Summer’s End

Colendar full of colorful sweet peppers.

This is the last of the pepper harvest.

You know it is the end of summer when the last of the veggies goes in the freezer. It was a better year for peppers this year than last, the plants were healthy and vigorous, but I think the rainy weather cut the yields a bit. The hot peppers flopped because the soil stayed too wet. I need to find another place for those next year.

All that’s left now is Kale, Swiss Chard and Collards. There will be some great soups this fall! Lots of herbs left, also. I’ll need to dry some of those and maybe make some Tarragon and Rosemary Vinegar.

Worst Summer for Mosquitos.

This has been the worst summer for ever for mosquitoes. We had about 1 week near the beginning of August where we could sit outside, but then more rain and more bugs. Because of the impossibility of working in the garden with swarms of bugs, even in bright sunlight, I was unable to plant any second crops, and actually never planted some of the later first crops like other varieties of zucchini and later basil plantings.

Peppers yielded well, but the hot peppers by the back fence were  a total fail, as the ground was too wet all summer. The heirlooms and most of the other tomatoes got the black wilt and didn’t produce well. The large amounts produced many split tomatoes which then rotted. The Romas yielded well in spite of it all. The few cucumber I planted did well, but later plantings never got planted. The zucchini planted from seed never came up.