Harvested lots of figs, tomatoes, & pear

More Fig Jam & Dehydrated tomatoes made from the food forest garden

fig harvest + dehydrated tomatoes 

figs into jam

Fig jam & dehydrated figs + tomato harvest

Fig Harvest from the last two days & making fig jam

yesterday's fig harvest

fig jam

today's harvesting & going to make more fig jam

Fall garden of corn, peas, lettuces, broccoli, & LOTS OF FIGS

Turnip greens, potatoes, tomatoes from the garden for dinner

The jars contain the dried figs that I picked and dehydrated yesterday. So many figs I dried fit into four tiny jars. I ended up eating lots of the figs as they were drying. The fresh figs taste like strawberry jam, while the dried figs taste like dried blueberries.

So many figs that I have to dehydrate them

Bounty of figs food forest

Over 50 big juicy figs

Another HUGE FIG HARVEST from the food forest + garden dinner

With the garden tomatoes and cucumber, I made a pasta salad with Italian dressing

Sowing cold hardy veggies for fall garden + BIG FIG & potato harvest

Today I cleaned up the hugelkultur garden, using the weeds as mulch between the walkways. With wood, I framed the hugelkultur mounds to contain the compost.

After cleaning the mounds and adding the wood around the mounds, I then reused the compost from the potato grow bags to put on the mounds. I had a small potato harvest.

Then I sowed Buttercrunch and Black seeded Simpson lettuce, cauliflower, purple top turnip, nantes carrot, spinach, chives, garlic chives, and broccoli seed within the mounds.

back view of first mound: peas, lettuce, spinach, turnips, corn, lettuce, broccoli

front view

back view of second mound: I sowed broccoli, lettuce, & garlic chives

Back view of third mound: broccoli, cauliflower, chives, & artichoke

front view: artichoke, broccoli, cauliflower, chives

Peas are growing on the fourth and fifth hugelkultur mound...

Also, look at how many figs I picked today-- I believe that's 24 figs!

Potato, Beans, Radish harvest for dinner + Fall fruits for smoothie

Smoothie made of peaches from the food forest

beans, figs, & Anne raspberries

Potatoes from the garden as well

Garden dinner of cooked beans, potatoes, and radish

Figs from the food forest + Last night's sunset

I'll be eating figs for the next month

BIG Sept. Harvest: radish cushaw, figs, grapes, cukes, toms, potatoes, melon

I have been cleaning up the summer gardens to prepare for fall and winter. Much of the summer crops have died off. I have peas and some lettuces, even corn left growing in the garden. You may see some radishes poking out of the ground in the picture below. I harvested for tonight's dinner with some of the potatoes I harvested as well.

Today as I was cleaning up the gardens, I found lots of sneaky vegetables living amongst the tall weeds. I harvested tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, cushaw, honeydew melon, and potatoes. The potatoes were those I planted later in the summer in grow bags, which I sewed. I picked grapes from the vines as well and bagged them to keep in the fridge.

Although I don't have pictures of all the figs I've been eating, I have been eating at least one to two figs a day for the last week. I sometimes manage to get a picture before I eat it, or before giving it to someone else...

If you're interested in seeing more pictures of the flower garden and other garden photography, go to my art blog "Art Landfill" of all the recent photos.

Keeping cats out of houseplants

I have vining plants in hanging pots. If the hanging pots are placed high enough, the plants will be out of the reach of cats. On my kitchen counter I have plants as well to keep away from the cats.

I brought in some of my houseplants because it's getting colder outside and the rain off of the hurricanes is stressing my houseplants that I had outside. In the pictures below show you how I am protecting the houseplants from the cats. So far this is keeping the cats out.
Medium sized potted plants can be put on a platform to keep away from cats. Medium to larger potted plants can be put on a table with a mesh wire around the plants.