Well, today’s the day. The low tonight in our area is forecasted to be around 35 degrees and there’s a freeze watch. So we spent the morning harvesting anything that was ready to eat and likely wouldn’t survive a freeze in case we do get one.
The harvesting part is fun of course. We got basil, parsley, marjoram, rosemary, and mint to dry. There was another nice watermelon, two butternut squashes, a bunch of mustard greens, some small peppers, and lots of tomatoes – some on their way to being ripe, some still super green. Not sure if the greenest of them will ripen up or not, but hey, that’s why fried green tomatoes exist, right?
The bitter part of the bittersweet is that this marks the end of a lot of those plants, and feels like the end of the gardening season (even if that’s not totally true). We pulled all of our tomato plants, basil, and squash. I mean, some of those little plants have been with us since February! Going to give the peppers a little more time in the ground because there are a lot of little ones left, and we want to see if they grow any more.
We’re not done with fresh produce, but we moved some of the herbs and perennial flowers to the back patio where they’ll be a little more sheltered. There’s still broccoli growing (and maybe a cauliflower? not sure), a bunch of little lettuce and kale plants that may or may not continue to grow, and a small bed of spinach that should be fine for the time being. But I can already tell you I’m going to miss pulling something to eat off of a plant that I grew most days of the week.
We ordered most of our seeds for next year, and we’re going to experiment with growing some herbs and greens inside over the winter, so stay tuned to see how that works out. And I think soon, I’m going to try to compile some of our biggest lessons learned from year 1. But the learning never stops, and I’m excited to see what else we learn over the winter and next season!
Mark & Beth's Homegrown Adventure 