Over the weekend we checked on the garden. We harvested several green peppers and then pulled the plant out, it was done. We removed the last of the cherry tomato plant after plucking a few gems. The potatoes looked dead-Tropical Storm Lee and that weird spinning storm from Chicago provided a bit too much water-I pulled the plants and got 3 potatoes. I think it's really cool, because we cut up a few spuds that had outlived their shelf life and ended up with 3, albeit small, beautiful potatoes. It's a learning experience and I learned to plant them earlier. I also harvested some leaf lettuce.
I planted some daffodil bulbs, some foxglove that I grew from seeds and some cabbage seedlings that may or may not develop. The last ones I planted disappeared. Our sugar snap pea plants look beautiful, but there's no sign of flowering yet. The strawberries continue to grow and we have high hopes for a nice yield next year. One of our favorite items is the Asparagus. Someone dug up their plant and threw it on the compost. We noted the roots were still alive and rescued it. It's growing and spreading and we may get a few stalks come spring. We love free stuff!!
The thorn less blackberry bushes have settled in and are growing slowly. I don't expect much out of them until spring and our area harvests blackberries in July. We make our out jelly. After years of getting them from the side of the road, this year we went to a farm. After paying the farm, we decided we could buy our own bushes. If we ever leave the garden plot, we'll have to decide if we want to take them with us or give them to the next gardener.
We left the marigolds in and hope to get some seeds from them. Again, the rain didn't really do us any favors. Typically, the flowers die and dry out and viola seeds. Instead of drying out, the flowers just got all brown and mushy.
I say we, because my husband and I tend the garden together. I get to do the fun stuff and he does all the heavy lifting.
The association dumped some wood chips for us to use and my husband brought some down to our garden for the path that separates our 2 planting areas. We had been using leaf mold because we didn't have chips. Well, when he scraped up all the the leaf mold, we added it to the beds. It was beautifully broken down and made the beds look great.
