OCTOBER CAME KNOCKING AT MY DOOR ALREADY

 Yes, October came knocking at my door and September got a little upset and whirled out of here, with leaves littering my front lawn. I went for a little trip uptown and the leaves are changing so fast. What a beautiful sight, the leaves are so colorful already. I was driving so I couldn't take any photos.

We are still harvesting nature's gifts. My son Vaughan and George are picking crab apples on the front lawn and almost filled a large box. George wants me to make some crabapple jelly again this year.

I got help digging and picking potatoes this year but they speared too many with the fork. This is the upper end of the rows. I was so busy digging that I forgot to take pictures of the helpers.

And this is the lower end. The center was picked a few weeks ago. We gave away a lot and sold some and put the rest in storage for the family.

I made another two large batches of salsa and in all made 35 jars. I'm sure some will go as gifts.

Here are some bottles of salsa in the boiling water bath for 20 minutes. Oh, yummy salsa.

My curiosity got the best of me and I dug up some sweet potatoes from my experiment. I was actually surprised to get some this size as our growing season is short and they need long season and lots of heat to grow.

I dug up the rest as it's been cold and they announced rain for the next three days. I got about 25 pounds.

A friend gave me a bag of apples and I made this apple pie and dehydrated the rest, then my sister-in-law, Pauline gave me 2 big bags of apples that she picked at a U-Pick and I'm still dehydrating some. They are so good, I eat them like candy in the winter. I would like to go pick apples to dehydrate more.

One of George's second crop of cabbage. He sold a lot but this one was starting to split. I put it next to the pie for perspective.

I deadheaded the Rudbeckia to prevent them from growing all over the lawn.

I dug up some daylilies and gave away a lot but I still need to dig up some more on the end of the rows.

I saved all the debris to make mulch to keep the weeds away. I still have so many plants to cut down.

These will need to be cut down as well and I have several other daylily beds to clean up.

That's it for this evening. I hope that you are all staying well and happy.

Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment. I appreciate your kindness.

Julia

WINDING THE GARDEN DOWN

 Already September 15th and the harvest is beginning to wind down.  I know that you must be tired of seeing my gardening and all the preserve pictures.  Sorry, that's all I have to offer right now. 

I harvested some Rhubarb from the center of the plant as these were still tender. The outer stalks were a bit tough and fibrous.

 

I made three batches of Rhubarb, Strawberry, Pineapple jam, one of my husband's favorite. Such a quick recipe to make. The recipe is available online. 

On the weekend  I dug up my Norland red potatoes and my Yukon Gold potatoes but forgot to take a photo of the Yukon Gold as I was pretty tired by then. They've been put in storage in the cold room.   I still have a lot more to dig up but I'm waiting for the tops to die down first. These are the earlier ones.

Still picking fresh veggies every day in my metal mesh basket. I love this basket as I can spray it with the water hose to clean it up. 

My little corn patch has been a great success with the corn bags and they stayed sweet and tender right to the end. We ate the last of the corn yesterday. The patch has been cleaned up but the stubs will have to be cut flush to the ground as it was too difficult to dig the roots up. I'll let them rot in the ground.

I saved the corn stalks and ties them up in bundles for fall decorations and George hung them up in the carport to dry upside down.  Once dried, they may sell at the church Farmer's Market. It's better than letting them go to waste. Someone may get some enjoyment from them, It was a lot of work...

And now flowers for your enjoyment and mine. They will soon all be gone. My photos didn't all

uploaded as I selected them. The Rudbeckias are for my blogger friend Elephant's Child, the fourth photo on the right.

 

 

There is still a bit of color left although the flower gardens are on the decline and are starting to look neglected.

Thanks for visiting and leaving comments.  I really appreciate them.