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The joys and challenges of the fall garden

We plant them in the spring, water them all summer, and then it’s fall harvest time.

The joys I’m experiencing are cucumbers, Swiss chard parsley, mint, carrots, kale, kale, and more kale. A few green beans.

Here’s a report:

Carrots IMG_4928

The carrots are fantastic. Mona, my Ph.D. botanist daughter, reminded me last year that I need to thin them or they won’t get big and beautiful.

Garden Long Way IMG_4930

The green beans are finished. The curly kale, center, has pests of some kind. The Swiss chard has some mites, but I keep trimming off those leaves and there’s plenty of great eating left.

Kale Gone IMG_4953

I pulled out the kale and put it in the garbage rather than in the city's compost bin.

GArden Narrow IMG_4933

I bought two tomato plants about a month ago because they each had a small red tomato on them. I didn’t expect to get any tomatoes, but I was surprised that during a hot spell, they doubled in size. They outgrew the sticks they were stacked up with and were bent over, so I put them in the tomato cages.


Peppers IMG_4940

I also bought these peppers in August and they’re doing well.

Parsley Mint IMG_4942

I planted parsley, left, and mint, center. When Mona comes and does great vegetarian cooking, we bought herbs from Safeway or the co-op. Often they aren’t very good quality. I bought some starter plants at the co-op, planted them in pots, and they’re doing great.

Patio Vegetables IMG_4950

The green beans in the patio pots grew well. The zucchini, not so much.

Zucchini IMG_4945

I only had a few zucchini. And, the slugs got several before I noticed.


Slugs IMG_4909

Speaking of the slugs, they love the Rainier beer I put out. It’s the cheapest brand at Costco.

Swiss Chard Cheese IMG_4924

Here’s a great Swiss chard stew I made. A friend mentioned she’d be making soup with Swiss chard, so I thought I’d try it. I didn’t have any vegetable broth, so my dish turned out to be stew rather than a soup. The stew had beans, diced tomatoes, carrots, corn, zucchini, oregano, and thyme. It’s topped with no fat cheese since I’m on a low fat meal plan.

Lawn Orange IMG_4913

I also got a bright idea to put baking soda on the grass to kill the moss. It worked great. The orange is the dead moss.

Grass Flags IMG_4161

Rachel, my new yard work helper, put compost in the blank spots and topped it with grass seed that grows in the shade. The new grass is growing well right now. I hope it survives.

Mole Dirt Light IMG_4916

Apparently, the moles love my yard. I see these piles of dirt all over my yard. I wonder why I have so much mole dirt now? Usually, there’s a lot of activity in the spring when the offspring are born.

Mole Dirt Dark IMG_4914

The crazy thing is that while spending afternoons in the yard, I’d see fresh mole dirt. Sigh.

I hope you’re able to have a vegetable garden. They bring so much joy -- and great eating.

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