It's an overcast, cool morning (11 degrees at 11:00am). I thought I would zip around the garden and take a few pictures, as I'm beginning to wrap things up for the season.
So far, the nights have remained mild enough for the tomatoes and squash to be left on the vine. The next four days call for drizzle. I've started bringing in the dry bush beans even though they are not as mature as I'd like. If the pods get wet at this stage, the beans can sprout inside the pods.
The carrots are doing well and can stay in the ground another few weeks. I started harvesting cabbage earlier this week and was exasperated to discover that most of the cabbage has some degree of worm (or slug?) damage. Fortunately, it is confined to the bottom inch or two, so much of it is salvageable.
Three of the hot pepper plants croaked early on due to the cool, rainy weather. The remaining one (a "Tam" jalapeno) was so obscured by carrot tops that I forgot it was there! It is small - less than a foot tall - but has 5 or 6 little jalapenos on it. That was nice to rediscover.
South garden - the one large sunflower (a volunteer) finally bloomed! The cosmos are still going strong and there is a tomato plant and two small sunflowers in that plot. Otherwise, everything has been pulled.
North garden - the scene of the Great Pea Massacre of 2020. Alright, maybe that's a little dramatic... The entire patch of peas did get drowned out by heavy rains, which rotted the roots. This is the first year we haven't had peas from the garden. It will feel strange to buy them at the store! Remaining in this plot are cosmos, two potted tomatoes (Cream Sausage) and two in-ground tomatoes (Black Sea Man).
In the East garden (not pictured), all that remains are the cosmos and about 10 small tomato plants (Black Krim, Wentzell, Emerald Evergreen, and a mystery tomato). And a heck of a lot of grass and weeds. Uhg. This is the plot I want to plant my garlic in at the end of the month. I am not sure what it's going to take to clear that plot out. A little overwhelming.
South side of the house - mostly tomatoes, also Red Chantenay carrots, lemon balm, and my hidden jalapeno plant.
L-R: Bellstar (1) and Work Release Paste (2)
Bea watching bugs from her burlap-covered perch.
I am so glad the sunflowers finally opened! If we'd had a hard frost in late August/early September, we wouldn't have had any to enjoy. It's a welcome jolt of colour in the garden.
The lettuce is going to seed. The season has never been long enough to allow for collecting lettuce seeds, but the plants look so neat at this stage (kind of magical, really) that I want to leave them in the garden.
Some of the tomatoes are actually starting to ripen on the vine. Jewish (pictured), Principe Borghese, Black Sea Man, and the mystery variety in the East garden.
The dry bush bean plants are turning yellow and starting to dry back. I would love an additional week of warm, dry weather before having to pull them.
Summer savoury gone to flower and being overrun by the cucumber plants. Not good to harvest at this stage, but it still smells wonderful and the bees still visit it.
The view down the driveway. Galeux D'Eysines winter squash in the closest bed.
There are 5 Galeux D'Eysines squash - not bad considering the poor growing weather this summer. This is the most mature of the bunch: light tan with 'warty' sections emerging on the skin.
This is a nice large one, though it isn't as mature as the one pictured above. Here's hoping I can protect these plants from frost for the next few weeks so they can stay on the vine!
Agate pinto beans. These were a bit of a gamble to grow, as they aren't an early maturing variety. Most of the plants are still green and have green (immature) pods.
These are the most mature Agate pinto beans I could find in the patch. If worse comes to worst and a hard frost or freezing rain is forecast, I can pull these ones off and try to dry them indoors.
Gaspe Flint Corn. I'm glad I tried growing this. The plants are short and the variety is early. It would have performed even better in a normal gardening season. I'll grow these again.
Here are some cobs on the plants...
...and here are some I brought inside to start drying. They're small, about 2-3 inches. I've read that you can let flint varieties just dry down on the stalk before harvesting them, but September is too cool and damp here for the cobs to dry down completely on the stalk.
Candy Sweet Icicle tomatoes
The Auria tomatoes have done quite well. I like this variety because the fruit is a good size and the flesh is fairly dry (good for sauces). It developed blossom end rot this year and the other summer I grew it, though. I don't know if I'll try it again any time soon.
Black Sea Man - this is my second time growing this variety. It really outdid itself this summer. The plants were large and productive.
Black Krim
Bea snoozing on her burlap by the lilac bush.
The snap beans this summer were very small. I was surprised they produced any beans. The plants were so short that many of the beans touched the ground and so were damaged by slugs. I let the beans mature past the point where you'd want to eat them and then picked them this week. Hopefully, I can dry down the pods and save the seeds to plant next summer. (Red Swan and Calima)
I feel edgy about the state of this property at the best of times. I think it's safe to say that Martha Stewart would have a heart attack if she stepped foot in this house during harvest season. This is our laundry room at the moment, with garlic and bush beans hanging from the wall and ceiling to dry.
