Fig harvest, Lovely fall & messy garden

Sorry y'all, it's been over 1 month since my last post. But, this year wasn't as fruitful in previous years and I haven't harvested much worth showing, either. Though, I have gradually picked basil, dill, jalapeno peppers and some cherry tomatoes. I've been drying lots of basil, dill, cilantro throughout the summer and into fall. I harvested a lot of radish greens and whole root radishes the other day.

In this garden, I have patches of different things growing in each individual bed. There's a bed of broccoli, bed of basil and strawberries, bed of turnip, kale, radishes, flowers. 

See below, there's several healthy kale plants amongst turnips and radishes. 

I have a small patch of turnip greens and kale greens in this part of a garden bed. 

Here is the bed of radishes

Below is a garden bed of broccoli. They are small plants, even though they are several months old. Animals wreak havoc here but I have plastic netting around the bed to deter them. This bed desperately needs mulched.

I have broccoli, cauliflower, kale growing at my other garden. These crops are fenced off to protect from pests and I hope to continue to keep pests out until I can actually harvest big, beautiful cauliflower and broccoli heads. I want the kale to flourish with massive leaves for frying with a little olive oil and salt. Fried kale is delicious over rice. This garden has been slow growing, though, just like my other broccoli garden bed. 

My major obstacles this year is finding time to do the necessary work in the garden, but I always manage. My next task is to mulch and compost around these plants as it starts getting colder for the plants. I will also have to keep them covered with garden canvas when the temperatures drop to the point I will need to be consisntly wearing a coat outside. 

I hope these fall crops can tolerate the bitter bite of the cold winds whipping through from the north. Summer left quick and the leaves are changing to their vibrant reds, oranges and yellows--painting the hillsides. 

The highlights of the summer were the flower gardens. Still, there's many flowers sparkling amongst the fall skies. 

The fig trees start producing their fruits right as fall makes its presence known. It's like the trees know exactly when they need to set their fruits right before the first frost. I have picked several handfuls of figs at a time in the last 3 weeks. Of course, they are my delectable little fall fruit treats. 

I would love to go to pumpkin patches, do a hayride, and drink cider and pick fruits at an apple orchard. But, much of the normal fall festivities have come to a hault. I did go to a greenhouse, though, to help grandma pick gourds, pumpkins, and mums for her fall setting. 

For fall, I decorated a little fall setting for my grandmother. I harvested my corn stalks and let tied them up for foddershocks. Then I fashioned the scarecrow and arranged the gourds she bought. Usually, I have my own little fall setting arranged, but this year I didnt have a single gourd, pumpkin--nothing from my garden to use for decorating! It was disappointing, but there's always next year. Still, I put up my old scarecrow I made years ago, and other halloween decor. 

Please be safe and healthy my dear garden comrades! Wear a mask, go to a protest, rally, vigil, show up in support, go vote, cast a mail in ballot, save your money, grow some food indoors, try to do your part! Peace and love!

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!