I am winding down my time in this home of twenty one years. It has been a gift and an honor to share my last garden here with you all. Thank you so much.
August was mostly about TOMATOES! Which I do not eat much of. How did I come to have so many tomatoes after all? you might be thinking. Those plants got so big, they blocked out the light on everything else. My cucumbers died, my swiss chard languished, my zucchini was a bust, and not until the tomatoes were done for the season did my peppers, eggplant and okra get enough sun to produce any fruit at all.
Do I sound disappointed? I AM NOT! I will have managed to finish the summer in my 8 by 12 foot veggie plot having had plenty of veggies for myself and a few others to eat, and plenty of tomatoes, both canned and frozen, for the winter.
A surprise awaited me when I peeled my tomatoes, in getting ready to hot pack them. White, fibrous spots were just underneath the skin on a number of them. I knew that wasn't right, and I got busy on the internet to find out what had caused the spots, and what, if anything, I should do about them.
There are quite a few things that can cause whitish spots on tomatoes.
It wasn't long before I knew for sure what had caused the whitish spots on my tomatoes - stinkbugs! I'd seen the bugs, but I didn't know they were causing any damage, and so I left them there. Fortunately, only a few of my fruits had the spots, and the damage need simply be cut away. Another lesson learned.
For my first canning event in nearly five decades, and my very first without adult supervision, I'd say seven quarts is not bad! Hopefully in future it won't suck up the better part of two days to can so little.
A couple of weeks after this, the tomatoes were still producing robustly, and I managed to peel, chunk, flash freeze and package freeze another gallon of tomatoes. I have tomatoes up the wazoo! Have I mentioned that I don't eat tomatoes?! Recipes and ideas are welcome and encouraged!
By this time, my tomatoes were browning and not producing many tomatoes, so I decided to pick any green tomatoes and lay the plants down so that the rest of the garden could get some sun. Here are lousy before and after shots of the entire veggie patch.
Once the tomatoes were downed, the rest of my veggies could get enough light to produce fruit. My harvest sizes tamed down considerably, but I could still gather amounts and varieties of fruits that went into several batches of what I now call summer stew - anything I have, cooked into a stew with a couple handfuls of frozen tomatoes. On top of quinoa, this stew is filling, nutritious, and yummy. Sorry, no pictures. I can't take pictures of EVERYTHING, now can I?
Alas, my garden's days now number in the teens. Not only am I moving, the angle of the sun has declined enough to leave my veggie patch getting under four hours of sun a day, and some parts of it no more than two. It's still chugging out a few veggies. I'll get a few more peppers, a couple of eggplants, and a handful of okra.
One thing is now producing more than it ever has - my swiss chard. I had fertilized everything (with something groovy and organic of course) one last time a couple of weeks ago, and the chard seems to be happier than it has ever been, with the cooler weather and just a bit more sun.
Man, are the ticks ever bad this year!!! I am covered with tick bites today. I make a point of going out with my pants stuffed into my boots, the boots sprayed with toxic chemicals, to keep those nasty creatures off my skin. This technique works well, but I made the mistake of not doing all this JUST FOR ONE QUICK TRIP TO PICK ONE SINGLE OKRA FRUIT, and two days later I am itching like crazy from the hips down.
I miss my chickens, who did a decent job of keeping the tick population down, but I had no idea how great a job they had been doing until now.
And now for the selfie! Not taken outside - it is raining - but I want to show off my new (yes a second pair) of spectacles. A bit of color to brighten the days ahead, which are not going to be easy! All good stuff coming though. I'll bring you all along as I go, but this will be my final post for my Big House, Tiny Veggie Patch series. I've got packing to do!!!
Thank you so much for being here. Much love to you all.
This is my entry to @riverflows early September Garden Journal Challenge.
This challenge attracts the very best in garden journal posts, so if you have any interest in gardening, especially for food, go check the other entries out!
How about it @futuremind and @jerrytsuseer?
images are mine, all mine
