Garden Update

Things have really slowed down in the veggie patch. I have also noticed a large reduction in sun light hitting the area. It seems that with the sun lower in the sky it has causing the hedge to cast allot of shade for most of the morning. As appose to the summer months when the area receives full sun from sun up to about 3pm in the afternoon. This is not going to benefit my falls crops which are growing slowly as it is. This hedge seem to be my nemesis, for starters it is the neighbors hedge that I have to maintain, it cast shade over 1/2 the side yard in the summer that could be more raised beds and now it is shading the whole area in the morning. On the plus side it is good screening from the neighbors yard, it is good habitat for birds and it would be impossible to replace it with a fence of the same size(those pesky bylaws.) We have thought of removing the hedge and replacing it with a shorter fence so I may be putting more thought into that.

My tomatoes are finished for the year, not because of frost but because all the fruit has ripened and only tiny fruit are left. I will be clearing the plants soon and composting them. This year I had a total of 97 tomatoes off of 5 indeterminate heirloom plants and one cherry tomato in a hanging basket. I was actually surprised that the cherry tomato did not produce more fruit, only about 1/3 of this years tomatoes. The average cherry tomato plant should produce 100 fruit on one plant, I guess being in a hanging basket hampered the yield. The heirlooms did really well as they always do with the Japanese Trifele Black tomato produce tons of tomatoes.

I have stopped picking beans because I have ate enough beans this year and they seemed to being getting woody really fast. The cucumbers have stopped producing which is kind of sad, I like cucumbers. I will also be pulling these vines out soon.

My bell peppers just don't want to turn colour. They are loaded with peppers, so much so they all fell over in storms we have had and I had to stake them for a second time. I have eaten of few of them green but they would be much better if they turned to the red & chocolate colour they are supposed to be. Not sure what the problem is here, maybe from the cold spring we had. The banana peppers on the other hand have done really well producing sweet peppers all summer. Some of which even turned red, maybe they should teach the bell peppers a lesson.



Lastly, the fingerling potatoes have died down last week so they are ready to be harvested. I will harvest them some time this week.


With that said, there will be a harvest post near the end of the week about my total potato yield as well as a few other things I have to harvest.