Fall update

I was not as faithful in posting as the end of summer came near and I don't have pictures to share but I wanted to document how things went.

The garden at my house was mostly a failure.  Tomatoes and peppers didn't grow well in my topsy turveys.  The cucumbers, squash and zucchini did even worse.  I really just need to give up trying to grow vegetables here with the exception of lettuce and collard greens.

My rosemary, sage, and thyme plants are thriving.  I have learned they really benefit from a trimming every so often.

My rose plant looks pretty sad but I expect now that it is inside it will thrive again.  I'm not sure why that is but it has been true the last two years.  Before that it loved the outdoors.

My lemon tree looks beautiful and has four lemons on it!  Two are full grown size and just starting to turn yellow.  The other two just stated and are on the same branch so I know if I want them to grow well I have to sacrifice one.  I brought all three of my trees (avocado, orange, and lemon) in last night and am glad I did.  Not very far away I saw patchy frost.

We had much more success at my dad's garden.  We planted two eggplants and had more eggplant than we could eat.  We will probably skip this next year.  We planted 6 tomato plants which produced a lot of tomatoes!  We need to make sure they are all supported well next year as the plants that hung to the ground had rotten food.

I believe we planted 6 each of broccoli and brussels sprouts and both did so well but were a little crowded.  We should maybe stick to four of each.  We still haven't harvested the brussels sprouts.  I can't wait to see how they taste.

The carrots and radishes got overshadowed by beans so we will have to plan differently.

The hot pepper plants I planted did quite well.   I need to dry peppers now.

We planted garlic a few weeks ago in a new raised bed and were shocked when it sprouted and pushed through 4-5" mulch!

I'm sure I'm missing something but wanted to update while I was thinking of it.

A beautiful Saturday

My dad sent me some great pictures of his garden.  I’m really excited about the eggplant.  He also put in a third bed for use next year.  This fall we will plant garlic that I ordered from Jung.

After I posted last weekend, we mulched one more area.  Here are a few pictures.

My eggplant isn’t doing nearly as well as the ones at my dad’s house but it is coming along nicely.

The start of two very beautiful eggplants

courtesy of my Dad.

A fall like weekend

With the temperatures right around 60* all day today, a slight breeze, and a sky full of clouds it reminds me more of fall than July.  So we did some weeding and mulching today.  Here are some pictures of the garden.

Hydrangeas, peppers and broccoli

We planted some bare root hydrangeas in the spring but some didn’t make it so when we were at the farmer’s market yesterday we picked up three potted hydrangeas.  Here are some pictures along with a picture of one of the bare root plants we planted.  The flowers are a little droopy probably from the shock of transplanting.

We harvested broccoli at my dad’s house today.  It looks beautiful and is a bit more tender than the stuff you buy in the store.  We also harvested some hot peppers today.  At first I thought they were serrano peppers but looking more closely I think they are cayenne.  As I read more, I see that we could have waited to harvest them.  Some say they are best at this stage.  Others say to wait until they turn red.  If you plan to dry and ground them, I think they need to be red.  I’ll let you know how they are.

I sit in the sunroom listening to the chirping of the chipmunk.

We now have sprouts ready to eat!  I look forward to enjoying a tasty sandwhich for supper tonight.

 

The top level is radishes which were started 4 or 5 days ago.

The second level is a sprout seed mix..

The bottom level is the mystery sprout seed (the sprouter came with a trial packet of some type of seeds).

 

 

 

Below is the mystery sprouts.  They were started two days ago.

 

 

Here are the mystery sprouts.  They were started 4 or 5 days ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My hot peppers look incredible.

My oregano is in full bloom.  It grows like a weed.

My lemon tree has blossoms for the second time this year in addition to the two lemons.

The marigolds have started blooming.  I can’t believe how big this plant is.  It’s at least as tall as my lemon and orange trees.

The last of the three trumpeter vines has started blooming.

I’m not sure why I’m sharing this last picture with you but the area behind the garage has grown out of control.  I just need to get rid of some of the weeds so that black raspberry plants that are now growing there have space.  I didn’t plant black raspberries back here they just traveled from another area of my yard.  This would be a great space to let them grow though.

I love sprouts…

but they never seem to sell them anymore.  It seems everyone is afraid of salmonella.  So you wouldn’t believe my excitement when I saw in the catalogue for Jung a way to grown your own sprouts.  Here is what I purchased.  And here are a few pictures.

Day 2

Day 3