Summer in September (Garden Wrap Up)

Well, since winter lasted through the end of March, and the cool wet spring lasted through the end of July, I guess it's only fair that summer is here at last and looks to stick around for a little while longer.

The last few weeks have been hot, clear, and dry. The tomatoes ripened almost at once, which wasn't a problem since there were so few of them. A few beautiful tomato salads, a lot of surreptitiously snatched cherry tomatoes as I walk by the back porch, and that's it! Farewell, tomatoes, we hardly knew ye!

Other hot weather crops are showing mixed results - there's only one cucumber plant, but it's doing beautifully, with several long, curly cucumbers hanging off of it. The tomatillos look great, all covered in little paper lanterns, but most of the lanterns are empty. I've never grown tomatillos before, so I don't know if it's a pollination issue or something I'm doing wrong. Yesterday I discovered that my eggplant plants actually DO have a few eggplants on them, not just the lovely purple flowers. But they are still very small, and I don't know if they will get big now that cool nights are here. My cantaloupe plant, in the greenhouse, has two softball sized cantaloupes on it. I am watering religiously and we'll see if they get any bigger. I intend to eat them no matter what. And lastly the chile pepper plants that survived the cold spring (not many) are pumping out long wrinkly cayenne peppers at warp speed.

Out in the back garden, the pumpkin plant has sprawled over an area thew size of Delaware, yet produced only one pumpkin. It's supposed to be a giant variety. Right now it is almost the size of a beachball. Meanwhile, we are eating all the flowers off the plant and very nice they are, too, stuck inside quesadillas or just quickly sauteed in butter. I picked the last of the cabbages, which also grew to amazing proportions. The slugs got some, but there's plenty left to eat as much cabbage as any one family can eat for quite some time. And it is time to dig potatoes. The plants are dying back. I haven't done it yet because it's been too hot to be out wielding a shovel.

All in all, I'm quite pleased with this year's garden. It has certainly produced more food in pounds than any other garden up here yet! There were a few abject failures (garlic, green beans) but not many. I think I'm getting better.

A little, anyway.