Fall Harvesting

Well, I'm still getting a good harvest despite the lack of time to care for the garden.  Yesterday, I picked about a pound of green beans, 1 cucumber, 3 jalapenos, a bunch of tomatoes and a handful of lettuce. 
Some of the tomatoes that I had picked weeks ago are now ripening (or at least it feels like weeks ago).  So It's good timing to make some salsa and can it.  If I was feeling well, I would get right on it, but alas, I caught another cold.  I think I'll try my hand at pickles with the cucumber since it's a miserable looking thing.
Oh! AND I got 1 zucchini!  I would have had 2 but some pest ate half the other one.

After further research, I found that I made a mistake by not planting the marigolds this year! They are a very good pest deterrent, which I didn't realize until all my plants started getting eaten!  Live and Learn.  This winter, I'm going to research other plants that deter bugs (like Japanese beetles and squash bugs).  I found a few good links that I bookmarked in my delicious account.  You can check them out too.  I don't know how reliable the sources are, but I can do further research to check the facts.
Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow to take some pictures of the pumpkins and ripened tomatoes!

Cheers!
   

Fall Begins

Yesterday my helper bee (my boyfriend) noticed one of the morning glory plants had a flower!  It is a huge blue one! I couldn't find my camera though (hopefully just buried in my room), so I didn't get a picture, but it was exciting!  After months of growing, FINALLY have a flower. 
I picked 6 more cucumbers, a few leaves of lettuce & another 1/2 lbs of beans.
I picked most of my tomatoes (all the big ones) off their vines and put them in paper bags to ripen.  I'm afraid frost will get them; but I did leave a bunch of the smaller ones on the vine in hopes that they will turn red if I give them another week. 
I have a few more jalapenos left and some bell peppers are growing!   I think it may frost before they are full grown though; but at least I know for next year that they will do well when planted at the proper time.
I also rotated my pumpkins so they won't rot on the bottoms.
And I have to get out our old sheets from the basement to cover the plants at night, just in case it does frost.  This way I can get a few more weeks out of them. 

Cheers! 

A Wee Bit Chille'

I've got Jalapeno peppers!!!!!  YAY!!! Success.
After much hard work and trial and error, I have peppers.  I actually picked one jalapeno this weekend! and I can pick the others soon!  I think the pollinating I did actually worked because only those plants that I experimented on have peppers.  The pepper plants in the containers definitely failed.  They haven't grown for months.  I'm going to make salsa with them! 

I also got 3 more cucumbers! Hard to believe, I know.  Growing them vertically really was a success!

They are in the background above-all the water has spread a bacteria on them.  I still have to look it up, so I can prevent it next year, but the cukes are still coming! 

The pumpkins are fantastic!  I'm so excited! I thought there would be more, but 2 will do.  I'm going to have to see if I can use a pinch off method next year, because they've taken over.  I tried a little this year, but it didn't seem to stop the growing!  Hardy buggers! 

Lettuce in a container works awesome!  It didn't work in doors at all, but outdoors, it grows like crazy. 

My beans grew a LOT taller than I thought....  I've never grown pole beans, usually the bush variety.  So I thought they would be a few feet-didn't end up that way.  They are about 6 feet.  Maybe I should have read the bag.  But they have been a success; I got 1.5 lbs this weekend off the plants.  And they were huge! 

My tomatoes are doing excellent considering I started about a month and a half late.  I have tons of green tomatoes.  I don't know if any of them will turn red, but I have a good recipe for grilled green tomatoes if they don't.  So I'm just happy they were so successful. 

I grew a fall bunch of peas! And this is how they are doing:

I also planted 4 new blueberry plants for my parents.  I love blueberries! 

Mom has been working quite a bit lately and hasn't had time to go get her mums.  So I bought mums for my mom!  I tried to match the colors so it would look as cheerful as possible for her when she came home!

I still don't have a spot for my garlic-I just have to talk to dad about a good-out-of-the-way spot. They should be mailed out soon, so I should probably get that ready....

Cheers!  :)

Cuke Mania

Well, the pumpkin is slowly turning orange.  I rotated it yesterday to make sure the bottom doesn't rot. I have to find some cardboard to put under it. 
I got 8 more cucumbers last week off the vine! Craziness!  I also have 3 little peppers growing!  Last week I tried an experiment (since it's rained so much, it's hard for the plants to get pollinated) where I took my finger and tried to rub the pollen from the male flowers to the females.  It's hard to tell which is which, so I just took the powder from one and rubbed it with my finger tip on the ones without.
And now all of a sudden I have peppers!  I think they are both jalapenos! 
I also bought the Ball Blue Book-guide to preserving.  It is excellent!  It has loads of recipes for making jams/jellies/pies/pickle/salsas/jerky/rubs...and the list goes on!  I'm going to can apple sauce within a few weeks; I need to go to Adam's Orchard to pick first though and I don't know when I'll have the time.
Today ended beautifully with the sun shining; perfect for a walk with my friends! 

cheers!

Cucumbers Galore

So I picked FIVE more cucumbers today! I should download what the weather has been for the past 3 months!  It's been a great year for cukes!  I have a bunch of tomatoes on the vines too now.  Some of them are itty bitty, but at the least, I will have green tomatoes this fall!  And they don't have blight; I was just paranoid because of the disaster last year. 
My dad says that I haven't been getting any beans-even though they are awesome vines right now-because the deer will eat the flower buds off of them!  I know it's deer, and not rabbits, because it's too high off the ground where the bite marks are for rabbits.
I have a huge pumpkin growing too! And some smaller ones in there also!  Very exciting!
I think the horse manure has worked out well despite all the aggressive weeds! 

Cheers!

Raining Buckets!

I put out extra buckets to catch the rain water for reuse in the garden because it was raining so much!  And I've recently dug up and replanted some lilac shoots and they desperately need water!  So I'm glad for the rain this week.  My tomatoes were looking grim too, so now I'll have plenty and can feel good about wishing for sunny days! 
Some things I want to remember for next year are:
1) to plant some different varieties of tomatoes (some of the heirloom variety)
2) to plant earlier (around the end of march start the peas/beans/radishes).
3) to set out the rain buckets earlier
This winter I want to attempt growing English Cucumbers-apparently they don't need to be pollinated, so this would be a good indoor variety.  Me and Annemarie also have a friend who are giving us a banana tree to grow (yes, they grow it outside in VT)...so that should be loads of fun! 
And I got 3 more cucumbers this past Saturday!  So I'll have to go through the blog and count how many that is now!  It's over 10; hopefully I recorded them all!
I've also ordered garlic to grow this October to harvest next fall.  Very exciting!  Thanks to Rene who organized that for me!  :)

Cheers!

5 cucumbers!

I got 5 more cucumbers yesterday and there are a whole bunch more on the vine!  It looks like I may get a  few tomatoes too.  The peppers haven't come in yet, but it's ok.  The plants look really good, they just needed more time.  And I found out why my radishes were doing so badly-they needed more water and colder temperatures.  They are a hot food, so I thought they would do better in warm temps! oh well.  I'll try again at the end of August!
Cheers!