In my fridge / on my table/counter right now

In my fridge / on my table/counter right now!

- tons of tomatoes, cherry and normal, some ripe, some still green
- 5.5 cups of de-husked ground cherries ready for pie
- a huge bag of swiss chard
- a huge bag of beet greens about to be made into a pasta dish
- a big bag of beets
- a sandwich bag of potatoes (puny harvest)
- several cucumbers
- a bag of celery
- a few jalapeno peppers
- one small green pepper

Still in the garden:  more chard (about half has already succumbed to the cold but some still crisp) and celery; a few more beets; maybe a few carrots but not sure if there's much root to harvest

Sowed garlic 'German White'

Decided I hadn't planted enough garlic.  So, this time bought 'German White'.  Put 8 cloves in the south tip of the west bed, and, 5 bad-looking/partly rotten? cloves on the north wall bed along the patio, the section at the west part of the patio, on the north half of it so the part right next to the neighbour's house.

First frost will probably be tonight

First frost will probably be tonight.  Harvested the almost-last Malabar spinach tonight, and some ground cherries. 

==> Edited afterward to say yes, there was a light frost that did in the Malabar spinach.  Not heavy enough to bother the chard, celery, beets, or carrots.

Marvelous malabar

Sure do love Malabar spinach.  First year trying it; it was sooooo slow to take off, but then when it did, wow!  So prolific, with huge, lush leaves.  Still harvesting it now although there's red spots on most of the leaves.  Frost called for tomorrow night so will try to bring it all in before then.

Sowed garlic ('Music')

Sowed 'Music' garlic today.  8 cloves on the window narrow bed plus around the corner to the back wall.  And, 4 cloves on the nice bed adjacent to the patio stones, running north-south.

Fall peas were small and few

Better than last year when they seemed diseased; this year just small, not a lot, and not very flavourful.  Not really worth doing, especially the cost of peat pots.

Maybe don't do fall peas next year.

Fall peas are forming

Several young pods, and flowers, have formed.

Red peppers harvested

Harvested two small red peppers from home-started plants!  Woo!

The store-bought plant has three green ones.  (Scooter ate some earlier buds.)

Black swallowtail

Found a black swallowtail caterpillar on the carrots about a week, week and a half ago.  Turned into a chrysalis within two days.  Brought inside, turned into a butterfly today.  Farewell!

Sowed carrots, beets, lettuce

In the vacated zucchini spaces, sowed:

- carrots in the space near the patio stones (where I plan to have next year's carrot bed)
- beets near the peas (just a few in among the green onions)
- bok choy and lettuce in one of the middle spaces

Zucchinis all kaput and removed

Came home from camping today to find two of the plants clearly mostly gone and the other two on their way out, all due to the borer.  So, pulled them all out.

Sowed carrots

Scatter-sowed carrots today, in the former yellow zucchini bed by the air conditioner, recently vacated due to the squash vine borer.

Transplanted peas

Transplanted the jiffy pot indoor started peas today.

Bye bye yellow zucchini (squash vine borer)

Noticed over the last several days that the yellow zucchini plant had been fading.  Stems looked chewed up.  Today I noticed the little fruits were hollow or squishy.  Pulled the plant and sure enough, borers.  Oh well, the plant served me well.

As for the other zucchini plants -- the one near the fence and the one near the compost bin seem to be doing well -- slowing down, but still producing somewhat.  The other two, in the middle, look healthy and vibrant, but nothing is happening in the fruit department lately.  We'll see if they've been struck too.

Garlic -- a nice one!

Picked another garlic today (my third one so far).  Nice!  6 hefty cloves.

Malabar spinach - eww

Ate one leaf today to see what it's like.  Eww.  So slimey.  I'll pass on this crop, thank you very much!

Harvesting update

Harvesting update reflecting where things are at these days:

Zucchini:  TONS have come in already.  Probably 30-40.  Freezer really filling up.

Tomatoes:  Just starting.  A few cherry tomatoes here and there, and one large one.

Ground cherries:  Trickling in, like the cherry tomatoes.  Finding some on the ground, empty...

Beets:  Two so far, one of which was quite small.

Garlic:  Two so far, both quite small, only 4 cloves each.

Carrots:  One so far, just for fun.  Disappointingly not a good flavour, but edible.

Chard:  Haven't been harvesting much, but plants doing well.  Some were getting shaded by zucchini plant so they really stretched up and have long stalks.  Have now pulled back the zucchini leaves to give more sun to the chard.

Peppers:  A few jalapenos, which really aren't hot.  A few banana peppers.  Scooter harvested one very young and small green pepper.

Sowed second round of peas inside

Sowed the fall peas today, inside in jiffy pots. 48 seeds.

Harvested 1 garlic and 1 beet

Harvested 1 garlic and 1 beet today.

The garlic was just because I was curious.  Will wait longer for the others.  This one is cute, a bulb, but small.

The beet is a little small but not bad.

Good garlic storage article

Good garlic storage article:

https://www.gardenbetty.com/a-guide-to-curing-and-storing-garlic/