Fall is in the air! The garden is winding down, the evening dusk is coming earlier every day and school buses have started to roll by. The last of the garden produce is ready for harvest. Luckily, the echinacea flowers are still spectacular and the lavender flowers are going strong, so the garden doesn’t look abandoned.
Here’s the latest tour of the garden plots:
First, the raised planter still has one batch of lettuce growing well. The last radishes are in the refrigerator ready for the next salad. The lettuce on the left was cut a few days ago, but the roots are still there. We’ll dump the whole bin shortly.
The spearmint is in flower and the bees are busy.
The cucumbers are long gone but just a month ago Bert planted a lemongrass plant, just to see how it would do. Pretty huge now, but I know it won’t survive the winter.
On the left the chamomile is pretty flat, but I was able to harvest some of the flowers for future use. In the center is lemon balm and on the right is stevia. Kind of got out of control with the heat, but the bees are loving the flowers.
The red and green basil is crazy too. On the right is thyme. Time to cut it all back. The thyme and rosemary (hidden behind the basil) should come back next year if I mulch it over the winter.
Up in the garden on the hill, the row of lavender is beautiful. I am cutting stems of flower buds to dry. The row next to it is carrots. They are pretty much done growing but we’ll leave them in the ground for another month or two. We’ll dig them up as we need them.
This section had two rows of carrots and two shorter rows of beans. We pulled the beans last weekend and dug up most of the carrots. (Remember that carrot cake I wrote about last week!)
This section is green beans just beginning to flower. They were planted in late July and I wasn’t sure they would make beans before the first frost. We’ll see!
These two sections had tomatoes and early beans. Last weekend we pulled the tomato plants. A dozen tomatoes are on the kitchen table. We’re eating them every day. Delicious!
And the beautiful echinacea are blooming their hearts out. They should reseed themselves and come up next spring.
Another hint that fall is coming is the furious feeding frenzy of the hummingbirds. Usually they disappear around Labor Day, so each day we see them is a gift. Just as we were excited to be anticipating gardening season, something about the change of the seasons seems just right. Fall has its own beauty here in Pennsylvania. Time for pumpkins and apple butter! I’m ready to have cooler nights and fall colors. Enjoy!
Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.