It's September, people. September!
August in my garden sure did not disappoint! Oh, there have been problems, sure, but these were minor compared to the war I had to wage on Japanese beetles last month, or the over abundance of cucumbers that were impossible to reach for harvest. I got a break from canning stuff for a couple weeks, the weather has been quite nice, and I've been producing all the vegetables, herbs, and a few fruits that I could possibly eat for a good month now.
Planting for a Fall Harvest
I put a second planting of beets, carrots, daikon, and arugula where the cucumbers had been. What a pleasure ripping those things out was. No more pickles!!! No more scratched up forearms or pokes in the eyes! Good riddance, I say!
I successfully grew daikon last fall, but my spring planting this year produced woody and inedible roots. Maybe planting daikon in the fall is the trick. We'll see.
Nightshades Galore!
Last year, my garden did not produce a single pepper, nor a single eggplant. This year, I switched out the soil in my raised beds, spaced the plants much farther apart, and made sure they got plenty of sun, pruning the eggplants pretty heavily to get sun onto the blossoms. Even so, I'd begun to despair that this would be another barren year for those two fruits, when I spied these!
Spuds, a first for me
I don't eat a lot of potatoes, because I haven't really liked them enough to prepare them. Until I grew my own, that is. It could just be that I LOVE to eat food I grew myself, but these babies are delicious, tossed with plenty of olive oil, salt and herbs, then roasted close together in the oven so they don't brown or dry out. I didn't get a whole lot out of the first bag I harvested, only seven pounds, and am hoping my second bag will produce more.
Zucchini Summer Stew
Zucchini has been going strong for a very long time now, and is only just starting to peter out. I've made some fabulous zucchini dishes. Below is one that was made from veggies and herbs that were 100% from my garden. That was a very good day.
Here's a little haiku I think most gardeners would appreciate:
that invisibility
is a thing
Petunias
Last fall, my petunias got leggier and leggier until I finally threw them out in early September. A couple of weeks later, I went to visit a friend's garden, and she had the most incredible petunias, in full and glorious bloom. Her secret? Heavy pruning during late August. I tried her technique this year.
Hopefully I'll have a shot of a glorious petunia to show you in next month's Garden Hive challenge.
As usual, there is a ton of stuff I haven't shown you. My rutabagas, a fall planting of onions and shallots, my fabulous black brandywine tomatoes, okra, raspberries and lettuce. More on those for next month's challenge.
Thanks so much for reading this one!!
This was my entry to Hive Garden Community's monthly garden challenge.for September 2023.
The eggplants look fat and tasty @owasco, I also had planted an oblong variety before but I cant remember planting the round ones. Mother would always cook them by placing on rice while it is still cooking. With some fish sauce it is a delight to eat. :P
I love eggplant so much I just roast it whole in the oven and scoop it into my mouth, hot, with a spoon. But that sounds really good. I'll try it with rice and fish sauce
Yes, it is nice with rice and some broiled fish over coals if you eat fish cooked in that way. Eggplants can also be broiled over the flames of a stove, it gives it pleasant smoky flavor but of course we must take the burnt skin off first. @owasco and by the way we can also make an omelet with broiled eggplant as well. 👍
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Yay, abundance! Great job.
But the problem I'm facing, and I'm sure you are too, is what are we going to do in January and February when the addiction can't be fed? I'll be under a few feet of snow, and 20 below freezing. Supermarket produce up here in Northern BC is abysmal, especially in winter. And we didn't get enough of anything to do any canning this year. Tell you what.... I'm already looking forward to April!!
I understand!!! I was just dreaming about what I can grow in my house during the winter, mostly microgreens and herbs. I hope to plant parsnips outside, which I understand can be harvested in winter. Also jerusalem artichokes (already in) and burdock. I found some onion sets and just put those in the ground too. At least I can get a little something out of those. Last year I put up a hoop house over beets, carrots, daikon and napa cabbage, and I was able to keep them going until December, so I will try to do that again. I know it's colder where you are so idk how much of this would work for you.
Can you buy some veggies now to put up for the winter? Apples maybe you could find wild, I just put up a few pints of those. Black walnuts? Buy cabbage and ferment it - salvdoran cortido is really good and lasts for a few months.
I used to be very happy when the first hard frost hit so that I could stop being a slave in my garden, but at that time I only grew flowers. This is my fifth year growing, or trying to grow I should say, veggies. I've gotten quite addicted to eating food I have grown myself and don't want the season to ever end! I've been quite successful this year. Next, I want to get chickens, just 6 bantams, so that I have a protein source. I might have room for a couple of hazelnut trees, not sure about that though. I don't want to lose any sun.
My focus is on medicinal and edible plants, so if I decide to, I could dig up a flower bed that was here when I moved in and put the nut trees there. I just had that idea. It's a good one!!!
Ooh, black walnuts sound good, but "Fruiting may begin when the tree is 4–6 years old, but large crops take 20 years." A renter's nightmare! Not sure if they grow wild in this region. There are apples... in back yards! The lack of good produce (especially fruit) here has led a lot of locals to plant their own trees - the only way to get a decent apple up here!
Sounds like you have some good options, and good ideas/plans! Here, winter comes on fast in November, and it's dangerous outside until February or March. Spring really hits in May, but I can start working the ground in April. With some infrastructure (greenhouse etc) I could extend things about a month in Spring and a month in Autumn. Not worth it for me this year, but I'll consider it next year if I have the health and finances. Pretty happy to just get a garden in, and have a harvest of almost everything I tried, considering my heart problem and having a couple babies at my ankles the whole time!
I have a second fridge, so yes, I will clear it out and fill it up with food from the garden and farmers market over the next few weeks.
An animal source of protein (and iron) is a good idea to really round out your nutritional needs from the garden. Free range eggs are one of the two animal sources we eat at our house.
You're so right, eating food you've grown yourself is so rewarding. It feels natural. Even a comfort meal like potatoes (carbs) and green beans (protein) with a bit of butter and salt is healthy, especially if they're fresh from the garden. I've just been loving it, for months now, but now I'm thinking about how long and nasty winter is going to be... and realizing next Summer isn't guaranteed to be a good one for growing. But that's how we gardeners roll, we have to be up to the challenge!
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I wish I had a portal to steal some of those. They look delightful. The garden is beautiful and well maintained by the looks of it. Keep up the good work. It brings me motivation to keep trying on mine. A bit hard starting off here. to fertilize and bring the existing dirt in my backyard to accept vegetables apart from just only desert shrubs has been a bit challenging but this year I have seen a great change. After 4 years of treating it, it naturally accepts grass now. Before it was just another wastland back there. Nothing would grow.
But consistency is key.
I now have a backyard covered in grass.
Next I have plans to grow some sweet melons. Maybe they will grow in time before winter cold hits.
Love insect macros they are so alien close up
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WOW! You have a truly beautiful garden @owasco!
I wish I had that kind of space - but even so, I am happy to be able to grow anything!
Petunias are so beautiful and yours look very very happy!
Thank you!!! I'm very happy with it. It's small, but it gets a LOT of sun, which makes me able to grow quite a lot of things.
Oh yes! Always lovely to have a nice sunny garden