Bountiful Harvest

September arrived with an overflowing garden! I spend as much time harvesting as I did on some earlier days of tending the young plants. And it is worth it... behold:

Patty pan squash, yellow and purple string beans, cucumbers, zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, and hot peppers.

Moving into Harvest Time

As August comes to an end, I know there may be only a few weeks until frost, so I'm enjoying the fruits of my labor.

Here's my colorful harvest of tomatoes, summer squash, zucchini, patty pan squash, cucumbers, and a few mini red bell peppers.

Life Goes On

Unforeseen circumstances kept me from the garden for the last two weeks, though I was able to do a harvest a few cucumbers, zucchini, and summer squash during that time.

Luckily everything is still doing well despite my neglect. Putting straw down between most of the plants earlier this summer kept the weeds at bay for the most part, and nothing seems to have dried up without watering.

The melons got a late start, so I don't expect them to reach maximum size/flavor this year, but they are looking great!

Mini-pumpkins are so cute tucked away in the shade. They'll be plentiful this year, and will be a nice deep orange color once they ripen fully.

My Hercules pumpkins are doing great! If all continues to go well, there should be four big ones for carving in October. Two of them we were able to turn on their ends early enough in their growth so they will be nice and round, but the other two will be oblong side-lying pumpkins. They just got too big too quickly, and I didn't want to risk damaging the vines by twisting them around.

My Aji Cristal hot peppers are thriving in the heat. Time to pick a peck or a bushel and freeze away, since I just don't have time to turn them all into jam right now!

I really love my tomatillos, they are such a neat fruit to watch grow and fill out their husks. I had absolutely no worries about them during the last few weeks; as a Mexican plant they can certainly handle a dry spell or two.

And of course, the zucchini is still prolific!

The Big Picture

This is the most prolific part of the garden. The picture is a little embarrassing, due to the weeds that are, well, everywhere. But all the plants seem to be getting plenty of water, thriving actually, and I don't have 8 hours a day to spend on the garden, so there you have it. In the foreground are the summer squashes (zucchini in the lower left). Behind that is a row of cucumbers, but you can't see them. Behind that you can see bell peppers, and behind those are the tomatoes. I've used a modified version of the Florida weave to trellis them. Look it up! It works very well.

The first row of tomatoes has determinate varieties (meaning they have a pre-determined size they will grow, i.e. they will stay short). They are trellised using shorter wooden stakes (I think they are 4' stakes stuck about a foot into the ground). The two rows behind are indeterminate, meaning they will climb up to the sky if you give them enough time and a tall trellis. Those are staked with 6' metal rods, the kind that you can get at the garden store and are coated in green plastic. I also have metal T-posts at the ends of each row for reinforcement, so the whole thing doesn't fall over.

More Than a Handful

Veggies! I Instagram'd it.

That's a patty pan squash, two bell peppers, a cucumber, a zucchini, and two hot peppers.

Gadzukes!

I was out of town for most of this week, but look what was waiting for me when I got home! Okay, that one on the left is a little funky looking, but we'll forgive him since he's the biggest of these three lovely zucchini. Time to bake some bread.