I can say with 100% certainty... this has been the best harvest year yet for our fruits, veggies, herbs, and flowers!
It was a year of almost perfect weather conditions... save for an extremely hot and dry July, and a bit of a drought happening as we speak. And still... the garden is giving.
My faithful gardening companion... and luckily, this fellow doesn't steal the produce like his brother does!
Each day, we harvest peppers, kale, sugar peas, cherry tomatoes and occasionally some Roma tomatoes that are quickly turned into sauce. There are still lots of fresh herbs and flowers as well.
We've eaten a few of our sweet potatoes. however, they have been quite small this year - growth stunted by that wascally wabbit that ate the vines down to nubbins. The vines have regenerated, however, I noticed yesterday that they are once again being nibbled. I will leave the rest of the sweet potatoes alone until the first frost, in hopes that they still have some time to grow a bit. If not, small sweet potatoes are better than no sweet potatoes, right? (A little personal life philosophy, there... being grateful for whatever comes my way... no matter how small.)
Moll always comes from the barn to join me in the garden.
She shamelessly asks for a belly rub.
As the title said, harvest doesn't end with the produce. Gathering seeds for next year's garden is important as well.
And so, I've been spending a little time doing just that. Each one of these dry Bells of Ireland has four little tri-cornered seeds.
I am planning an all green flower bed next summer and these will definitely be included! Most likely that garden will also have pops of a single complimentary color (somewhere in the red range since red is directly across from green on the color wheel).
The couple loofahs that I have harvested were filled with seeds, and they are drying so that I can use them next year.
Every few days I am able to harvest a large handful of calendula blossoms.
Then I dry them in our food dehydrator and store them with other herbs in our basement larder, for use in soaps and salves throughout the coming year.
The current soap situation looks like this (7 different varieties)...
These will be ready for use slightly before mid-October. The round bars in the front are lemongrass gardener's soap. They contain poppy seeds that act as a very mild abrasive to help loosen garden dirt from one's hands.
To answer a question from yesterday... the vines growing on the trellis in front of my shed are hyacinth bean vines (not to be consumed!)
Comments
Wish I had some of your energy!
Hugs!
Does the size of a sweet potato affect the taste?
Moll has been around forever. How old is she now?
It's nice that you have seeds for next year. Great idea.
That's quite a collection of soaps. I'll bet it smells good in there.
You are more than welcome. Always happy when I can help. Enjoy your weekend. Hugs xxoo