Abbott & Costello

Welcome, October!

   The first snowfall of the season happened on October 2nd this year.  By mid-afternoon it had stopped and the snow had melted.  The nights are decidedly cooler and the leaves have begun to turn.  In this part of the country, autumn foliage displays various shades of yellow with an occasional bit of orange showing up.  It has it's own beauty, though I do often miss and long for the vibrant autumn colours of my youth in Nova Scotia.

   Deer continue to make daily visits to our yard, though there is almost nothing left of the garden for them to eat.  Last night, a mama deer with two little ones perused the garden plots, nibbling on the last bits of kale, sunflowers, and crabapples.  This past weekend, we were surprised to see two adult females and FOUR very young deer in the yard.  That is a record, for us!

   We have been slowly cleaning up the garden, pulling up plants and putting away tools, sheets, and containers.  There is still much to do.  We have been spoiled, in recent years, with warm, dry weather at the end of September and into October.  This year has been cooler and wetter, so the leisurely pace of clean-up we've become used to isn't particularly working in our favour.  

   The dahlias are still blooming in their pots, actually looking better than they did all summer; they seem to prefer the cooler temps.  All the potatoes (grown in containers, this year) have been harvested except for a few plants in the south garden.  A few calendula plants are still growing.  The deer have nibbled most of the blooms off, but I won't pull the plants until they've been zapped by a hard frost.  Parsley, mint, and celery still going strong. 

   In the next week or so, the plan is to till the garden plots and for me to plant the garlic patch.  Due to this season's garlic apocalypse, there will be far fewer cloves planted, with an emphasis on planting bulbils in older to rebuild my stock and next autumn's garlic patch.  Fortunately, I have some bulbils and rounds harvested from this summer's garlic, and a generous soul in Ontario was kind enough to send me more than enough bulbils to replenish the patch.  Seven of the varieties he sent were new-to-me, and one (Jesuit House garlic) is quite uncommon.

 

Our house feels more like a shed these days, with boxes of tomatoes and peppers ripening, beans (that didn't have time to dry out outdoors) and the largest sunflower heads hanging from the ceiling, potatoes in bags and buckets, bottles of fermenting tomato seeds, and little plates and bowls of saved seeds sitting on every available surface.  I have learned to ride out this time period (August-November or so...), albeit uncomfortably.  I do not feel or function well with clutter and disorder, but it is a necessary evil at the end of gardening season.

 

 

 

A few pictures...

Ajvarki peppers.  I'm so glad I took another chance on growing these.  I grew them several years ago, but they didn't stand out as especially productive.  What a difference this year!  

This was the first to ripen (early September): 

 

A typical example of the largest ones:

 

 

These are some that were harvested at the end of September:

 

Anaheim peppers.  I will grow these again, too.  I thought they would be hot, like jalapenos, but they aren't.  They do have an excellent flavour, though, almost smoky.  They are taking longer than the Ajvarski to ripen; I suspect they have a longer "DTM" (days to maturity). 

 

This Russian Mammoth is the tallest sunflower of the summer and one of the few still left in the garden.  The head of this one (it's almost square, at this point!) will be dried for seed saving, and anything left over will be given to the birds to enjoy.  The sparrows, chickadees, and an occasional blue jay have been gobbling the seeds from the smaller sunflower heads R has been putting up in the trees by the south garden.

The North Georgia Candy Roasters were the first of the winter squash harvested (around September 19th).  From the single plant, we got two fairly large ones and a small one that has, for some reason, begun to shrivel and decay on one end.  

 

Sweet Meat was next to be harvested (late September).  I obtained small amounts of seed from two different sources in trades, and you can tell!  Two have the shape and colour I associate with Sweet Meat squash, but they are small.  The other two are the size I associate with Sweet Meat, but the colour and shape seem a bit off.  I think the latter crossed with another squash or pumpkin variety somewhere along the way.  

 

The Burpee's Butterbush squash were the last to be harvested (late September/early October) and many were picked before they'd turned the tan colour that indicates they're well on the way to maturity.  We had cold overnight temps forecast, and we didn't want to take the chance of leaving them outside.  Two of the butterbush are the size of a regular butternut squash - very large! - while the rest are more typical of the size you'd expect from Burpee's Butterbush.  

 

 

R began referring to the two large ones as "Abbott and Costello".  You can see why...

 

Other odds and ends, pictures taken during September than missed being posted:

An early, cool morning in early September finds this big, fuzzy bee resting on a little sunflower:

 

Another early September visitor gracing the nasturtiums.

 

Seed balls on the asparagus ferns.

 

Dahlias

 

 

 

Volunteer poppies appeared in a potted pepper plant late in mid-September.  Better late than never!

A little volunteer aster at the edge of the north garden.  The blooms started out white but turned baby pink in colour, very pretty.  Unfortunately, a deer dined on the blooms last night.

'Pacific Beauty Mix' Calendula (one with a little fuzzy bee on it).