Late summer #HiveGarden posts here are all about the harvest. The season is a bit short and ends quickly so veggies take their time and arrive all at the same time around now.
One of the more rewarding experiences to share is gardening which happens to be a highlight of my summers after those long Canadian winters. The latest Garden Journal Challenge by 
The 6th year of The Pickleman Family Garden series that started as a reclamation of lawn and repurposing to a simple garden veggie box. These days, it has become an expanding and perpetual yearly tradition of exploration.
Let's see what I am picking!
18 Days Ago
The last update, we were looking wild and wooly with even the lawn needing a trim. First huge tomato still on the vine to the left.
Some of it is even woollier than it was then, that fat delicious tomato is long gone, and a few cold single digit Celsius nights have yellowed some leaves. Earlier in the evening with the yard patrol.
Peppers!
Mad Hatter peppers are popping off the plant every day or 2. Though they look hot, they are extremely mild. Almost like a sweet bell pepper with a more peppery taste and none of the hot pepper heat. Awesome for salads and sandwiches anyone can eat.
Habaneros are a different story. These babies are as hot as any habanero I have ever tasted. A couple skinny little slices on a burger and one can get the hiccups and be reminded for an hour by that lingering heat. Not mean, just serious. They will make you sweat but won't make you cry.
Ghost peppers are almost another subject completely. These are almost as mean as they get and will make you cry. I pity the fool who scratches their eye after slicing these. Inedible in every way except when fermented in a hot sauce and applied in tiny drops to entire bottles of mortal hot sauce for sport. Not as many ready right yet but enough to make the meanest hot sauce I have ever made. Stay tuned!
Tomatoes
I have probably 100 tomatoes of assorted varieties starting to pop off. These may be beefsteak of some heirloom variety and entertainingly are ripening unevenly.
These were labelled cherry tomatoes but look more like grapes to me. Growing in bunches like this one with over 20 tomatoes in it. Next level salads and surprisingly good with a little mozzarella and balsamic vinegar.
These are shaped like cherry tomatoes but are coming off the size of golf balls. I may have a long winter eating store bought ones after all of these fresh ones which taste so different.
Some of the neatest ones are these brandywine tomatoes that are a bit smaller and come off then they are almost black. Small vines but plenty of tasty fruit.
I sliced just the top of this one so you can still see where the stem goes but it gives you an idea how meaty these are. harvested a touch before red and the seeds and water are not in big pockets like supermarket tomatoes.
Pickles Man
For the first year in many, I am living up to my namesake and am in the pickles! The first dozen I let grow as large as small cucumbers and they sliced up just as nice. A few, we sliced and fermented with cherry bomb hot peppers. Delicious as can be and packing a little hot pepper heat to thrill your tongue a little too. I will snag a dozen of these and see how they pickle up while they are small.
When my little one said she brought home Lemon cucumbers, I figured they would look like normal cucumbers and just not turn green. Then these tennis ball-sized freaks started growing all over the place. I pulled the first of 20 off and thought I might as well slice it up and see what it tastes like. Turns out they are virtually identical to the texture and taste of a normal cucumber! Maybe a little more savory so I think we will experiment with fermenting these into sliced pickles too.
Late Summer Blooms
The roses and hydrangeas keep popping out big flowers like it was the beginning of July. Some of the older ones look a little weathered but there are more on the way.
A couple afternoons were cool enough that the morning glories decided to stay out. The vines are thick and climb the whole 7-foot fence and fire out their purple flowers.
No filter needed and these little beauties look like lighted christmas tree ornaments.
So far so good.
The vines are not looking as strong as they did a couple weeks ago when veggies were nowhere neat ripe. Now, they are all producing and I have fertilized again in hopes of big fruits and veggies to finish the season strong. For now, we have garden veggies whenever possible and I bring a basket a week to another family and the big harvest is still yet to come.
Thus ends this chapter of the garden update. It is a picking adventure every day and this is what we were hoping for when planting everything back in May.
Mom started me along my path of growing stuff when I was a kid. Motivated by so many blockchain blogging gardeners, I figured I would plant and share and learn as I reclaim as much grass space as I can. It has turned out to be a fruitful experience and I hope to inspire you to sow and grow no matter what your location or experience level is.
If it doesn't work, blame the plant!
