The Modern Victory Garden

I pulled the beet patch up this morning.   I had planted them primarily to provide a couple of pints of pickled beets and purposefully did not plant much more than that -  because quite frankly beets are not my family's favorite thing.   In fact, I am pretty much alone in my appreciation of pickled beets, which is why I strive not to put up more than a few pints each year.   We had harvested some for fresh eating earlier this summer so by the time I cleared out the rest of the plants - there was 3 ½ pounds left which was just enough to do 3 pints of pickled beets.        

One of the jars did not seal properly, so I put it in the refrigerator and will put it to use immediately.                                                

I started some Walla Walla onion seeds on August 16th and they are now all emerged and growing on quite well.                 

These will be planted out in early October so that they can over winter in the garden bed.   I have never tried over wintering sweet onions before, but I am told the practice produces really big onions so I am giving it a whirl this year.      

The swiss chard (Bright Lights) starts that I transplanted out recently are doing really well.                                       

I am harvesting from the summer planting still, but these young plants will be ready for harvest about the time that the garden bed plantings start shutting down.   Because they are in pots, they can be moved into the greenhouse when the weather turns particularly nasty -  where they will then reside for the remainder of the winter.                                   

Currently in the greenhouse I have all my pepper plants growing.   The Mini Bell peppers are amazingly prolific.                                

And the Early Jalapeños are loaded with fruit as well.                    

It definitely felt like fall today.   The sun did come out for a while mid-day but because of the early morning rain it just made it feel muggy and sticky.   The sunshine did not last long though.   Grey storm clouds arrived just a few hours later and everything returned to gloomy looking once again.   Since it is starting to really feel like fall, I thought I would give you an update on some of the fall crops.                                       

The parsnip patch is thriving and right next to it is one of the carrot patches that will be an over wintered harvest crop. I have four separate carrot plantings ranging from "fully mature" that we are currently harvesting from to "almost mature" which will be the over wintered harvest patch.          

The brussel sprout patch is also coming along well.   The plants are quite tall and have sprouts forming up.   They should be ready for the first harvest around mid to late September.                         

The cole crops I planted out mid-summer are starting to reach maturity.   There are several kohlrabi plants, which are ready to be harvested already.      

And the broccoli is beginning to develop heads on some of the plants.        

Another fall harvest item is the Steins Late Flat Dutch cabbages.   These really are heavy and flat heads that form on these plants.   This is the largest of the heads so far and could be harvested any time now.                

Nothing says "fall" like the pumpkin and winter squash patch though!   I have ten Small Sugar pie pumpkins that are coming to maturity and five good sized Buttercup winter squashes as well.   Some of the "Small" Sugar Pie pumpkins are actually quite large!                                   

I did not take a picture of the lettuce and spinach bed, but they are growing on too and should be ready to provide some light harvesting in just a few more weeks.                                              

Before I headed in to bake some bread for the coming week, I harvested a variety of items including some gold zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes pole beans, runner beans, and an onion.                         

The cucumber, ½ the onion, and all of the tomatoes will be made into a tomato/cucumber salad.   The remaining items will all be used in a large beef and vegetable stir-fry with rice noodles for dinner tonight.               

Is it feeling like fall in your gardens too?