More fall cleanup

I pulled all of the tomato and pepper plants, pulled the plant labels, and stacked the tomato cages and other plant stakes.  I got some of the pumpkin vines cleaned up as well as a whole bunch of weeds.  After the Vikings game is done I plan to go back out and do more cleanup.  It's supposed to be windy but warm tomorrow so whatever cleanup I don't finish today I'll do while Kaitlyn is at school tomorrow.

Strawberry cleanup and raking leaves

Grandma and I pulled the weeds in the strawberry bed while Kaitlyn raked leaves and jumped in them.  When Al finishes his project with the dirt bike he'll grind up some leaves with the leaf blower so I can put them on the strawberries for mulch.

Kaitlyn having fun jumping in the leaves

Harvesting and fall cleanup

Grandma Olive was a big help today in the garden.  After we got home from having lunch at school with Kaitlyn we went out and harvested most of the herbs, the broccoli, celery, beans, and a bunch of arugula.  I didn't think the big pumpkin was ready because it doesn't look completely orange, but when we knocked on it the pumpkin definitely sounds ripe so we cut that off of the vine.  I'll have Al bring the pumpkins into the garage tonight so they don't freeze.  While harvesting the herbs I potted up 3 rosemary plants and a sage plant to keep growing inside over the winter.  We also pulled a whole bunch of weeds to clean up the planting boxes before I turn the soil over before it snows.

Tomato Harvest and fall cleanup

The weather has been so warm I hate to think about the garden season ending.  I thought I better get out and harvest what I can before the weather gets too cold.  I harvested the rest of the tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers that were out there.  I'll just ripen the tomatoes downstairs on the bar and can them when they're ready.  The celery and broccoli will be ready to harvest in the next couple days but I'll leave them out for now.  

As I was clearing out all of the squash vines I discovered a radish that I missed when I harvested them.  It seems too woody to eat so I'll throw that in the compost pile.

I had to throw in a couple marigold and petunia pictures.  It's so nice to see these bright colors remain even though there's a lot of brown around the neighborhood.  I've been watering the lawn just so it stays healthy going into the winter.

Celery

Broccoli with side shoots

Radish I missed earlier this season

Marigolds and petunias

Petunia and marigolds

Petunias

Tomatoes harvested to ripen inside

Tomatoes, Peppers & Cucumbers

Harvesting and canning

I harvested another pumpkin and set it out to cure.  The biggest pumpkin is almost ready to harvest but not quite yet. It's supposed to be warm & sunny this weekend (temps in the 80s) so it should help ripen that one.  There were more wax beans and lima beans to harvest so I picked those as well as a bunch of arugula.  The sunflower is developing nicely. 

I blanched, peeled and canned 3 quarts of tomatoes.  Kaitlyn helped me put the lemon juice & tomatoes into the jars - her first canning experience.  She also helped by spinning the salad spinner after I washed the arugula and she helped me shell the lima beans.  I froze a quart of wax beans and some lima beans.

another harvested pumpkin

lima beans

wax beans & lima beans harvested

big pumpkin almost ready

sunflower

lima beans in the shell

First pumpkin harvest and deer

I harvested our first pumpkin today.  I was going to harvest another one but the bees decided it was time to pollinate in that area so I left it alone.  It looks like a deer visited our garden last night.  There are hoof prints in one of the raised beds.  If it ate anything it wasn't much because I didn't notice any significant plant damage.

The first harvested pumpkin

sunflower

deer tracks

More harvesting and progress report

broccoli

parsley

tomato & pepper harvest

The sunflower is blooming!

pumpkin

Lots of harvesting today

tomato harvest

cucumber blossoms

sunflower

broccoli

sage

Funny looking carrot

buttercup squash

Freezing carrots

Harvest and pumpkin issue

I harvested more tomatoes and some carrots today.  Hopefully the pumpkins will be ok.  Many of the leaves have developed what I think is powdery mildew.  The pumpkins themselves look ok but the leaves have a powder on them.

Carrots

Pumpkin plants

Lots of canning

I've been busy canning the last few days.  I made two batches of mild salsa, a batch of taco sauce, pickled banana peppers, to quarts of cured cukes, nine quarts of kosher dill pickles, a batch of sweet pickles, a batch of Apple Kiwi Strawberry Jam, a batch of Cranberry Raspberry Jam, and two batches of sweet pickle relish.  I have enough cucumbers to make another batch of relish but that's going to have to wait until another day.  I did find a time-saver for the dill pickles.  In the canning aisle at Walmart they had a kosher dill pickle mix that you just have to add to vinegar and water and it's supposed to make brine for 7 quarts of pickles (I got 9 quarts out of it).  Hopefully it tastes as good as I think it will.

Cucumbers salted for Cured Cukes

Mix for dill pickles

LOTS of canning

Fall garden progress

The one sunflower that sprouted

Parsley between tomato plants

Lots of blossoms on the cucumbers

One of the new rhubarb plants

Purple petunias

A pumpkin almost ready

Labor Day

We just got back from a relaxing weekend with the family in Northern Minnesota.  Kaitlyn and I went out to the garden to check on everything and ended up harvesting our first two buttercup squash, two broccoli plants, some large banana peppers, some arugula, and a whole big bowlful of tomatoes.  One of the smaller pumpkins is almost completely orange, one of the larger pumpkins is about half orange, and the biggest pumpkin is starting to turn orange.  While we were harvesting the tomatoes Jayne came out and commented on how healthy the largest pumpkin looks.  There are more wax beans ready to harvest but I was too sore after harvesting the rest to pick them.  I'll go out after I pick Kaitlyn up from school tomorrow to pick those.

This hosta has pretty purple flowers

Kaitlyn harvested our 1st buttercup squash

Lots of ripe tomatoes

Banana peppers

This pumpkin is almost all orange

Our biggest pumpkin starting to turn orange

Rosemary

Thyme