Monday, November 12, 2012

Garden Cleanup Begins....

We're supposed to get our first freeze tonight, so today I spent several hours beginning the fall garden clean up.
First went the tomatoes.  I cannot believe how well we did with the tomatoes this year.
Sad, empty buckets...
The Juliette was our best performer, even after I cut the plant back at the end of the summer, we continued to get these little beauties.  The fall Juliette's were thicker, with much thicker walls then the spring ones, almost what I would call a paste tomato.
The Super Sweet 100's mini cherry tomato was also a consistent performer - we had these little tomatoes all year long.
My disappointment was the heirloom plant, the Brandywine.  The plant itself was gorgeous, deep green, leafy, and about 10 to 12 foot tall.  Beautiful plant, but very few tomatoes. I don't think I'll try this one again.
There was a late addition of a Black Prince, a Cherokee and a German Johnson heirloom tomato, and each of them were raised in pots. I got a few tomatoes from each of them, but I think they would have both done much better in one of the tomato towers that my others were in.  Oh well, next year!
Before I turned around, the deer were eating the garden waste...
So, the total for the fall garden (Late August to today) was 7# 11.9 ounces.  The total of the spring and fall was a grand total of 43# 10.7 ounces for the year.  And we haven't had to buy a tomato in the store since May!
I pulled all of the green tomatoes off of the plants before tossing them to the deer.  I have a total of 2#4.4 ounces of green tomatoes - I think I'll make this crushed green tomato spread that I found online and saved to one of my Pinterest boards.
Mostly all green tomatoes!
Next I pulled some of the winter squash that were close to harvest time, since I don't want to lose those to the weather.  Beautiful squash!  Some of the plants have already been frost blasted, so they aren't looking too good anyway.
Cushaws, Thelma Saunders Sweet Potato Squash, Pink Banana Squash, and a little Honey Boat Delicata! That dark green thing in the lower left is a gourd, my last one!
Last (I'm exhausted!) I covered the pumpkin patch with a plastic tarp to try to save them.  Most of them have just set squash, and they aren't anywhere near ready to harvest.  We'll see if that helps. Fingers crossed!

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