September garden harvest & crunchy leaves in Fall

I have a love-hate relationship with Fall. Everyone gets that seasonal feeling in them- a mysterious urge to walk off... to go hide by a tree, feeling the crunchy leaves...

Fall has its perks: Little camp fires with cozy seating, changing moods that urge transformation or revelations... I've learned a lot about myself many times in how I have reacted and behaved in the Fall season. If you start a new school years with different or more peers in August and September, that's the same feeling...so, maybe there's an association there.

But, I encourage you to feel that uncomfortableness, if you have that seasonal urge as well. Garden plants tend to wither, wilt, and brown. But, the fall flowers will bloom vastly to say one last goodbye and hoorah! 

That's what I feel when I harvest these foods and enjoy some time outdoors, to say a final hoorah...

Garden harvest of squash, pears, cucumber

This was one of the second batches of beans and squash. 

Squash & green bean harvest

Vegan, coconut based pumpkin pie 🥥 🎃 

Kieffer pear picking

Cold hardy fig trees, fruiting

Sunset in September 

"The Grandkids" Scarecrow family decor setting

His name is Pumpkin head 🎃 

The Fall blues can set in, but give in to the temptation of decorating to help your shifting mood as the seasons change...dedicate a space that represents this change.

Fall decor setting

Turning into August, Garden Update

 Garden update this weekend...

Eggplants

Eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, & Coxcombs

Eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, & Coxcombs

Bean harvest from the garden

Porch swing in the garden

Hibiscus

Hibiscus 🌺 

I have a number of pumpkin plants blooming, but none setting fruit. I went around hand pollinating blooms for the pumpkins, cucumbers, and squash. But I heard somewhere that blooms need to be pollinated at least 10 times to increase the chances of having a healthy fruit. 

🎃 

Pumpkins blooming

Cucumbers blooming 

Canna Lilly flowering

Mid-July container vegetable garden & tilled garden

 Have you seen squash plants get so entangled? For whatever reason, all of the yellow squash plants have tied themselves into a knot. I've never seen anything like it before. 

Despite the entangled squash plants, the zucchini, yellow squash and pumpkins are all blooming. The cucumbers are also blooming; but that's about the extent to the growing progress in the garden. It's all a good sign that the plants seem healthy and blooming, but nothing is fruiting yet besides a few beans. 

It had been weeks since visiting the garden. I staked some tomato and cucumber plants, then  hoed around each row of veg. 

Tomatoes

There's still plenty of vegetable plants at the apartment that needs transplanting. Although, I've noticed that many of the transplanted veggies have stopped growing. I'm skeptical that the potted veg will do much this year. Even the eggplant that looks healthy, is probably far from fruiting a substantial harvest. 

Foraged blackberries

Eggplants & basil growing together

Eggplant

Cacti houseplants, getting ready to bloom

I wish you a lush and fruitful garden this summer! I'll keep you posted on any new garden developments. It's been a wet summer, and there's a lot of mushroom activity. 🍄 in addition to that, there's been some nice opportunities to splash in the creek...

Early Summer apartment garden

In Mid-May I planted germinated seeds of grape tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, lavendar and basil. Slowly, as different plants thrived, I transplanted them into bigger pots from their recycled containers. As you saw from my last post, these containers were used to act as a mini greenhouse. Because they were in their own greenhouse containers, within the standing greenhouse at night, they survived fantastic through the late Spring nights. 

 

The eggplant here was transplanted about a week ago into bigger pots. They are growing and I have transplanted more eggplants with some basil. 

Transplanted eggplants 🍆 

Eggplant growing a week later after transplanting, and some just transplanted days ago

Growing eggplant and basil together

Lime fruits growing in a pot in
Gardening Zone 6, first year 

Houseplant & Apartment garden

Some of the houseplants and veg

Many of the veggies seen in the main garden here were from plants I started from seed on my small apartment porch. 

Tomatoes growing around the old tree

Coxcombs and tomatoes in the flower garden

I also snapped a picture of the veggie garden with cucumbers 🥒 beans 🫘 squash/zucchini, tomatoes 🍅 peppers🫑& pumpkins 🎃 I snapped these pics even after weeding and watering the plants! I swear there's vegetable plants in there, but it is hard to tell! 😄 

These are pictures of the flower garden within a month span. The begonias, inpatients and tomatoes really flourished here. And obviously, some decor was moved around! 

May 31, 2025 flower garden

July 4, 2025 

I've been pretty diligent about keeping the veggies weeded and watered. We have had extreme temperatures in our region with what feels like weeks of 100 degree Temps. Despite that, the garden has remained unphased by the heat as this garden is very shady. 

While i believe the veggies frim my garden will at least take another month to grow for harvest, at least a coworker gave me a bounty of vegetables from their garden. With the cucumbers, I have been making tomato and Cucumber salads. With the yellow squash I have made squash pancakes. I grated the yellow quash, and then seasoned with salt, black pepper, onion, and garlic powder; then, I mixed a potato starch paste with water (used Energ egf replacer), and all purpose flour ti get to the right consistency for frying. Fry with a little oil for about 4 minutes on each side, should be good. 

Yellow squash pancakes

Remember to take a break from work, and enjoy the outdoors with loved ones and friends! Be safe from ticks! There's a lot of ticks this year in our area, a lot of people getting sick and getting Lymes disease. 

Eat delicious food and listen to music...

Grilled vegan burger, vegan cheese,
fried onions, & lettuce.

Me and Ash at my cousins wedding,
Enjoying the scenery 

Grill corn on the cob

Grilled tofu, peppers, tomatoes &
Onion with Avocado 

Of course on these hot days, it's always nice to enjoy a rocky creepy to splash in.

Video screenshot of me tubing down the roaring creek

Like I said, be careful this year outside. There's a lot of people in my area with lymes disease and getting sick from tick bites as well as bacterial infections from lakes. Take all precautions, but have fun and enjoy your precious time on this earth. I'm feeling emotional lately, because this year I have been around a lot of friends and coworkers that's loved ones have died. I don't know if it's because I'm older now, but I feel like I know more people that are dead or dying. 

Keep well and safe, my garden friends...