Vegetable Gardening and Me (#19)

It's been about two weeks since my last gardening post, and only a few pepper plants remain. Oh, and those bean plants, too--I haven't decided what to do with them, yet. But as for the rest of the garden, I have begun to prepare things for the winter.

As I mentioned in my first post on gardening, I am not an expert gardener, and I have made plenty of mistakes, but my adventures may help others have more fun and success. 

Also, I now have a page dedicated to gardening, that will contain all past and future posts, as well as resources I have found useful.

I spent almost two hours today cleaning up the garden, which involved pulling weeds,  trimming the edges, and mowing the paths. At some point I will remove the irrigation hoses, and store them for the winter. That should help them last longer. Later in the week, I will tackle the row that housed the corn and squashes. Notice how the row in the first two pictures are overgrown with weeds, but the last in the series is not. The squashes, with their large, broad leaves, suppressed weed growth, as did the tall corn stalks.

Two days ago I harvested the last of the eggplants (two more are missing from the picture), the second to last batch of peppers (kept a few green ones for future chilis), and two stray cucumbers (not enough for pickling unfortunately). I was surprised at how many eggplants came through in the end, and how many blossoms still remained. The abundance of peppers, also a welcome gift. And at least a dozen more that should be ripe before the first frost.

That leaves the tomato plants that need to be removed. Although there are still some green ones hanging on, the leaves have all but fallen off. The plants are shriveled carcasses. By the end of the week, they should be relegated to the compost heap.

Which leaves these guys. My bean plants. A hot mess of intertwining runaway vines and spreading bushes. Sigh. Should have planned better. For now, I will let the pods ripen on the vines until they dry out. I am  hoping that is how you get dried beans. Hmmm... I probably should look that up.

The next two gardening posts should have me wrapping this season up, with a decision about whether to carry things forward through the winter, or simply start up next spring. Although, I may also decide to do sporadic updates in order to keep my planning on track. We shall see. For now, I'll enjoy a pickle, or three, thanks to this season's adventures in gardening.