the winding-down

[ceelove]

It's been an amazing year for the garden - especially given that without modern plumbing, it would have been a horrible, parched year.

The tomatoes are petering out, which is to say that we're only getting a couple of pints of sungolds every three days instead of every day. The husk cherries are finally showing their age, too, after two solid months of crazed mass production. Whoa. The bigger tomatoes didn't produce with such fervor, but we did get plenty of beautiful fractally-patterned ruby golds.

The other nightshades have also done well. We've got another 10-15 pounds of vibrant purple potatoes under the soil. The eggplants, not to be outdone, grew to five feet and have been (and still are) showering us with slender lovelies. The peppers haven't been so magnificent, but we've had some of each of our three types, and there are lots more on the plants now.

The cucumbers, now just ending, were so prolific that, along with endless salads, I even made some half-sours, to general approval. (I also pickled eggplant, garlic, and beans for the winter.) The beans were unbelievable: about 14 pounds, to last year's two (when we had bean rust). The fall raspberries are finishing up the steady trickle that amounted to a few pints - not bad for their second season! The thyme was fine, the basil and garlic great. The chard has been lovely, too.

The cole crops did really well, overall. We had the first twelve kohlrabi about six different ways, and the fall crop of another nine is coming along. The kale I planted in March is still producing, plus a bumper fall crop is coming.

Lest you think our garden was an unmitigated success, there are the things that didn't impress me at all: the bok choi was barely edible, the spinach and soybeans failed, the shallots were pathetic. The broccoli, again, made leaves but not much in the way of actual heads. And dearly as I love beets, four failed attempts is enough - especially after I passed the seeds (which wouldn't germinate for me) to my grandfather, he threw them down and forgot about them, and got softball-sized beets from them!

Now, with the summer crops winding down, I feel a bit melancholy - but not as much as I would have a couple of years ago, when this would have been the end. Now, apart from the last week or month of production from a lot of things, and all the garlic and pickles and such in the pantry, there's that new raised bed. starphire put in heat sinks, and I built a cold frame, and it's planted with things that may well survive the winter with that much protection: mache, orach, scorzonera, claytonia, and a mix of lettuces. Most of these I hadn't heard of before reading Four Season Harvest, but I'm hopeful that they'll brighten my January.