Sunday, October 23, 2011

The Garden Chronicles October 23, 2011 - Fall Harvest Spectacular!


We have never had an October harvest like this!  The variety of produce above (tomatoes, zucchini, delicata squash, eggplant, raspberries, potatoes, broccoli, and sweet potatoes) this late in the fall is unprecedented.  This year's garden exceeded all expectations, and was a complete surprise given the late start due to bad weather during the spring and early summer.

The tomatoes grew everywhere, and we had 8 or 9 varieties, some of which we planted unintentionally by spreading composted vegetable scraps all over the vegetable beds this spring.  We especially enjoyed the Tajikistan tomatoes that we started using seeds supplied by a friend who visited there last year.


Lettuce is still growing in the cold frame.


Our last harvest of rhubarb in October.

Pears from our second tree nearly overwhelmed us.  They are very sweet and juicy.

We have harvested nearly all of the red raspberries by now.  They were plentiful through October.


Fall flowers are showy and colorful, too.


The black raspberry bushes grew taller than six feet and have fully taken over the edge of our front yard to the sidewalk!  We have high hopes for lots of black raspberries next summer.


The sunflowers finally bloomed, and I took this photo before the squirrels decimated all the large heads.