Monday, October 6, 2008

End of the Garden









Fall is definitely upon us. It's cool, wet and blustery. We had the first "storm" of the season with lots of leaves blowing around and small branches all of the roads, etc. In the last week we've had an inch of rain. This has forced me to go out and harvest as much as possible off of the tomato plants since late blight has set in on most of the plants. All but the plants under the big huge tent we built. I think they are fine in there because they have room and aren't touching the top or sides of the tent where they would get wet condensation and never dry. The smaller tents just weren't big enough to allow air flow and the plants grew too big and were touching the top and sides. Not all the tomatoes in the picture will make it as many of them have late blight in them already and instead of turning red they'll turn brown. But we will get some to ripen and enjoy.
It has really been an incredible challenge to learn how to garden in this climate. We had such high hopes for our garden this year supplying a huge amount of food for our winter but it just hasn't worked out. With snow on April 20th ( a full month after the "average last frost") and being forced to start all over with many things and the rain starting so early in August we just didn't get what we'd hoped for. I told James we need to spend the winter reading Northwest Garden books!
I'm going to give the garden one more week (maybe), and then the chickens will have a feast of feasts as they roam through garden for the next 4 months!

4 comments:

grammafaithie said...

That looks pretty cool, Sue, you need to find some recipes for Green Tomatoes! AND I like that little 'stove' you have there - looks very nice. Guess I need to make another trip to see the changes you have made!

Mimi said...

I agree, fried green tomatoes are your friend.

And, what a lovely stash you have. Such a cute place in your home.

Martha said...

So, how long do you think the other ones will last in your tent? Have you had a frost yet?

Susan Sophia said...

I'm not sure how long the tented tomatoes will last. I guess as long as they get water. They really aren't producing MORE but the goal is to get the green ones to ripen on the vine.
No frost yet. Our average last frost I think is in November. But it's not the frost so much as the wet/cool weather that is incessant. 40's at night and 50's in the day with wetness nearly everyday are just not conditions for a garden, except maybe lettuce.
And hey, my lettuce is FINALLY growing.