Late Summer in the Garden

 After my cross country trip in April/May I thought it might be too late to plant my garden, but I took a chance and boy, did it pay off! We've been harvesting all month!

Here are some photos of how the garden is doing now...

Today I picked my first cantaloupe of the 7 or 8 that are on the vine. It just fell off in my hands and smells very sweet. Cantaloupe for breakfast tomorrow!

Joe also harvested two of the sunflowers today after he caught Mr. BlueJay stealing seeds!

This garden has fed us all summer. 

Here are just some photos I've taken:

First artichoke of the season!

My sage is VERY happy!

Still have some carrots coming on.

The green beans are going nuts!

Joe has been canning them every few days.

My strawberries have been nice this year.

This week, I cut and rooted the runners for next season.

Zucchini, Yellow Crookneck, and Patty Pan Squash

The asparagus finished and I've tied it up.

The tomatoes are so heavy, they've imploded.

We just started harvesting them this week.

Loving my Dahlias!

This is the first year my fig trees bore fruit. 

I waited and waited and was watching the first fig ripen.

I thought, "I'll pick it tomorrow..."

Next morning I went out and there was 

a big old chunk chewed out of it. 

A RAT!

And it was war!

We set rat traps and caught 6 rats over the week.

I think we got them all!

Soon we'll be canning tomatoes.

These were started from heirloom tomato seeds saved from last year.

Not sure what we'll get.

So far, I've picked two and they were pretty good.

7 more cantaloupe waiting to get ripe!

My spearmint is about done, but it sure did bring in the bees!

I mainly use it for Portuguese Cueves.

Golden Raspberries put on a HUGE Spring crop

and are now putting on their late Summer crop.

They are SO sweet!

We freeze them and use them in cereal for breakfast,

when we don't just eat them off the bushes!

The bell peppers are really putting on a lot of fruit...

We have tons of volunteer cherry tomatoes 

as well as some little yellow pear tomatoes. 

No photos - I ate them!

The cucumbers are about done.

Joe has been fermenting pickles for a couple of weeks.

This is Delicata winter squash just getting started.

My thornless blackberries are going NUTS!

The turkeys got after them and I had to put in

a motion controlled sprinkler.

So far it has worked.

These are REALLY nice and fat and sweet

if I wait long enough to pick them.

I've been putting them in bags in the freezer for cereal.

We actually had a nice little volunteer potato harvest.

We ate a lot of them.

This is what is left.

These purple potatoes were volunteers.

They're REALLY good and I hope more come up next season.

What is left of my Autumn garlic.

I have more coming to plant in September for next Spring.

I had a nice little onion harvest;

here is what is left.

Next year I'm planting more.

Love my dahlias!

This was a surprise!

My kitchen counter always looks so pretty

with all the colors of the harvest.

I LOVE my garden!