News good and bad. The last couple of nights the babies growing in the vegetable penitentiary, the greenhouse-side bed and the herb garden have suffered frost damage. The total of beans harvested (except the pole beans, still trying to produce) is kg 4.919. I have been able to freeze a number of portions for winter consumption.
Pests have been hitting the garden. In the greenhouse a rat cut all but one of the eggplant leaves with surgical precision, and for that he got his just reward (not to scale; this is a BIG rat):
Our visiting deer has enjoyed the run of the garden tasting tomatoes, defoliating everything he can reach. Next season I will protect my plants better. Here is a sample of his random destruction:
The apple harvest has begun. Here is what these babies look like:
I don't know what kind of apples they are, other than they are dear to me. I have already made two batches of apples sauce. So far I have harvested, not counting those fallen to the ground, thirty apples weighing kg 2.6.
I guess I have been wishing for summer to linger, but the Virginia creeper has warned me with with its fall colors, such as they are in this corner of the world:
Hello Autumn!
I harvested the first melon cuke, here pictured with its cousin lemon:
I have determined that the greenhouse visitor is pak choi. I have harvested, cooked, and eaten it. Delicious. Now I will wait for its seeds for next season's garden.
The heirloom tomatoes are ripening, and so are the small tomatoes. I don't know if these are the Campari tomatoes (from seeds I saved from tomatoes bought at Sprouts), or the small tomatoes I had enjoyed last year, or both, or which is which. This follows from my not impeccable labeling, but, heck, the plants are producing.
I have an interesting visitor to the greenhouse, and I do not know what it is. It has brand new florets, and the stalks look edible and juicy. I won't try it until I know what it is:
The tomato vines in the greenhouse have reached the ceiling:
and are full of fruit. So, vegetable life is good.
Now I have to start thinking about my apricot and plum trees. As in the past few years, they both flowered beautifully, only to drop the flowers and develop shriveled and curled leaves. Eventually there is some new leaf growth, and this is healthy. First the apricot, then the plum:
I will prune both trees, then treat them with my spray oil, fertilize them, and keep an eye on them.
The peach harvest is over. I picked 196 peaches from the mama tree, and 4 from the young peach, a total of 200 peaches weighing Kg. 18.571. Not bad!!
The heirloom tomatoes are ripening. Yesterday I picked the first two, and promptly turned them into sauce for my spaghetti, which turned out delicious. I added basil and sweet onions. These two babies came in at 880 grams, two pounds, roughly! The larger weighs 481 grams. Many more will follow, and the little tomatoes are also ripening.
Today I picked the first lemon cuke, a 66g specimen that I will enjoy at lunch. I also picked some of the pole beans, but I must say, I am not fond of their shapes. Here are both items:
The zucchini have been coming, 11 so far (Kg 2.435), with many more to come. The squash have taken over the vegetable penitentiary, and are coming in all shapes and colors. I will study the situation to see if I can figure out what sort of cross-breeding is going on.
Next in line are the apples, and tree is so loaded that the longer outer branches rest on the ground. Lots of fruit, apple sauce, apple butter ...
This is what I saw this morning. A lovely prelude to more blushing:
Even the decorative babies outside the greenhouse are sprouting flowers. Nice!
Today I harvested the first two zucchini. Many more will follow, as all five plants are healthy and full of flowers.
These two beauties, of the right eating size, came in at 380 grams.
The peach harvest continues, and today I picked 40 more peaches, a total of Kg 3.583. More to harvest in the next few days. But the birds are competing strongly for the fruit.
