The weather guy whipped me into a frenzy........ again!
Snow by Wednesday or Thursday?! EEECCKK!!!
I still have tomatoes nearing peak of vine ripeness.
My other voice said: but wait it's the weather guy; the overly enthusiastic, suit wearing, arm waving man, sometimes alerting me to the fact the world be ending in 40 minutes due to the immediate air currents....... a bit of a nutter.
The longer I spend in this garden the less tolerance I have for crazy people. The razor wire and moat could still be artistically installed around the perimeter of my oasis.
Nonetheless the end is near, it's inevitable, it's Ohio.
How to go from this last week.....
to this today.........
Hoops lay at the ready for a tunnel to extend the season.
but then I did harvest this........at the bottom of the harvest basket are still more eggplant.
Tonight for dinner, grilled open face eggplant and pepper sandwiches topped with provolone. Roasted beets on the side dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. That bucket of hot pepper will be stuffed and frozen. The variety is "Inferno" they are not fiery hot but pleasant. I put three plants in and harvested over 100 peppers per plant. Next year one plant will do!
End of the season tomatoes and cauliflower are now pickled, dilled and tucked in the basement!
Those little green tomatoes are going to rock in Sunday morning bloody mary's!
Every year new garden beds are added and I forget they all need to be put to bed in the fall.
Oh yeah...... the way back gardens, this is their second year and I am still working out the bugs in these beds. Still a few side out, rotates are in order. Like the Sambucus canadensis 'Johns' which grew to 12' tall this past summer! Who knew? Yes, the tag did say it could get that large but who reads those stupid tags anyway? Sambucus will be relocated to the outside area of the chicken coop. The girls will love it! This will free up half a bed!
I also realized the back beds get a bit more shade as the trees have grown and the yard has evolved. Edibles tolerating shade will be berries red and black, currants, gooseberries and blueberries. The middle beds get enough sun to support lettuce, radishes, chard and just about all greens. Potatoes did pretty well in this area but not so great for tomatoes.
Garlic should do well judging by the happy leeks. Yesterday over 100 bulbs were tucked away into the middle beds. I called Maggie out at Wood Road Salad Farm and begged to buy hard neck garlic from her. I plunked down $20 for a bag and got some of the best garlic I have ever planted! Maggie has held back the bigger bulbs year and year for stock. She has basically hybridized her own garlic, brilliant and better than any garlic I have purchased thus far. Thanks Maggie!!!!
The leeks are pretty happy and hope the garlic will be too.
Brussel Sprouts are zooming along but I won't pick these until after the first frost. They will be so much sweeter and just right for roasting!
The compost pile is happy!
The wood from the tree guys is stacked orderly but not split due to torrential rain on Sunday.
Next weekend.......
Bought a new blade for my pruning saw. It's amazing what one woman with a pruning saw can do on a sunny afternoon! Saved the birch but let the magnolia trimmings go.
Yes, it's the political season and yes this is my political sign. It is not Democratic or Republican, it simply states I am out of money and cannot vote for your levies. We are all on a tight budget so buck up government officials and tighten yours. The money tree is on the curb.
the feverfew (tanacetum parthenium) has jumped the beds refusing to be corralled, much like the gardener!
And as this is a political season I noticed my very limited TV time has switched to Master Piece Theater or even better audiobooks! Our local library is my refuge.
Priding myself on almost no late fees and an avid user of so many resources I am a confessed bibliomaniac. I have started walking to the library to curb my enthusiasm for checking out books.
Walking up the hill to our house I thought I was going to die from the weight of cookbooks, garden books, ceramics books, a few magazines like Architectural Digest and HortScience, toss in 4-6 audio books on CD and it's pretty close to lugging around an added 20 pounds. Summer doesn't leave much time for the library so once fall hits and I head back to the studio I find myself running back to the library.
And the best reminder to get the kiln up and take the chill off the studio...... YIKES! 6 weeks away!
Pedal to the metal and we are off!
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