Fall Garden

The garden is winding down now, but there are still fun discoveries and plenty to look at!

The pumpkin patch was getting pretty ugly, so we picked the last of the green pumpkins and threw all the vines away.

 

I also threw away half of the sunflowers, but I'll have to wait till next week to fit more in the trash can! They were fun while they lasted but now the seeds are getting everywhere. 

The kids still enjoy finding ladybugs, and there are plenty of them because of the aphids taking over the broccoli. It's time to take the broccoli, kale, and green beans out.  

Luckily the kale is being covered by morning glory flowers now, so it looks pretty! Ella helped me plant them in the early summer and now they are in their glory! (Pun intended.)

For my own memory, I recently planted a sedum start from Doris in the front island.

I also planted an Echinacea (Purple Coneflower) to try again. I had on once but it died of an unknown cause.

Fall in Utah is so beautiful! One evening the sunset was glorious and it looked so pretty with the orange zinnias and grasses. I love where I live!

Progress

This is the time of year when you reap the rewards of hard work in the garden!

We used our first two bell peppers for fajitas last week.
 

The strawberries are taking off! We find lots of big juicy ones every day now.

Spiderman and Ella helped me plant some greens for fall harvest--spinach, lettuce mix, and swiss chard.

We ate our first garden carrot--there is nothing like a garden carrot. Well maybe a garden tomato.

We started harvesting our red potatoes. The kids think it is so cool to dig down and find them, and pop them out. They're like hidden treasure! I am sold on making room for them every year... they are so easy!

One of my favorite garden meals is fresh green beans and potatoes, boiled till tender, and mixed with white sauce and seasonings.

The corn is doing fine... just fine. Half of it was under watered so I pulled it up. It's so frustrating when things don't go as well as they did previous years. 

We picked all of our apples this week. They are a little tart, so I was waiting to see if they would ripen, and then all of a sudden they were dropping and getting soft, so I picked the rest. It's amazing that our tiny tree could make so many huge apples!

Speaking of fruit trees, we just acquired a cherry tree (Utah Giant) from a neighbor who was taking it out. It didn't much like getting transplanted, so we'll have to watch and see if it perks up. And we may need to buy a pollinator for it, but I figure it's worth a try to plant a free tree!

The pumpkins are struggling. The giant ones both died from squash bugs. This one is hanging on and developing a few fruits, but I am losing the war. I have killed thousands of squash bugs, not even kidding. Time for a new plan of attack.

So far the butternut squash hasn't been infested as much. They show signs of stress, and yet they are still growing huge vines and developing lots of fruit.

The first sunflower bloomed this morning! The kids have been watching anxiously and were so excited to spot it after swimming lessons. They are such happy flowers. 

Lastly, the tomatoes are taking off. The cherry tomato is sprawling and taking over the world, and the climbers are really progressing. I still don't have any red ones, but soon!

Garden Growth

This was actually a week ago now that I'm finally getting to these pictures. The green is exploding-- I swear everything grows so fast you could probably watch it. It would be interesting to take a photo from the same spot every day and see the changes.

Here's a little garden tour, left to right. 

The pumpkin patch is filling out. Unfortunately, it's also dwindling. I noticed a few leaves turning yellow last week and thought it was lack of water, but no, it's the dreaded squash bugs!!! I have since killed handfuls of the parent bugs, nymphs, and eggs, but I'm still losing the battle. I am so sad. Dang those ornery bugs! I had such high hopes for great big pumpkins this year, but we'll be lucky to get a few small ones.

The giant sunflowers are getting tall, passing up the garden posts they grow between. A few are setting flowers.

The butternut squash is spreading, but again, they have grown so much since I took this picture! I might have to pull out a grouping of zucchini to give them room, which I won't cry about because I have 8 medium zucchini on my counter right now and I already made bread and cookies with it!
 

The tomatoes are setting fruit, finally. I am a bit behind since I grew them from seed, but I'm proud they've turned out so well. A few days after this picture I thinned and staked the indeterminate variety on the right, and this is what it looks like now:

My neighbor taught me this technique, and I'm excited to see how it goes! We put in three metal stakes, and then ran metal wire between on both sides to make a trellis. I am pinching the side sprouts off as they develop, so each will only grow one long central stalk. As they get taller I will run more wire to trellis them. This way they won't be a matted jungle, and hopefully I can harvest them easier.
 

 

The greens beans are prolific and we are eating them about every other day.

Same with the broccoli. This variety was supposed to develop 6-8 inch heads, but the biggest I've seen was maybe 5 inches. We have enough plants though that harvesting even all the little side shoots has kept us eating broccoli a few times a week.

Sadly the carrots (left of the broccoli) have been picked too young by lots of children. About a third of the row is gone. It's so hard to explain to kids that if they just wait, things will get bigger and better! 

The spinach and lettuce are done, but I am already looking forward to replanting a fall crop. The kale is going strong and I've been harvesting bagfuls for freezing--and not made a dent!

The peppers and potatoes are doing well, although I don't know when to harvest the potatoes. I need to look that one up, since I've never grown them! The melons are going crazy and we've spotted about 5 mini watermelons!

The corn is a huge disappointment. I learned my lesson--don't underwater!! I have been trying to water the garden less this year because I naturally tend to overwater, but the corn is on the end of the drip system and gets less pressure anyway, and it is suffering! After our first year of corn being a bumper crop (hundreds of ears!) I am so sad with my lost crop. Hopefully the last few rows that weren't stressed yet will prosper and make up for it a little. Failure is so hard to swallow!

Lastly, here's a picture from the same spot I took one a month ago.. the change is amazing!

It's About Time...

I need to do better tracking the garden progress! I always look back to previous years and wonder why I didn't take more pictures. It's helpful to look back and see how big things were and what to expect year to year.

I am tickled to say this is the best luck I've ever had with broccoli and spinach! Both are producing bumper crops. It about broke my heart to thin the broccoli, and it's still about twice as thick as it should be. I have been picking gallon ziplocs of spinach and washing and freezing them for smoothies. And I can't keep up!

The rainbow carrots, beets and two rows of bush beans are on their way.
 

My indoor planting of tomato seeds wasn't very fruitful, and I talked to a lady who just plants seeds in the ground in May, so I thought I'd try it! Tomatoes grow so fast anyway, what's a couple weeks head start? The left row is an indeterminate variety that I hope to stake, and the right row varies more, with two cherry tomatoes and a Roma I got from my neighbor, and a bush variety from seed. 

We planted three types of pumpkins this year, and I'm always amazed that the plant itself is an indicator of fruit size--small, medium, and large! The far mound is an heirloom carving variety, the middle a 200 pounder, and the close a 1000 pounder! We planted them outside the garden in a large flower bed area, and we'll let them just go wherever they want. Should be interesting to watch and see!

We put our giant sunflowers on the opposite side of the garden this, closer to the front of our house. It will be fun to see them more as we come and go. Behind them you can kind of see the zucchini mounds (I have 5 growing right now and I need to pull a few or I'll be kicking myself!) and a whole row of butternut squash.

The peas are flowering and turning to pods. We squealed with delight when we spotted all those sweet peas growing!

The kale is out of control, and I love it! We have used it in smoothies, salads, and today we made a batch of kale chips that got scarfed in a matter of minutes. Requests are in for more tomorrow.

At the top of this picture are the 6 red potato plants that are doing fabulously well! In the same row are four bell peppers and an Anaheim from Peggy. Down the middle of the picture is the melon row, with watermelons at the top and cantaloupes at the bottom. This is the best start to melons we've ever had, so we're excited!

Not everything is doing well, though. My cucumbers never came up from seed, and I almost gave up on the onions, but now I see about 7 or 8 that might make it. I'll need to separate them soon so they can start to bulb out, so we'll see how that goes.  
 

The corn experiment is on! I planted each row a week apart to extend our harvest. Hopefully it helps!

The view of the whole thing from the corn side. I'm pretty happy with it overall this year. Let the fun begin! As I've been writing this, I've realized just how much produce I'm going to have on my hands in a few months!

My favorite thing is when my kids stay nearby and help. Ella takes the most interest right now and knows what everything is and how it's doing. Tonight she caught a butterfly and a ladybug. Jake pulled some lettuce for me (so helpful) and they all gathered strawberries and helped me eat them. Yum!

How Does the Garden Grow?

This year the garden is kind of an afterthought. As in, I think of it after I feed, clothe, clean, and chase after four kids. Luckily the drip system waters it daily and I just have to remember to make sure things are going alright. I love to check on the garden and usually try to take the kids with me to discover what's going on.
 

Last Saturday, we discovered that the peas were ready to eat!

Ty tried them for the first time, and soon realized what we all know--that garden peas are deliciously sweet! He loves them and has devised his own ways to get inside the shell. 

The zucchinis are doing well and beginning to develop baby zucchinis!

The mammoth sunflowers are still small, but growing quickly.

The pumpkins (that I didn't plant until June!) have sprouted.

The seedlings of the giant pumpkins are, well, giant. 

The strawberry patch is beginning to establish itself. Hopefully it will take off one of these days. 

The corn came up a little patchy, but I re-seeded and hopefully it will fill in. Not that I'm worried we'll be short on supply... last year we got 91 ears from this plot!