My garden is still producing quite a bit of food. Probably a combination of all this nasty hot weather and still no frost in site. Here's what's been going on:
I pulled up all my yucky tomato plants the other day. I was completely sick of seeing that most of the tomatoes were split anyway, and I kept walking on them, squishing them in my shoes. Yuck. My roma plants never produced well all season. The fruit would get to a slightly more pink than green, but in no way ripe state, and then drop off into the dirt. I ripened a few in the house, but they tasted like crap. Fail.
My two varieties of heirloom tomatoes produced a lot of fruit, but the Brandywine's got so big, they split and tasted all mealy and gross anyway. Another variety (i forget the name) produced these weird longer shaped fruits, but never ripened. Fail.
My sweet cherries produced the most. But I don't really care for the flavor. They were just OK for eating raw, but DELISH for over drying. Last year, I dried several huge bowls full and froze them to use throughout the winter. This year, i dried fewer (i didnt have as many plants), and ate them all up (Josh loved them too!). So i didn't have any to freeze :( Boohoo.
Sun Golds- so yummy! I planted 3 plants, but planted them late and didn't really prune or stake them right, so I didn't get a huge yield.
The placement in my garden of all my tomatoes was totally wrong. I thought it would be okay, but their height resulted in complete shading out of all my winter squash! Now, i did get a ton of squash (10?) but it still wasnt right. I dug out a new tomato bed for next year. This area is against the fence on the south side of my garden area. I'm hoping that the tomatoes won't shade eachother out, since they will be in a north-south direction, but We will have to wait and see. This is where they are going next year!
My plan is to plant 4 Sungolds and 4 sandwhich/slicing tomatoes. No heirlooms, no romas. Just basic yummy round tomatoes.
Last year my generous neighbor gave me 4 heads of garlic from his garden. I planted the 16 cloves in mine. They didn't work all that well. Most of the heads have just two cloves. Some have three. There are supposed to be four. They are super yummy, however, so I intend on planting all the cloves from the heads that I grew this year (I've used several, and have about 7 left), along with several heads I'll buy at the farm stand. I'll be putting those in at the end of October.
I still have a lot of ripening winter squash on vines and my carrots and parsnips are all in the ground. My eggplants are producing a few here and there (enough for one or two more eggplant parm recipes). I have a ton of cubanelle peppers (i'm not sure what I'll do with those- probably dehydrate them?). My pineapple tomatillos are just throwing me fruit..... every day, bowls and bowls. My herb plants are still growing strong (parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme- all have to be picked and processed soon!). I seeded some cilantro last month, and there's tons of tender young cilantro growing! I also seeded for some fall snap peas and they have come up and are giving me a few pods daily- who said peas were only for spring!.
Ofcourse my pole beans will never stop. I will never plant these again. Next year- bush beans ONLY.
I seeded for some edamame and they also came up again. And I'm also getting some smaller bell peppers. Celery is all over the place, and while the stalks are dry and don't taste good, the leaves are super useful (I've already made celery salt, and I plan to dry the rest of the leaves too!).
I've been working tirelessly to move all the perennials off this slope. It lies between my chicken coop and the garden fence. It's the home to my future orchard. I've already planted a miniature sensation peach tree (I couldn't leave it behind when I found it at Agway. So cute!). Today, I transplanted a very large Dogwood bush to another area in the yard. I still have two rhubarb crowns to move, and some other stuff I didn't have the energy to move today (or the brain power to figure out where to put it!).
The next step is to haul large rocks and stones to the slope to create various areas for the trees to go. My hope is to plant two PEAR trees, one more PEACH tree and a 4-in-1 CHERRY (that's four varieties on one tree). Or, if I can just fit 2 cherries, that'd work too- just not too sure how many will fit. The slope is pretty steep it some places, and since I ripped out all the flowering things, There isnt anything holding the slope together anymore! Must get rocks :) ASAP!
I'll wait until Spring to plant the trees. I could get cheaper trees now but I'd rather have the pick of some healthy looking ones.
I have two apple trees planted in the front yard. I'm thinking those will be enough!
I cannot wait to plant on this slope, though. It's been a huge undertaking moving everything off the slope, but I know in 3-4 years we will have bushels of fruit every season.
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