Garden Going Into Fall

The growth rate of what's left in the garden has s-l-o-w-e-d way down which is only natural this time of year.

The raised beds with cold frames of peppers and cucumbers are still giving us fruit but at a much slower rate than a couple of weeks ago.

I harvested the mangels and turnips (destined as supplemental poultry feed this winter) on Saturday.

Honkin' big things these mangels are.  But considering they can get much bigger, these probably wouldn't be classified as prize winners.

The turnips are most likely bigger than desirable for human consumption, and would be "woody", but I'm thinking the poultry will be happy of a cold, wintry morning to have some warm cooked chunks of either turnips or mangels for breakfast.

Our blueberry bushes are starting to turn their lovely crimson color.  Last week we picked what was the last (a whopping cup and a half full) of the berries.  It was a bountiful year for the berries and we have a huge stash in the freezer.

The big pumpkins are all coloring up nicely.  I've counted about 13 of them.  The pie pumpkins on the arbor trellis are coming along, too, albeit a bit more slowly.  I didn't get as many of them (only eight) as I had hoped for.  There will be plenty for pies but I wanted some for decoration in my window boxes, too.

The sunflowers continue to bloom much to the delight of our honey bees.

The butterflies seem to be enjoying them, too.

The zinnias are hanging in there except for the big, overgrown ones that are keeling over from their own weight.  I especially like the orange ones this time of year.

The mass of nasturtiums got relocated to the compost pile this weekend.  We enjoyed them up until then, but I need to find another location for them next year.  They were planted in a raised bed and since nasturtiums actually prefer a poor soil, they developed way too much greenery (it was kinda scary) and not many blossoms.  A less fertile soil will produce more blossoms and less greenery.

The rains continue to fall upon us and because the temps have been cooler, nothing seems to ever dry out.  Now we've been issued a flash flood warning for tonight so we'll be checking to see everything is battened down outside as we close up for the night.  

The fall rains have really impacted what one can accomplish outside this time of year.  Still, better than the threat of a dry fall and possible forest fires.