September is a month for harvesting, and we've been doing a lot of that lately; but it is also a time for starting things. More about that later.... first a vegetable update.
I am loving my pumpkins. I cut that bad boy on the left free of the vine today and it is now decorating my front porch. And let me tell you, it was HEAVY! There are at least two pies in there!
But do you see how the leaves are all white? Apparantly that is some kind of powdery mold, and it can be treated with milk. A good tip for next year, but it is too late in the season to worry about it now.
The big vegetable bed is almost empty, just a few carrots and onions left At the beginning of the summer I thought my root cellar would be full of vegetables to see us through the autumn and maybe even into the winter. But my potatoes and turnips have all already been eaten, and the carrots and onions will only last us a couple weeks more. I hope to plant more next year, but that means the vegetable patch will have to be expanded.
Things are still thriving in the greenhouse. Well, not all things. My cucumber vines stopped yielding and have been pulled up. But check out my tomatoes! Still growing strong!
And how about these pepper plants!
My peppers are truly a case of try-try-again, because although I've grown them for years, this is the first year they've had any taste. I'm pretty sure that it's all thanks to the warmer temperatures in the greenhouse. That being said, the jalapeños could be spicier. I've read that dehydrating the plants a bit between watering can lead to a spicier pepper, but it goes against my grain to see a thirsty plant.
Amidst all the harvesting, we did some planting today! Tim built me a garlic box, attached to our greenhouse.
And today the cloves went in the ground. I like a seed that hibernates. There is so much to do in the spring, that it will be lovely to see these little shoots already coming up out of the dirt when everything else is just going in. And if all goes well, we'll have 25 heads of garlic in July. Not enough for the whole year, but this is my first attempt at growing garlic and I started moderalely. If all goes well, the box is big enough for more cloves next year.
What happened in your garden this September?
