Tomato harvest! & other beautiful flowers

 

Pickling, canning, & starting fall garden

There is better news to report this week. I harvested tomatoes from the garden and have already used all of them in dinners. 

My grandparents gave me cucumbers that they were donated, and because there were so many, I picked them with fresh dill from my apartment garden. For seasoning, I added mustard seed, dill seed and black pepper, and the brine was made with half white vinegar, half water and salt. I used my instant pot on the steam setting for 1 minute to water bath can the pickles. To be honest, that was my first time water bath canning with the instant pot and I am still skeptical if I processed the pickles safely. I have always just used a large pot with a lid to water bath can pickles for 10 minutes, and that has always been successful. 

And, I have attempted the fall garden for the third time this past month. I hope this time it is successful, as I purchased 40 dollars worth of broccoli, cauliflower and kale plants.

As you can see below, the gardens are at different stages of growing. With the plants I purchased, I put up a fence around the patch to make sure to deter animals. I have put salt around the plants to deter bugs...we shall see I'd that helps...

Corn growing to the sky. 

I had to fix the tomato plants on their posts. I retied them, made sure every limb was on the post, and added any extra posts to secure the planta, as needed. 

In these garden beds, theres radishes up growing. Some carrot seed germinated and I hope they do fantastic amongst these Coxcomb plants.

Some if the remaining broccoli and kale i had went into these garden beds. I use netting to keep my cats out and course salt to keep bugs off. 

My grandmother's Coxcomb plants look even more extraordinary by the day.

Flowers and hopeful garden prospects

In the picture above, I have containers and pots of tomato plants, basil, peppers and seedlings. Additionally, I sowed cauliflower and cabbage in seed cells at the apartment. Some broccoli germinated and are seedlings from the last attempt at sowing fall crops. I have been fertilizing them,  the pepper plants and the tomaotes with coffee grounds from Ashley's many pots of coffee. 

Not much is growing in the gardens, besides flowers. There's been attempts to grow fall crops but I have failed all of those attempts thus far. Last week, I sowed turnip, radish, and carrot seed in the garden beds. I sowed the seed in between the Coxcomb flowers. I put up fencing to keep my cats out. And, this will be my last attempt at growing fall crops. 

Below are the hibiscus and coombs growing in my garden. 

Here are some cucumbers I harvested. The summer garden harvests have been lacking but I'm hopeful for a turnaround in all the tomaot plants I have planted. At least I may be able to can them for sauces or soups. 

In between the Coxcomb plants, I have sowed carrot seed. In the garden bed beside this, I sowed radish seed. The radish has germinated and are growing just fine! We shall see if I will have an abundance of radish like I did in the spring. Across from these two Garden beds, I also sowed turnip seed. I didn't try to sow them oh-so-perfect because they were old seeds, but I hope they grow and produce! 

I think a lot of my garden issues this year have been attributed to planting old seed. Seeds are really only viable within 1 to 2 years. But I have a bad habit of accumulating lots of seed overtime because I buy in bulk or people gift me lots of seeds. Another big issue has been birds or other critters eating the seeds. Even after nearly a decade of growing food, I am still learning the garden techniques and mistakes to never make again!