Packing Up the Garden

October 22.

Well, it was time to "pack up" the garden for winter.  A little late with the harvest, but the Lord was gracious and we were able to the bulk of the work done.

Sweet red peppers to pick.

Parsley to cut, chop, and freeze.

Every tomato larger than a golf ball gets picked!

Sweet green peppers.

After the harvest, it was time to get all the Velcro tape off the plants.  I save this each year for the next year.  This is the tape that holds the drooping plants up against the stakes.

Joseph was diligent to make sure every tomato that could be picked was picked.

Pulling up stakes.

A rare picture of me--working instead of taking pictures, lol.

The tomato harvest on my counter--wow!

Those tomatoes will slowly ripen, and we'll get to use them in sauce, salsa, and sandwiches.  Yum!


Back to life,
Christine

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October Garden Date

October 1.

Fernando doesn't really have an interest in our garden, except maybe to eat the food once it's on the table.  I just found out his dad had a green thumb, too!  My dearie is a sweetheart, though, and willingly helps me if he can.  And today he did just that.  :)

We watered everything once we were done harvesting, because it looked like we'd still have more to harvest with our mild October weather so far.

The overview:

Here's the harvest of jalapeños on my kitchen counter.

A few days later, I pickled and canned them with some of my garden garlic!

Beautiful tomatoes for autumn spaghetti sauce!

Back to life,
Christine

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Mid September Garden

September 18.

Have a look at my garden as we start to turn toward autumn...

Below are my pepper plants, sweet and green, and jalapenos beyond.  They're still producing, especially the Giant Marconi sweet bells--those plants are crazy!

My tomato plants are nearing the end of their life span, but they're still producing.  I'll get a nice harvest today.

Garden Peach tomatoes.

Tomatoes on the left, dormant strawberry plants on the right.

On to my squash plants!  I planted both butternut and acorn squash, though I learned later than you should plant them next to each other, as they'll be cross-pollinated.  They're still producing well, though, so I don't mind a little mingling in my garden.  ;)

The overview, as seen from our pool deck:

Back to life,
Christine

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August in My Vegetable Garden

August 18.

Whew.  I had just gotten a hold on canning all those tomatoes awaiting me after my trip to Lake Bonaparte.  Now it was time to bring my camera along on another harvest day, just a few days after the last one, it seemed.

The new basil plants I had purchased seemed to be doing okay, although they did show signs of the basil downy mildew that plagued my last batch of plants.

My squash plants were a little yellow still, but green at the ends, and the fruit was growing nicely.

There were little sweet red Fiesta peppers growing all over my two little plants!

And the Giant Marconi sweet green peppers were prolific!  I had never harvested so many in the three years I have been growing them.  I really love this pepper variety!

My three parsley plants were growing like bushes, and I harvested some to chop up and freeze.  Looks like I would have to do it again soon!

Some of my heirloom tomato plants were at least seven feet tall!  Standing there, I could barely see the roof of my house beyond the plants.

 Big Boy tomatoes.

Garden overview.

And, here's what I harvested this day:

And a quick follow-up, a few days later.  My peppers looked like this:

Back to life,
Christine

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