It is 9:15am, raining, and 8 degrees C. The cats are curled up in hibernation mode, and a cat that doesn't belong to us (but seems to wish to) is sound sleep on the cat tree in the plant room. The furnace is on, and a big mug of hot chocolate is in my near future.
We're into another spell of cool, rainy weather. Far from ideal weather for the dry beans. This morning, I noticed that some of the Tiger Eye beans were starting to split on the vine, so picked a bunch of white and yellow pods and brought them inside to dry. I did the same with some of the Beka Brown beans. The Dolloff (pole) beans look too underdeveloped to pull yet, and most of the Ireland Creek Annie and Tene's Beans pods are still green. I'll leave them on the plants for the time being.
I harvested the last few Romano beans and pulled the plants from the garden. I also pulled the Kiev and Red Russian garlic bulbs from which I hope to get bulbils and hung them in the plant room. There are still a number of Red Russian garlic bulbs in the garden that I will need to harvest and attempt to dry in the next week or two. I had hoped for an extended period of dry, warm weather - better for harvesting garlic - but it was not in the cards this year.
The weather this summer has delayed the maturing and harvesting of most crops and has thrown me off my usual Fall routine. That, combined with a chronic lack of energy this year, makes me wonder if I am going to get everything done before the end of October.
The cabbage are looking good, and the zucchini plants have given me 4 small zucchini. Not the abundance expected, but certainly better than none at all. The Norland potatoes have been delicious. I dug up a few, but the vast majority of potatoes are still in the garden and need to be harvested, a task I am not looking forward to (wet layers of straw = matted and hard-to-shovel).
Last week, I pulled the first bunch of carrots. There were several "Oh La La" carrots. The first one or two are fun to discover. After that, they elicit a groan, as they are a nuisance to process! This one is a Purple Dragon carrot on a bucket of onions.
Bucket of carrots...
...washed in one of the rain barrels. After that, they were peeled, sliced, blanched, and dehydrated to store.
A pink dahlia opened...
...and the dahlia behind the house bloomed. It is an unusual rust/orange colour that I haven't seen before.
One of the single-headed sunflowers. Hoping the others will bloom soon, too!
The bees love the multi-headed sunflowers. Most in the garden this year are "Lemon Queen" and an unnamed variety mailed out upon request as a Cheerios promotion.
The East garden.
A ripening Black Sea Man tomato.
Early Annie is true to it's name!
Bea loves to snooze in this spot behind the tomato plants while I'm working outside.
An odd section of a Work Release Paste plant produced what looked like a fused cluster of several flowers. It produced a wonky-looking tomato that eventually grew into a whopper.
It was the first of any of the Work Release Paste tomatoes to set and grow, and the first to mature. It ripened completely on the plant, while the rest are still green.
I discovered this Midnight Sun tomato at the base of a plant, on the ground. It was the first one that set and grew, and is the largest of the Midnight Suns that have grown (though typically, they get this size or larger). I was happy when I spotted it...
...until I turned it over and saw the rot! While not an ideal tomato, I am going to try saving seeds from it in case the ones remaining on the plant don't mature enough before hard frosts hit.
A small sunflower opening in the tomato bed.
Dahliettas - better late than never!
The cosmos are still going strong. :)
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