so far. I have a lot of green tomatoes, but thus far we've harvested and eaten perhaps a total of 7 ripe tomatoes. The tomatoes you see below are huge but it's hard to tell from the photo. The weather is turning chilly so I'm not sure if these will ripen up. I may be eating a lot of fried green tomatoes in the weeks to come.

 I have a pot of basil.

These little cherry tomatoes were the success of 2013. The kids eat them right off the vine and the plants have kept up with the demand. I'm hoping this heirloom variety will seed in for next year.

This pretty morning glory is one of many on my arbor, though all the rest are up on the top where I can't get a photo! These were also volunteers this year. I'm quite pleased with these. Very pretty.

And here is another variety of green paper. These are a little spicy.

 

So, sadly I will have no pumpkins for Halloween and will head to someone else's pumpkin patch for decorations. When everything is done producing, I'll clear out the garden to prepare for the winter. I planted some kale in one of the raised beds so we'll see if anything comes of that as a cold crop.

 

Overall this summer, the biggest success was salad greens, cherry tomatoes, collard greens and beets. We also had a nice crop of black raspberries from our wild patch. In the flower boxes, nasturtiums, impatiens, petunias and lavender did very well. The Malabar spinach stopped growing in July. The tomatoes, peas, and peppers were so-so.

 

I don't think I'll be planting squash in the future. It's just not doing well here. I have not been able to produce zucchini for the past several years, which has me puzzled. In the past, I had so many I can't give it all away! So, next year the space will go to something else with which I'll hopefully fine more success.

 

How are things going in your garden? Have you decided to winter garden or not?

 

~Caroline