In the Garden: September 14

Some of these photos are old- I'm a bit behind here, school, and birthdays and colds et al. but these are photos of our barley harvest- not much after the deer came and had their fill- but some enough for christmas pudding, and to increase our seeds next year. The zinnias I planted are all blooming and really lovely- it's a giant cactus mix, an a state fair mix I think- the colours are just awesome, coral and pink and orange and red and gold, they make an effortless arrangement. I've also figured out how to show them best- with short stems in a short vase so that you can look down on the flower tops, for years I've been trying to cut long stems and putting them in tall vases- and then getting annoyed because all you see is the underside of the flower- this way they make perfect little round flower
puffs- adorable.

My passionflower vine flowered too- so wonderful looking- an exotic flower for sure! It's set to come inside now along with my other special plants because we've got a frost warning here- so it's all hands on deck for harvest. This year we seem to be more relaxed about it- I think we've learned what can tolerate frost and what we'll bother covering or not. We just picked the sauce and drying tomatoes green and brought them inside- then covered some of the eating tomatoes. We brought in the pumpkins too- they look lovely and big- though must be tasty enough that most were eaten by something before we got to them. We had grown them in a patch that's surrounded by longish grass- which is just too easy for woodchucks of other rodents to get to.  I know pumpkins often get left out till the last and the vines are dead- but we never do- frost makes them spoil, and then they won't keep, of course taking them in early is tricky too- but if you're careful, and cure them well- they'll keep into February or March even.

The dry beans are starting to harden now- so hopefully it'll stay dry for them (and for the farmers- it's been a wet fall- so they're just starting to get things off the field- it's late and damp and no good generally). We've planted the strawberry transplants- in one long row hopefully that will help keep the weeds down and allow us to space the runners out to the sides of the main row which will make it easier to keep tack of, I'm amazed by how awesome plants that renew themselves are- the runners we placed in pots had taken off so well that the roots were growing out the bottom of some of them!

I think this will be the last official garden update- though I'll post about the new tomatoes we grew this year, and a few other photos of course- it's time to switch gears into the kitchen and clay studio...