Well the cherry tomato count is up to 6... I think everything else has been demolished by the groundhogs... I'm thinking fence next year.

wolf.

Have you used Blood Meal to defend plants against many small creatures (as well as deer, apparently)? I have found this substance does a very effective job if I sprinkle it around the plant. Careful about putting the 'meal' right on, though, as it could burn, being a concentrated form of nitrogen. The only thing is, it has to be applied after every rainfall or watering. And it could attract any omnivorous animal because, after all, it is dried blood.

This summer so far we have officially canned 36 pints and 5 quarts of tomatoes. I would say 80% of those tomatoes were out of my garden and the remainder were out of the farm garden. It has been just an insane tomato year here. And the Cherokee Purples... oh my goodness. If you have any kind of green thumb at all, I highly recommend those because they are my favorite tasting tomato of all time.... SOOO good. (But they can be tricky to grow because they're an heirloom.)

This Wednesday is the deadline for registering for the fair so I'm trying to decide what all to enter this year. I'm thinking a watermelon for sure, though I don't know if I'll do both the largest and green striped categories, also the sampling of cherry tomatoes, maybe onions, maybe pumpkins.... got a lot to choose from. The trick though is that it doesn't cost anything to register so you're supposed to sign up for everything you might enter and then if it doesn't work out you just don't bring it in.

So is anybody doing any fall gardening this year? I've never really done it before, I'm usually gardened out by the time fall rolls around, but I was thinking about doing some root vegetables. Beets, radishes, and turnips maybe, along with some leafy greens. I missed my deadline for green beans by a few weeks, but it's been so hot the past couple years, maybe I could still get them going?

Wonderful! about the canned tomatoes, fantasia! Purple Cherokees, eh? Will have to keep an eye open for them early next spring.

So, what did you decide to enter in the fair this year?

I've never done fall gardening, but it sounds really appealing. Honestly not sure how it would fare up here, though, with our cooler temperatures. I'm not sure it's that feasible. Maybe an early one, though ...

Our tomatoes have had a great season too, and they're still growing strong: loads of Jet Stars (a medium-to-large variety) and an abundance of grape tomatoes, both of which taste like (very healthy) candy, they're soooo sweet and succulent.

We've had regular cucumber feasts, although I think I mentioned above that the plant is not as prolific as I had hoped. Still, what we're getting are delectable.

The peas, who had a good season as well, are done. Man, they were so tasty!

Beans have begun a second round (from the same plants). The first finished and I wondered if that was it, but they've begun producing again and we had a large pot of them, cooked, last night for supper. Mmmmmm ....

Our floral gardens are all flourishing, and I'm especially excited that plants that people gave me last spring, which eventually went brown and kinda twiggy inside, are not thriving outside. One mum plant, that was quite small, has grown to probably 8 times the original size, with lots of blooms on it. Others have come back from the near-dead to such beauty.

Our sunflowers—planted a variety of spots all over the perimeter of our yards—are so stunning. Different varieties, heights, colours ... such fun to have around. Neighbours have definitely commented on the tall stalks and blooms peak into some of their yards too.

The zinnias have taken over our smaller garden near the patio door (beside the pool gate): they are huge and abundant. Really pretty, attracting many butterflies (mostly monarchs) as well as hummingbirds. I'd like to plant them from seed next year again, but will have to do it elsewhere in the yard, as they've basically drowned other plants with their profusion.

I could chat on each plant, but that would take hours and make for too long a post. Needless to say, though, aside from the awful heat this summer, gardening is always such a wonderful pleasure. So satisfying.

EDIT: I've been meaning to ask this all summer: if you could have 3 gardening/lawn tools ONLY, what couldn't you live without? For me? A hoe (for the garden), a trowel for multi-garden-y tasks, a weeder (for the lawn).

EDIT again: And, if I can add another: twist ties! I carry them with me at all times in my gardening shorts, for I am often tying up stray, long, luscious tomato stems to the pool fence so they don't fall over and break. It thrills me to see how bountiful both tomato plants are. I am determined to add a couple more varieties next year. And twine: again, tying up uncooperative stems of any number of growing plants to the fences against which they are planted. *coughsunflowerscough*

So, what did you decide to enter in the fair this year?

You'll have to go check out the Fair thread. I do have a plan to take lots of pictures of all the produce this year because there were other things that I could have entered that I didn't quite know how, such as Onions and Potatoes and things like that. One of these years, I'd like to enter in the full garden variety category where you provide like, 12 different types of vegetables with no more than 2 species of each type (so you could do two types of tomatoes and two types of peppers). But typically by this time of year, a lot of my veggie plants have had enough of the summer heat and are long done.

I've been meaning to ask this all summer: if you could have 3 gardening/lawn tools ONLY, what couldn't you live without?

Uhhhh.... A lawn mower, a jug of Round-Up, and a shovel.

Well I'm still hemming and hawing over a Fall garden. We did decide if we plant a few things, it's going to be at my house, not at the farm as the garden is *ahem* a giant jungle of weeds. Turnips and radishes should still be fine as one is a cold weather plant and the other grows quickly. It's just finding the space to put them in as my sweet potatoes have completely overrun every square inch of useable dirt. Might have to cut them back a bit...

Mom and I went to Wal-Mart tonight, and I can check another "dream plant" off of my list! They had Elephant Ear Bulbs (Colocasia). The plant is a GORGEOUS foliage bulb that needs to be dug up in the fall. . . but I'm SOOOOOOOO looking forward to seeing how they turn out.

How did these turn out?
The reason I ask... the other day, we were walking, and my mom and I saw some plants that looked quite like the leaves in the picture you posted; my mom said that there's an Indian dish we make with it. I thought, "Those look just like the Elephant Ear plants that Digs posted!" I researched and found out the botanical name, and sure enough, those are the plants that we use. My mom has been discussing about them and has been wanting to find some to make the dish with. (if you're interested, I found a random recipe of dish online over here ) You found it at Wal Mart, correct? I looked on the site and was a bit unsuccessful in finding anything save elephant baby toys..... On the link on Wiki, it says that there are edible types, which makes me wonder if there are nonedible types....is the type you found edible, or no? Anyways, that was my anecodote and my questions.

Fantasia, I keep on getting hungry reading about your Fair entries in here and in the Fair thread. All the best!!

Responding to Jo from August 11:

Ditto on really enjoying gardening and finding it so satisfying! Although basically the herbs, peppers, and 1 eggplant were all I got, that's better than nothing. I really enjoyed it.

Haha, about your mint! We noticed it grew really fast, so we're keeping it in the container.

So fun to hear about your eggplant! Isn't it great when unexpected gardening surprises happen? As I wrote ^, a similar thing occurred with my pepper plant, and now, sure enough, come August it's growing more, with blossoms blooming, and even wee baby peppers, which are just adorable. I remember affectionately teasing fantasia once (because I feel the same way) when she mentioned how cute small plants are, and said we should all have t-shirts that state emphatically "We love cute plants!"

Thanks! We ate the eggplant the other day, and no one fell sick, so I'm guessing that it grew well! Hoorah for your peppers! I wholeheartedly agree - there's really nothing cuter than plants, so I learned this year. It was hard to peel my eyes off of them when I started the seeds.

Thanks for your sympathy, about the tomatoes! I'm sorry about your radishes! Consistent watering... I'll definitely work on making that my practice next year. Thanks!
Ooh, carrots would be fantastic! I hope you can do those!

I wish I could send you some of my tomatoes, Bella: we are overloaded both with the larger Jet Star and the grape variety. Before my Brandywine plant died *sniff* it managed to produce a few small, but succulent, fruit, and I have never tasted such a delectable tomato. Cherry 'toms' come close, but, wow, these are stronger, quite pungent, and so yummy! I am determined to ensure a Brandywine survives next year. (And I quite like the name. )

Aww, thank-you. I'm glad to hear that your tomatoes did well!! Oooh, yes, Brandywines... I read about those on Totally Tomatoes, all over Narniaweb, and for sure next year I will be on my knees praying fervently that I have at least one Brandywine plant. *needs to taste these tomatoes*

That's so exciting that your peas, beans, and flowers are doing well. I'm enjoying reading your updates!

As for my garden, nothing has really been growing lately. We just picked the last peppers - I said it before, and I shall say it again because I feel it is worth repeating: pepper plants are forever my friends. They're the only ones which really helped. My mom was also saying that despite the unexpectedly low turnout of my plants, the peppers were so fantastic.

Unfortunately, I haven't had time to start the peas or the spinach. I think I'll probably just not do anything, because school is really time-consuming lately and too, we have to do some work on the lawn. I also don't trust the bugs around to put any kind of leafy vegetable in the ground. So, next year! But who knows, maybe I'll change my mind tomorrow and just plant a couple seeds.

Hope you can get around to having a fall garden, fantasia! And I've enjoyed reading your fair entry posts. All the best!

A lawn mower, a jug of Round-Up, and a shovel.

Okay, so I can't limit it to three. A lawn mower too, yes, and a shovel/spade.

Haha, about your mint! We noticed it grew really fast, so we're keeping it in the container.

Wise idea.

there's really nothing cuter than plants, so I learned this year. It was hard to peel my eyes off of them when I started the seeds.

Ditto. There is something just so appealing about wee plants.

My peppers are doing very well: they are well-loved by a few members in my family (not me, sadly, because I wish I could like them ), so I added them to one batch of spaghetti sauce last week, and they said they were amazing! The plant is still not that big, but it's loaded with all these peppers.

I will be on my knees praying fervently that I have at least one Brandywine plant. *needs to taste these tomatoes*

They are wonderful, indeed. And I am hoping, too, that even one Brandywine plant will thrive for me next year.

Because of the heavy rains last night, some of my floral plants may have been damaged—they're so bent over. Maybe they'll pick up again though. We needed the rain, so I'm grateful for all the came.

I picked another pot of green beans the other day, ready to be cooked and eaten. And we're still getting tomatoes 'coming out of our ears'. From the abundance of green ones, these are going to last at least another few weeks, woohoo! I just can't stop slicin' them and eatin' them.

I've been reading up on sweet potatoes the past few days. I've learned that they're different from a lot of other tubers on how to handle them. Unlike potatoes, you don't let the plants die off completely or you run the risk of the potato getting all shriveled and nasty and put up new shoots. Instead, you wait for the plant to start dying, and then you cut it off, leave the sweet potatoes in the ground for a couple days to sweeten, and then dig them.
I really want sweet potatoes. I've been hovering over my garden looking for signs of dying vines. Haven't seen any yet. If anything they're still growing like crazy.

I've never tried growing sweet potatoes, fk. Interesting to read about the process.

Still getting green beans and far too many tomatoes. No, not really, because we love them so much, we're (barely) keeping up with the harvest. Having bacon and tomato sandwiches every 3rd night helps, lol.

We had to cut most of our sunflowers down: most of them were so huge that their weight was bending them waaaay over. Our largest bloom is *slips out to measure* 14" in diameter! Now that it's off its large stalk and on the ground, the squirrels have been attacking it even more.

Yesterday I went to a local, family-run garden centre, and found perennial plants were 20% off, so I couldn't resist and purchased a few: a couple of heucherellas and another shasta daisy (no, not a shastastwin daisy ), plus some ornamental grasses.

This is the first year I've been concentrating more on perennials, so I am beginning to read how to winterize them. My goal is not to lose any over the cold weather months, but ... we'll see.

As a follow-up to my previous post, I cut off my sweet potato plants last week (or was it two weeks ago?) and started digging the potatoes earlier this week and we're still digging them (lots of plants and hard to get out of the clay!). I planted nine plants and I've gotten well over a bushel basket of them. I may end up with two.
Some of the potatoes are MASSIVE. I need to take a picture and get it posted cause it's quite impressive. I'm going to have to come up with a lot of sweet potato recipes I guess, but it's hard to beat just baking it and putting butter, salt, and pepper on it. My husband made sweet potato hashbrowns last Monday... they were quite tasty.

Also, my garlic and shallots arrived in the mail and those need to be planted soon. I've never grown shallots before so I'm excited to see how they do. My onions did fantastic this year so I can't wait to try them too. I've never eaten a shallot either but they're on Food Network all the time so I'm super curious to try eating them in addition to growing them.

I think that's going to just about wrap up my garden adventures this year. I can't wait til next year to grow more stuff again!

I'd love to see a potato photo, fantasia. And sweet potato hashbrowns sound amazing!

I've never had a shallot. Keep us posted! But I do know whenever I hear that word, I always think of Anne of Green Gables and "The Lady of Shalott".

We haven't had a frost yet here, so some of my perennials are still very vibrant ... even some annuals. After our first major frost, I'll start digging up and cutting back, etc.

It's so pretty in the autumn to see the leaves falling on the grass in stark contrast to the deep green, with all the vegetation—plants/flowers—looking so healthy!

We're enlarging our perennial garden (again ), and it will be fun next year to plant more. I've learned a few things this year, having had sections of annuals (grown from seed) in front that ended up taller than the plants behind. Wups.

Some of my (many) favourite plants are fall mums. After they are passed their prime, I'll plant them in the garden to hopefully see them thrive again next year. One I planted last fall was a fairly small mum, and it has grown over the summer to probably 10 times its original size. The blooms are nearly out, so . It's a very odd shape (not full and round, but rather spread out some), because I never trimmed or pruned it, but should still be lovely when in full bloom.

Can't believe I'm pulling up this thread again this year. But we had one good peanut plant survive the evil garden rabbits this summer and lookee... we got lots of peanuts! I believe my sister-in-law is roasting and salting them. I haven't had a chance to try one yet, but I can't wait to.

Ooh! Yummy! Those look amazing, FK. Glad you got something off of those plants. Let me know how they taste.

I never did get to try one of those peanuts Not even sure what happened to all of them. Maybe they were terrible and disposed of without my knowing.

Anyways....

Tis the season to bump this thread up again! YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!! I've got a massive pile of seed catalogs sitting on my living room table.

Due to having a new baby my gardening this year is going to be scaled way back (like maybe what most normal people plant? ). I probably won't be growing plants for anyone outside of family and a couple close friends. And I don't know that I will plant much out at the farm, just my own backyard.
Here in the next week or two I'm hoping to start my peppers. I'm thinking this year I'm just going to do Flavorburst plants (several of those), and a Thai Chile. But I'm going to just buy a Habenero so I don't have to get another seed packet for one plant and have all those seeds go to waste. Nobody wants Habeneros besides me... I wonder why?
But maybe I'll get inspired to plant more peppers than that. We'll see.