Fall Colors in the Garden

The leaves are just beginning to change colors in Saco, Maine but the flowers still blooming in the fall are bursting forth with their beautiful colors. So many of the spring blooming flowers have short lived blooms but that is not the case as the fall approaches. Some of these flowers can even be dried to prolong the enjoyment of their beauty. Every year I bring in some hydrangeas to save for a winter's bouquet. I guess it is finally time to part with those saved from last year and replace them with this new harvest.

The mystery squash reported several postings ago ended up simply being a two-toned gourd on a very prolific plant that emerged from the compost added to the asparagus bed. I now have a basket full of then to enjoy as decorations.

I have pulled all the gladiola tubers for winter storage but will leave the dahlias in the ground until after the first hard frost for they are still blooming vigorously.

I continue to pick tomatoes even if the plants look terrible and have vastly under produced this year so I will have a supply of red salsa and might even end up with some tomato sauce for pasta meals. I have purchased cucumbers at the local farm stand so a few batches of pickles are canned. The beets are a big success though, and I am about to pickled some for the canned goods storage shelves. The cabbage was just picked and will be turned into sauerkraut after six weeks of fermenting in the old crock

Harvesting continues & the weather is perfect

September in Maine is considered the best month of the year by many Mainers. Cool evenings, sunny days in the 70's and gardens to harvest. I can't argue with this viewpoint even if I am still a new Mainer. As you can see below I now have broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and chard to enjoy. I am eating my own potatoes regularly as well as garlic. The beans are done but many are in the freezer. Zucchini are still growing as well as lots of beets, carrots and turnips. I have managed to harvest enough tomatoes to make two large batches of red salsa, 19 pint jars. All the peppers in them came from the garden and the garlic and cilantro as well. My onion crop is weak this year so store bought onions went into the salsa. I bought some farm stand cucumbers so I could make at least one batch of bread and butter pickles. I will have to buy more to make any other variety of pickles I want to can.

The sedum flower bed is showing its fall color and the marigolds, hydrangeas, sunflowers and dahlias are also adding color all around. Some mums have returned to bloom again. The sunflower plants should be six feet tall but are only three feet tall! The Martin bird house attracted the usual families of sparrows but this year a bird's nest appeared near it.. .for visitors or in-laws... I'm not sure.

The White House Veggie Garden...an Update

An update on the Obama White House Garden...nice video on You Tube!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVpEr3kfWjc

The Summer is ending......

August was a great month filled with sun and hot weather and it made it possible to salvage some crops in the worst gardening year of my seven so far in Maine. Now, as September begins with cooler days and cooler nights I hope for no frost before late October to enable the veggies growing ever so slowly to reach maturity. My cucumbers are a total bust and I don't expect to harvest ANY. The same goes for winter squash and melons it would appear. The few, tiny ears of corn won't even be enough for the raccoons let alone leaving some for me to enjoy. I have only picked a few tomatoes so far and of very poor quality. There are many green ones on the vines but who knows if enough decent ones will lead to my usual many batches of salsa let along tomato sauce. I usually only can jars of veggies and jams from crops I have harvested here and not from purchased ones, but this year may be the exception. I probably could take a year off from pickle making as I do have several 2008 jars remaining but life would not be the same without many jars of salsa on the shelf! The good news is that many of the rest of the salsa ingredients like the hot peppers and cilantro are doing just fine in the garden.

I continue to enjoy an abundance of green and yellow beans, turnips, beets, carrots, lettuce, zucchini and yellow summer squash. Soon I will be picking some cabbage, eggplant and more cauliflower and broccoli. Hence I really cannot complain too loudly about the harvest in 2009. The life of a gardener/farmer always has its disappointments along with the joys. I must say that many flowers continue to add beauty to the gardens here as some of the photos show. The black-eyed Susan's are big and amazing this year and spreading all over the place. It is hard to imagine that the hydrangeas were tiny little plants just four years ago when purchased. The pond now sports many floating plants as well and continues to be a focal point of admiration for the many visitors I have had of late. Life is good ... even without cucumbers!