GARDEN UPDATE

This is the first of almost a dozen blogs I need to catch up on. Hopefully, in a week I'll be back on track.

OK, lots has been going on in the garden. Here we go.

yellow squash: gone. I bite the bullet and pulled them up. and to tell the truth, after about 5 minutes of guilt ... I feel nothing but relief. Next year I'm only going to plant 2 instead of 4 so we don't burn out on them. And I'm also planting a different variety. Probably the crookneck early golden summer

basil: I plan on bringing in the two planters I have most of our basil in when the frost hits. but just in case it doesn't do as well once indoors, I'm letting one branch go to seed. (not pick the flowers and let seeds develop to have some for next spring if these die ... or if any one wants to use them)

livingston musk melons: we've eaten two and we're waiting for the other 11 to grow grow grow. Son loves them, Daughter not so much. I can't wait to share these. AND save the seeds for next year and for anyone who wants to grow their own.

eggplant: I pulled it up too. But saved seeds for next year. We only got about 6 eggplants off of the three plants. But I blame most of that on poor placement and the flea beetles. Next year, they will not be crowded by tomatoes and I'll be waiting for the flea beetles and not let them get out of control.

banana peppers: I pulled those up too. I didn't want to can them and I seemed to be the only one who wanted them. And they were beginning to overtake the counter. TOO many. I accidentally had 3 plants of just banana peppers. poor note taking. Next year, I will only have one plant max.

butternut squash: they are still doing well. I'm patiently waiting for them to be ready so I can share them also. While I hate that my cucumber seeds didn't end up being cucumbers, I'm excited to have the butternut squash. Next, year I'll get new cucumber seeds AND I've picked out a Waltham Butternut Squash

ok, on to the fun. pictures.

This is our Star of David okra. We got a late start on it, so we've only gotten about a half a dozen okra off our 4 plants so far. more to come I'm sure. btw, this variety is named Star of David because when it's sliced, that's exactly what it looks like.

An okra bloom.

These are one of the peppers we got from our garden guru. I think it's an Anaheim. I'm waiting on email confirmation. Once I know what it is and how hot/sweet it is, I'll start using it in food!

sure, I could just taste it and I probably will.

This is another garden guru pepper. I have no idea what it is. waiting email confirmation.

And the tomatoes are still going strong. You can see the Juliets have taken over the Stupice. the grow and live together. because we planted them so close together we can't save the seeds. Luckily, we visited the garden guru Sunday and got some of their Juliets (and I did save those seeds) I decided we're not doing the stupice next year. I want to replace them with a bigger producer. And I've 98% decided on Jersey Giants. Now that I've fallen in love with canning tomatoes, I need a plant that can feed my addiction. I think this one will do it.

This is half of our onion haul. I didn't take a picture after I washed them. This is the best I've got. We planted purple, white and yellow. while most of them are about golf ball sized, there were three that were peach sized. I love these onions. We get the onion in the ground and the green onion above ground. I'll probably grow the same amount next year.

These are 1/4 of our potatoes. The rest are still in the dirt. As you can see they really vary in size. I think that's because I planted them so close together. Next year I'm thinking about decreasing the number I plant but giving them the same amount of space. We haven't eaten any of these yet ... but tonight we're grilling hamburgers, so I might cook them up too.

This weekend I'm planning on using all my free space to plant ching chang bok choy , spinach and broccoli. I'm excited about that. really excited.