Sunshine on a stick

As you can see by my new picture, the sunflowers are out!   I had 4 giant sunflowers - the kind that give you seeds, but one tipped over and broke, one withered and I'm left with 2.  I have to try to get a picture of them when the sky clears.  They are my only sunshine in this rainy time.  Of course, just as I'm typing this - the sun is coming out!  The perfect time to go gather some veggies!

Our veggie garden was a hit and miss proposition this year.  The berries weren't so great and I have to go still and dig up the old strawberry plants and ensure the shoots take, and cut the old raspberry canes out.

We got lots of peas but someone, a slug I think, got more of them. I'd be waiting for them to pop full and go out and all of the ones I wanted were eaten overnight.. hmmmm

We got lots and lots of beans.  Apparently we grow good beans here! Carrots and radishes?  not so much.  The parsnips are small but look good. I'm leaving those for a while as I read a light frost sweetens them.  we have some cabbages to bring in, and of all the kohlrabi plants, i think we actually have one that grew to the right size. 

Our tomatoes look good, but are not ripening.  We need a week of sun!  The early ones, a lovely orange whose name escapes me, are good, though.  And peppers.  We have chilis, jalapenos, hungarian wax and something that was labelled the same but is a different pepper and I have no idea what kind.  Much much bigger, that's all I know.  I'll let my husband taste test. (It's ok - he loves the hot ones!)

We ended up with - are you ready? 3 ears of corn!  Not quite done, but that's it.  The kids are thrilled, so that's ok.  And potatoes - hmm.. as they are underground I have no idea.  I'll go dig up some this weekend and see what we have.  It's going to be potatoes this fall if they grew.

Next will be the clearing of the veggie patch, and we'll be digging in some compost and I plan to mulch over top with the leaves when they fall.  We don't have a mulcher, so I'll just run the lawnmower over them a bunch of times to cut them into bits.  It's a great way to stop the weeds.  i might do a layer of newspaper with this over top.  That will save me a ton of cleanup in the spring.

That's my update today!  Stay tuned for a quick product review...