HARVEST

This broccoli plant is almost ready for its 12th cutting.

     This September was one of the hottest and wettest on record. And once more I was too busy running around to write a single blog post. Disgraceful. The month was also the peak  of our vegetable  harvest. Our cucumber plants grew pounds  of new cukes daily, forcing us  to recruit more and more help simply to eat  the harvest. They ran to their last gasp in September and are basically done for the season.

     Our most recent picking of tomatoes was about nine pounds. There are about the same number of fruits now ripening on the vine, but we are  leaving them alone while  we try to finish off what is already in the kitchen. As  the weather finally cools, they, too,will slow down. Joining them in a last rush are our chilies, eggplant, and okra.

We planted two styles of small, Asian eggplant.

Your can see the okra pod just below and
 to the right of its attractive flower.

     Our leafy vegetables are continuing  to produce, and we are working on second crops of snow  peas and  Bok Choy. Our pea pods will be ready to harvest before our Italian pole beans  are finished producing.

Snow Peas Crop 2

     Meanwhile late season shrubs and perennials have continued to provide a feast for the eyes:

Autumn Clematis

Hardy Hibiscus 

Japanese Anemone

    Our special treat this season was the coming of age of our Viburnum  trilobum, or American Cranberries. We bought ten of these as knee-high bare root plants in 2012, hoping they would act as an attractive screen between us and our neighbors. This year they finally made it past eight feet tall and produced the gorgeous fruit for which they are famous.

American Cranberrybush Viburnum