It was almost 60° today. I put down peat moss and mushroom compost a week or so ago and rototilled it in. Most of the cleanup is done. I’ll finish in the next couple of days. I am hoping that this drone shot will be helpful in planning the garden next spring.

We made good use of the herbs over Thanksgiving, using lots of Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary, We didn’t use the thyme. (Sorry Art and Paul) It is a joy to walk out in the early winter and still have fresh herbs. Benedicamus Domino!

I pulled up most of the garden the past week. I froze some bags of Poblano, Hungarian and sweet peppers. Tomato cages and stakes are put away. But, there still are a few more things out there. The temperature is going down to 26° tonight, so I thought it a good idea to harvest the celery root. I got one nice large root and a bunch of small ones. I’ll plant it again next year, but I need to give it more room. It doesn’t seem to need much care, just space.

Also, as I was looking at the parsley, I found some “not parsley.” It’s either celery or celeriac that got mixed up with the parsley at Goebbert’s. So I harvested it, also. The stalks are very flavorful if it is celeriac and it will be well-cooked since it is going into the Thanksgiving stuffing. Should be amazing.

There is a frost coming tonight and we’ll have frosts and freezes for the next 5 days, so today is the day to pull up the garden. I harvested all of the remaining peppers, tomatillos, beets, red onions, and a few odds and ends.

I left the Celery root in as that is supposed to improve in flavor after frosts. There is still some kale and swiss chard. Of course, there are a lot of herbs. There is also a lot of mint, but I don’t remember how that handles frost. I’ll find out soon. I should probably freeze some of that for “weed water” and tea.

There are lots of green tomatoes, and green cherry tomatoes, but there is nothing I can do with them.

We’ve had about 4 inches of rain the past week, but temperatures have remained warm. Fall is late this year. Usually, we are at peak color by now, but the trees are just starting to turn.

Most of the heirloom tomatoes are done, but the Early Girl II and the Champions still have a bit of life left. They probably would have done much better if I had watered them a lot more. I will probably cut back on heirlooms a bit next year and plant a few more hybrids.

There are still tomatillos coming. I gave most of them to RT and one bunch to Fr. Rodolfo, I just haven’t had time to use them.

Cucumbers are done. The lemon ones did poorly. They produced nice plants with lots of blossoms, but little fruit ripened. I got them in about a month late, which was likely the problem. We had a good crop of zucchini. The first two hills are dead, but the one I planted later is still green.

Cherry tomatoes are still doing well. I think the watering and fertilizing made all of the difference. The potted patio tomato is still doing very well.

Peppers are all still doing well and I need to freeze some as most are turning red.

I still have beets to be pulled and the celery root looks like it will have some nice usable roots. I think it will need more room next year. The parsley that I planted late is really nice, I think I might freeze some. It’s probably time to start using the kale and swiss chard, too.

I am extremely happy with the way the mint garden turned out, even though I didn’t use much of the mint. I am hoping that there will still be time to do some taste testing.

The garden is starting to wind down. I’ve been giving away the more perfect tomatoes and had a bunch that was bruised, cracked, or had other bad spots, so it was soup time. This is the second batch this season. My friend Danielle had this recipe on her blog and it is simplicity itself. This is my slightly modified version of the recipe.

Well, here we go into September. As usual, I’ve backed off on garden care as other priorities and mosquitoes have kept me away. We had the Honey locust tree removed a couple of weeks ago and Greg’s crew did a superb job of removing the tree that was mostly hanging over the garden. Only a little minor damage.

It has been a very dry summer. We had storms and 2 1/2 inches of rain the second week of August, and that has about been it. The second storm after we returned from St. Louis knocked power out for about 13 hours and trashed my editing computer. After a couple of days of messing around, I replaced the P/S to no avail. Then I needed to replace the MOBO and that fixed it. With that all of the software updates, I lost a couple of weeks of gardening, and then it was one thing after another.

Tomatoes over the old compost did well. I had moved the Champion and Early Girl there this year from their previous spot next to the Horseradish and they were falling over from tomatoes. I took about ten pounds to the Project Hope food pantry on August 7th and they have been abundant ever since, even with me giving a lot away. The tomatoes next to the Horseradish are barely alive. It’s the same pattern as last year, even though I had worked a lot of compost into that last row. I looked up if Horseradish could be causing the problem, but most of the effects of having horseradish around are beneficial.

The zucchini has been very productive as have been the peppers. My seven Jalapeno plants aren’t enough. Shishito peppers have been prolific, but most of them are hot this year. Strange. They are again from Bonnie Plants.

The eggplants failed again, I harvested just two small ones. I think they didn’t get enough water. After the peas failed I planted Lazy Housewife pole beans which came up quickly and were starting their climb up the trellis when they were eaten to the ground, likely by rabbits, even though they were fenced in. I guess I need to redo my fencing.

The broccoli bore well all summer, I should have picked it in a more timely manner, though. The tomatillos started bearing near the end of August and they are doing very well.

I never got to staking the blackberries which bore relatively well. The early ones that were overripe were loaded with Picnic Beetles, so picking was a slow process. As more got ripe the Picnic Beetles seemed to go away. But because they weren’t staked, they were difficult to get into and many were near the ground. It would be good if I did may staking this fall after cleanup. Cucumbers are doing well even though they got in late. The lemon cukes are just starting to bear. I won’t need a potted cucumber next year, but two potted tomatoes would be better.

The potted plants were looking yellow and bad, but one shot of fertilizer really greened them up. I need to make watering easier and need to do and need to do better at picking and watering come August.

I didn’t keep up with the Herb gardens very well because of the time spent constructing the mint garden. I definitely need to learn more about growing basil. I spent lots on plants with multiple replantings and the crop was horrible.

Here’s what I found. Basil likes well-drained, moist soil. I probably need to prepare the soil to a greater depth with lots of compost. I should water and fertilize more often.

I am seeing an explosion in produce this week as the tomatoes are coming into their own. I picked the first of the heirlooms a couple of days age netting a couple of large, delicious Cherokee Carbon tomatoes and a large Lemon Boy. There will be more today and a lot this week. Zucchini are coming in at a reasonable rate and Natalie made stuffed zucchini last night. The cherry tomatoes are producing in abundance. I needed to run a rope from the top of the large cherry tomato cage to the crossbeam of the hanging basket support on the deck. The plants are almost 8 feet tall. I picked the first chocolate cherry tomato yesterday. I tied up the San Marzano tomatoes, but the tomatoes are still small.

The Champion and Early girl plants stopped ripening over a week ago, but now are starting to produce. It is strange how they will produce some fruit right away and then stop for a while.

We had the first head of brocolli last week and I will cut two or three more today. I am ready to pull up the second batch of beets. Peppers are producing well, the Shishito plants are loaded and there are 3 or 4 large green peppers ready to pick. The rabbits (or squirrels) have been attacking the Jalapeno plants. There are some small eggplants and at least one should be ready in about a week.

I pulled up the peas which were a total bust and planted “Lazy Housewife” pole beans. I learned how to massage Kale with salt and oil and we used some on Bacon, Kale, and Tomato sandwiches and it was quite good.

I’ve been munching on blackberries when I am out in the garden and probably will pick some today.

Tomatillo plants are growing well and have lots of fruit, but ripe fruit is still a couple of weeks off.

All in all, it’s been a good gardening year so far except for the Alaskan Peas and the fact that I couldn’t find any Okra plants. I’ll plant it from seed next year. I’ve been able to keep up with the weeding – I am hitting the tomato patch with the string trimmer which seems to work well if I pull the weeds close to the plants by hand. The rest of the garden is either my hand or with the hula hoe.