We had our fall work day in the community garden this past Saturday. We mostly weeded, cleaned and got the garden ready for winter. There was a big patch of Jerusalem artichokes in the flower bed we adopted and we needed to take them out. Some of them came home with me and made it into this small bouquet.
I went to the garden late this afternoon and harvested 10 oz. of green beans, 4 butternut squash (10 lb. 14 oz. total), a big handful of Swiss chard and the last dahlia. I only took the squash that had brown stems, the remaining 9 (!) still have green stems, so they might grow and ripen a bit more. I need to carefully watch the night temperatures though.
Happy fall from my back porch.
I harvested my first green beans today. I had sowed them very late this season but they came in great and with the warm weather forecast for the next week or so, I should have plenty to harvest.
I also made another veggie/herb/flower bouquet: dahlia, (bolted) purple lettuce, dill and lavender:
I love this type of dahlia. The colors are amazing. When the flower is still closed it is a beautiful shade of salmon pink. When it opens, the inside of the petals is almost neon yellow with a slight greenish tint. It then becomes lighter and turns into a cream color as the flower starts to fade. I wish I remembered the name.
The tomatoes are winding down, sadly. Still tons of chard, green beans, cauliflower, a couple of cucumbers, leeks, onions and a whole squash patch. And the fall greens are coming up. The carrots not so much.
This morning, I spent an hour in the garden weeding and harvesting. My plan was to harvest the potatoes but alas, I got only a handful of small fingerlings. Most of the potatoes I had planted never became a plant and I suspect those pill bugs that are so abundant in my soil are responsible :(. This is the second year of no potatoes and I think I will not plant any next year. Very sad as I was looking forward to some roasted fingerlings.
I did however harvest some huge cucumbers, a bunch of tomatoes and my golden beets.
Some things to look forward to:
This is what I came home to after ten days vacation (my community garden neighbors watered the plot and harvested some of the veggies). Slicing cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, tomatoes, chard, eggplant, jalapenos. The bouquet is dahlia, asparagus, lemon balm, mint. It smells divine. I also picked some parsley for the eggplant dish I have planned for tonight.
A little porch update in pictures: There will be tons of little 4 inch-long eggplants it seems. This is my first time growing eggplant in containers and I am very happy with the result.
The plants on my Southwest-facing back porch are doing well for the most part. We had plenty of rain lately and last week we had a couple of really hot days so those tiny chard and kale seedlings are finally catching up. I am very impressed with the potatoes and the lettuce.
