It has been very rainy and windy for a couple of days, and it is quite clear that the gardening season is coming to an end!
Last of the fall apples
Even though we had a stiff gale going across everything and occasional rain showers, I decided to take a final walk around our Laughing Dragon Garden to see whether we had any late harvests happening. I was also in pursuit of some of our brilliant full color!
Indeed we have come to the end of the road, or so it would seem. I managed to pick the last few tomatoes off our dying vines, enough for another large bag to end up in the freezer for tomato sauce during the winter.
Last of the tomatoes
Although it was not a completely disastrous season it was not a good year for tomatoes overall. I think we managed to put away a total of maybe six or seven gallon freezer bags, in addition to the ones we used fresh.
It's a far cry from some of the "bumper crop" seasons we have had, when we harvested upwards of 100-120lbs of tomatoes from our single raised bed.
Still a FEW left on the vines
I think our season was negatively affected by the fact that during the late summer we had repeated days of dense fog that lasted almost till sundown. This meant we had relatively little sun. Normally when we have these summer fogs they burn off by 11:00 or 11:30 in the morning and then we have bright sunshine for the rest of the day, but not this year.
If memory serves me, we only had a couple of 4-5 day intervals where it was completely clear; not enough for a good tomato season.
Suprising late season treasure!
Much to my surprise I found three more strawberries ready to be picked! It does seem like a small miracle that we are able to get a few strawberries in late October but now they are definitely done.
Early next year, we will dig up all the plants, clean them up and thin them a bit, mulch and fertilize the raised beds, and stick them back in the ground. This is how we have managed to get some really excellent crops.
A very modest end to the blackberries
I also managed to pick a small batch of blackberries but overall nothing to write home about. Blackberry season really was quite disappointing this year, in spite of the fact that the vines were absolutely covered in flowers In late summer. Perhaps it's connected to the aforementioned fog, it seemed like most of the berries didn't actually ripen, they went directly from looking like they were getting ready to ripen to rotting in place.
Pole beans, air drying for seed
Our space where we grow peas and beans — used to be our chicken run — is pretty much completely dead now, leaving only a number of bean pods that will be harvested for seed quite soon.
We are still using the same heirloom seed stock we put in in 2014!
Not as much success with the peas... not convinced those peas were really heirloom, in spite of what was indicated on the package. At least, they were much smaller this year than last... suggesting they were actually hybrids that are returning to their natural state.
Oor lettuce greens have all bolted at this point — it's still edible, of course and we will continue to pick and enjoy it, although it's starting to get a tad bitter.
Maybe that's the origin of the term "the bitter end?"
But there's still some arugula to be had. It's remarkably hardy, and even keeps going after the first frost.
My yellow rose bush seems to be doing extremely well, it has been setting flowers since spring and is one of the most productive things we have.
Planted it as a wee thing from a 1-gallon pot a few years ago, and it has pretty much taken over an entire patch against the fence.
Meanwhile, there's quite a bit of fall color around the extended garden, with the Japanese maples reaching their full red splendor about now.
As things wind down we will be getting ready for the next phase of the garden, which is cleaning out all the beds of this year's plant debris, adding compost and mulch, as well as fertilizing them rather thoroughly because most of them seem to be a little bit "tired."
At least that's what we discovered when we tested the soil without soil testing kits, which is a must for pretty much any urban homesteader.
With inclement weather and much shorter days, the time for gardening grows scarce, and we must grab our moments when we can!
I appreciate you coming by and sharing in the Laughing Dragon Garden's adventures!
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All photos are my own!