Putting the garden to bed

At the end of a tiring but mostly successful growing season, the garden deserves a good rest. Last week Christian helped me to lay the garden down for a long fall and winter's sleep. First a shot of how overgrown and unkempt I allowed the garden to get in the last days and weeks of summer:


Some knowledge to apply to my next attempts:

-Always and judiciously prune indeterminate tomato plants; mine got too out of hand and terribly tangled, making it difficult to discern one plant from the next and also hard to pick the fruit

-Bigger does not always mean better: It would have behooved me to focus my energy on fewer plants and given more individual attention to those specimens

-Allow adequate spacing! Even with my crowding problems last year, I still did not allow enough room for rows and individual plants to really flourish. Spacing is of utmost importance

Christian and I filled several large containers with the season's final peppers, sparse eggplants and green tomatoes (at this moment ripening in the windowsill). The plants were pulled and gathered into a compost pile. As a final measure we broadcast seeds of a winter green cover (crimson clover, buckwheat, etc.) over the newly bare soil. Hard to say if the seeds will sprout before the frost kills their chances, but we shall see.

Most of the garden lies in shade by this time of year, thanks to the condos next door. The back of the garden, nearest the hedge, does still receive a fair bit of light in the late afternoon.
The cloche was set up again to house the carnivorous plants I've gathered over the summer, and the cold frame has been re-appropriated again, this time to house additional carnivorous plant seedlings that will not fit in the cloche.

The inside of the cloche lined with flats of carnivorous plants

Five flats fit inside the cold frame just right.

Under The Quinoa Rainbow

Throughout the season quinoa has proven to be a top performer, a plant I intend on growing wherever/whenever I have the chance to garden. The plants I grew this summer exceeded my expectations, growing twice as tall (about 8' instead of 4') as the seed package stated. The bushy seed clusters at the top of each plant exhibit a wide array of variability, at least as far as colors are concerned. A quick glance down the row reveals an unexpected explosion of color, from red, orange, yellow and beige (typically sold in stores). With the advent of fall the seed clusters are nearing harvest time, after the first frost.

Holy Tomato!

Just a quick post to show off a tomato grown by my parents. A massive heirloom variety that weighed in at just over two pounds. As it grew it pulled the branch it had grown on to the ground despite my parents efforts to tie the branch up with a bamboo stake for support.



Mom with the tomato for scale

Just for fun (and to live vicariously) here's the first fruit on an eggplant I gave them to plant in their garden:

Lookin' good!

September bounty

Did a bit of harvesting from the garden yesterday. Production has reached a seasonal high and until the first frost it will only be a matter of keeping up with eating it all or finding a home for the extra produce. Tomatoes have yielded the best so far, and surprisingly, the beans keep on going. I was forced to cut down the sunflower head after I noticed that something had begun to nibble at the edges of the seeds. I later discovered a squirrel running down the stalk, dismayed probably at having his easy source of seeds taken away.

Also, to my delight, I realized all was not lost on the eggplant front. A separate plant I had hidden in the empty cold frame had survived the raccoons plundering and had reached a rather respectable size, now ripe for the picking. All in all a good day to be a gardener.

Pepper Paradise

Pepper season officially began two days ago. I stalked my way to the first ripe lady bell pepper and pulled it from the plant, turning the sun-warmed fruit in my hand. With pure, simplistic gratification I relished the thought of having seen a seed sown so many months ago finally achieve its biological goal. Felt like a parent's pride. Nature, sweet diviner of the harvest that awaits the patient gardener.

Autumn in the air

Like a scent on the breeze, autumn calls across August's divide. We've emerged from the past week's heat wave only to find fall's cool and overcast days waiting on the wings. The last string of days this week marked a rather sudden and welcome transition. Temperatures on average have dropped about 30 degrees from the week before. I'm sure the heat will be back in some respect before summer officially ends, but for now, this respite feels just fine.

One good thing about the advent of fall though: HARVEST! The first of the tomatoes are finally ripening. Each plant's vines are overflowing with fruit, but very little of it has actually ripened with the exception of a few cherry and pear tomatoes. Peppers and eggplants continue to flourish and swell in size; the first fruit from each should be ready within the next week.

I recently (finally) installed some 'pesticide free zone' signs in the garden, one for the front and one for the back. I received the signs from the green festival way back in March, and procrastinated putting them up for fear of sending the wrong message (greener than thou). Now that they're up I'm glad I got around to it.