Garden Update

The new raised bed is coming along. I haven't finished, but plan to do so tomorrow. It is in the side yard, sort of in the way, but it will get good winter sun. I have saved enough homemade compost and commercial potting soil from the spring to fill it.

I took this picture last night at about 6:30. You can see how the blueberries, some of the strawberries and one of the other raised beds are in the shade, but the new raised bed is still in the sun. This extra sunlight will help the garlic and onions to grow big! The raised bed next to the strawberries (covered with netting over pvc pipe to keep the birds away) will be planted with peas on Saturday. You can see some of the parsley plants at the end of it.

I managed to harvest hundreds of carrot seeds! Here is a picture of a few.

I will plant these this week. I am very excited to see what I get! I hope they taste good! I will save half of these seeds for spring planting.

My green bean count is up to 45 quart jars! I believe one last harvest next week should get me to my goal of 52! I do need to water the plants this week because we haven't had enough rain to support them for one last push. I have a drip hose in the bed so I won't waste water. I will hook it up to the rain barrels and let them drain out. Then I can put the rain barrels away for the winter and re-hook up my downspout.

I also managed to harvest quite a few more squash. I pulled the plants on Monday. I didn't get the 30 additional squash I was hoping for but I did get 18. While I needed 120 to last until next year, my total count  for the summer came to 53. I won't be buying the rest at the store, we will just do without.

I am slowly removing the tomato plants. I have pulled half ripe and green ones, as well as ripe ones. The half ripe and green ones are on my dinning room table until they ripen. (FYI - to get tomatoes to ripen faster, place an apple or two in between them. The apple will give off gases that will make the tomatoes ripen faster!)

As I thought, the peanut crop was poor. I didn't even get 20% of what I expected. I am very glad that last year I saved enough seeds to cover this crop failure! I do not have to purchase new ones! While I don't have enough peanuts to make cooking oil this year, I do have enough to roast and cover with chocolate for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I may go to Whole Foods and buy some raw peanuts to make the cooking oil I need for the year. Here is a picture of some of the peanuts drying on my kitchen table.

Next week, when the fall garden is in, it will be time to harvest the rest of the herbs!