Garden Attempts by Novices - Take 31
It is time...
We have to be out of our garden by October 1st. This puts another point on the side of a garden at home. It is truly sad to see it all end. But I think just breaking free of it all at once is probably nicer than trying to drag it along? (I am really just trying to make myself feel better because truly, it is going to be sad for me.)
I went to the garden on Saturday morning. Just because it was 6AM and I was awake. Since the garden is winding down, there really isn't much to do. I did pick 3 kinds of tomatoes (just a small batch) which was fun that they are still turning red. I picked the rest of our leeks (to make Chinese omelets and give come to Mom to make Potato Leek Soup), picked some chives and basil for the leeks dishes and pizza for Zeke's birthday... oh, and tons of hot peppers.
I had been praying that somehow, we could revive out cantaloupe, but to no avail. I tried and tried but there was no bringing back the brown wilted plant and the fruit would then not get fed.
That is him, in the upper left. All that brown you see that looks like old straw is the brown wilted plant, right in the center of the photo. Soooo sad. I took the kids to the garden last night to show them how far he had gotten before the bugs got him and to dissect him to see what was inside. This is what we found...
He is gone. The green in the middle is weeds. The green in the back is chives. The green in the back left is tomatoes. But no cantaloupe. Either a big animal picked it up and took it out of the fence, or a person did. In this case, I am glad they did. I have never eaten a green cantaloupe, and was going to dissect this one just for fun with the kids, so if someone took it and will actually eat it, more power too them. I hope that the inside does have some fruit in it for eating, or else seeds for planting next year would be nice too.
Oh, and the habanero and chili pepper plants we planted in the front of the garden for people to take from were completely stripped of peppers, as well as some herbs missing, and some tomatoes and I am really ok with it. We have definitely been blessed this whole season!
Here are some pictures of the ending of our garden. The kids actually said they were sad to see it go. I think all the rain and harvesting made them forget all the daily hard work of a few months ago! It was a brisk day yesterday and oh so nice there!
Jeremiah and Miriam picking habanero peppers. These plants have done amazing. I have yet to figure out how to can but if you want any peppers they are yours!
Ezekiel and his celery. This is going to be sad because I don't think these guys will make it to completion. I am wondering if we can transplant them. They are said to be done the end of September and right now are only an 1/8" thick. They do look like mini-celery though, which is really cool!
I'm really going to miss all the wonderful garden stories and adventures... until next year I suppose!
Oh, I know!! I suppose we have school now to keep us occupied! Not the same kind of excitement, but still good. Today, we went on a fishing field trip with the other homeschoolers, it was good fun! We did extra work yesterday so we could take the day off, which was nice! Now we are off to try and get free Chipotle as soon as Miriam wakes up from her nap! Yeah!