October already. Boo.
We did make it back late Monday night, but I didn’t have the energy to post anything yesterday, and today, this is all I can manage. Full trip recap to come next week.
Being October, it’s pretty much time to wrap things up and start preparing for winter. Actually, most of my stuff is still alive and producing, so I’m not totally sure if I should pull the plug on things, or let them go until the bitter end. I’m still getting lots of cherry tomatoes, although many of the larger varieties are starting to fall off the vines, whether they’re ripe or not. I did manage to get some sauce and salsa canned several weeks ago, but that’s probably it for the year.
Peppers are still doing well, but I’m thinking I should probably take off what’s there and freeze for later consumption. I’ll probably let them go through the weekend – supposed to be pushing 80 in a couple days! The second planting of peas is just starting to flower, so with any luck, I’ll be harvesting something in a week or two. The second planting of spinach is progressing much like the first; meaning, it isn’t. I guess you can’t win ’em all. I’ll just start fresh next year with that.
The beans are still growing wildly, but I’ve started to notice black spots on many of the dry bean pods. I’m kind of leaning toward anthracnose, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting the leaves, or the pods of the Kentucky Wonder; mostly just the dry varieties. Kind of a disappointing development – they were finally starting to grow well, and now it looks like most of that will be lost, because the spots develop before the beans are ready to shell, and it goes into the seed itself.
Potatoes probably should be dug, but most plants still have a straggler of a green stalk left, and I’ve always understood it that you pick them when the top is dead and falls over, which it mostly is, but not quite. I’ll give them a little more time.
Nothing else that exciting happening. I picked all the winter squash (which wasn’t much). The onions were so wimpy, I didn’t pull most of them up, and now they’re starting to regrow. I need to get garlic planted. I need to pull the dead squash vines out, and probably should burn them.
I’ll try to have one final, giant garden recap in the next couple weeks. Enjoy the nice weather if you’re fortunate enough to have it right now. Probably the last extended nice stretch we’ll see here until about April. Or June, if next year is anything like this one was.
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