Well, the first summer season of my garden is now done. I removed most of the plants after they were past their prime, and here's what I'm left with:
Bed 1: I removed all the Romas. I still have a few green Brandywines on the vine. I doubt they'll have time to fully ripen, so I may just pull them and make Fried Green Tomatoes. The Beets are also still growing, though only a few remain after I culled the smallest ones. | Bed 2: Everything but the carrots have been removed. The carrots will continue to grow into the colder weather, so I'm leaving them. They'll keep better in the dirt than in the refrigerator. |
Bed 3: The bean plants are quite large, and a volunteer bean plant is sprouting on the other end of the bed. The kale is still growing, even with the lower leaves all picked clean. | Bed 4: The peas never made a comeback. The carrots are still growing healthy, and the parsley is still huge. I'm going to harvest the parsley soon, so I can dry and pack it for winter. |
Bed 5: I only harvested half of my basil at my last post. That was just in case I screwed it all up. I'll be harvesting this group and freezing it in oil too. The chives are still bountiful, so I'm going to leave them and see how they do as the weather gets colder. | Bed 6: The strawberries have had a few casualties, thinning themselves out a bit. When the weather gets cooler and they begin to turn red, I'll cover them somehow for the winter. The blackberry bush next to it has some nice stalks on it. I'm hoping that this next year brings a good crop of both berries. |
So, that's about it for the summer of 2014. I'm thinking of possibly panting some more cool-weather crops back into the beds and trying for a fall garden, but I don't know. Maybe the peas will like the Fall weather better than the summer, so it's worth a try.