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.