Fall Harvest Is Bountiful…..

 

   I thought I would share some more photos of my garden. I absolutely love watching those veggies and flowers grow every year! This year was one of my most challenging though. The Japanese Beetles attacked my pole beans like crazy! Every day I must have picked off 30 to 40 and scooped them into a cup with some bleach and water. They never once ate any of the beans, but didn’t they love the Bean leaves! Here are some photos of how crazy the plants grew even so.

   We had a good supply of cucumbers and squash throughout the summer. What a wonderful feeling it is to just step out to the garden for a fresh veggie to add to a salad or dinner. I love that.

   I tried growing some Japanese long cukes this year and they did not do well. The above photo is a regular pickling one….they were great and very sweet. The Japanese ones are supposed to be straight and about 1” in diameter. Instead, they curled up and were fat on one end and skinny on the other. They also had strong amounts of prickles all over that were like needles! I wish I had taken some pics of that but I didn’t.

 

   We all love Butternut squash and it was plentiful this year! I roasted it with other garden veggies, garlic, and oil, and it was fantastic….so sweet and buttery tasting!

   My girlfriend Joyce gave me some Zucchini and yellow crookneck plants. I probably would not have grown them if she had not. Look at the size of the leaves next to my hand! The plant looked like something from the tropics! It was one of my best producers! I gave away a LOT of zucchini and yellow squash!

   Not until it was too late, did I realize that I had only planted little baby pumpkins! I guess the living room work got me distracted….or maybe it was the frost we had after my first planting! Oh…forgot to tell you about that…my first planting was killed by an unusual frost and I had to buy all new plants and replant! Although these baby jacks were all I had, they ended up being so plentiful! I must have had 30 to 40 at least!

   Cute little buggers….and more gourds…

   My kids ended up harvesting my rainbow carrots! I have never been so excited about seeing a vegetable come out of the ground! You never know what color or shape you are going to get. Here are a few pics of them…

   You cannot really see the colors in these 2 photos above but you should be able to see that in the next one. See above…we got some real characters in there! So cool!

   That’s it for today….I wanted to let you all know how much I have enjoyed viewing your garden entries too! It is one of my favorite things to view on blogs. More tomorrow hopefully! :)