End-of-the-season Evaluation

This year's mailbox flowers were State Fair Zinnias--big, colorful blooms on sturdy stems.  Minnesotans have joked how summer came before spring this year.  This weather did crazy things to our growing schedule. It was perfect weather for peppers, and I have freezer bags full of them.  And I gave away just as many.  However, it was not so good for broccoli and spinach.  Both bolted before I could harvest them.  Maybe I just had bad guesses on when to plant.  Yet I had excellent luck on other plants like  basil, green beans, and carrots.  Our cooler weather has arrived and my plants won't survive this next frost/freeze, so I'm sad to see my plants go.  Normally I keep growing lettuce under a cover until there's too much snow, but we had a very hot day which caused my fall lettuce to go bitter. The gardens are going to sleep until spring.  Oh, and it was a good year for my pumpkins. Yum!

 

New Fiction Title

Please forgive this deviation from my gardening topics.  The Christmas Sisters, my novel, is  available as an e-book at amazon.com for 99 cents.  The story takes place in Minnesota, in Minneapolis and in a fictional small town. Two sisters, Holly and Noelle, support each other through tough times. While the love story is important, the heart of the novel is the family.  I'd rate this PG-13 (shirts come off!). This book is never going to be nominated for a Pulitzer prize, but my goal is to entertain readers with a likeable character who has obstacles to overcome. 

Fall Peapods

Harvesting peapods and pumpkins?  Yes! I planted the peas in early August. With the recent rain and relative warmth, I'll have a decent crop. Next year I'll plant in July so I can have a bigger fall crop. Our weather is predicted to get colder (frost and snow colder), so I've been working to clean up the garden, leaving only those items that can handle a little cold (like peapods). 

Grape Jelly

 

The raccoons and squirrels won't get many of my grapes this year...I've made them into jelly (the grapes not the critters).  This was a good year for the grape vine with clusters of sweet grapes. 

I may have picked some of the grapes early (see the green ones?), but I was in a race against the wildlife.  Besides, it's nothing a little sugar can't handle.

 

I followed my grandmother's recipe, boiling the grapes without water (see below), straining them, and boiling the juice with sugar.  The recipe is in Grow It. Eat It.

I defied the canning gods by pouring the jelly into clean jars...and not processing.  The jelly sits safely in the refrigerator.  Well, not so safely since we've eaten half of it already.  Since it's not "canned," we'll have to eat it soon.  Not a problem. Delicious!

 

Sweet Corn Experiment

My experiment with growing sweet corn in a pot is successful.  We ate several small but tasty ears of bicolor corn.  I started with a large growing bag (sized for potatoes) filled with compost.  Because the bag is made of black fabric, I had both an advantage with holding heat (from the black) and excellent drainage (from the fabric). I planted nine seeds per container.  Because of our cool, wet weather in the early spring I had to re-plant some seeds.  I added organic fertilizer about three times.  I watered faithfully, every day and sometimes twice a day.  (This is the disadvantage to excellent drainage.) The variety is On Deck Hybrid from Burpee, which is a supersweet hybrid.  The advertisement said that the ears would be 7-8 inches long, but mine were smaller, perhaps because we had cool weather while the ears were developing.  But they were delicious!

 

Heat Advisory

We're in a heat advisory, which means especially hot and humid temperatures.  Minnesotans aren't used to this. (I'm not used to this!) The dew point yesterday was 78 F, which is the normal high temperature.  I've been watering my garden early in the morning.  The pots in the sun need more water, sometimes twice a day.  After some cooler than average temperatures, I am happy to see my tomatoes and peppers ripening.  I was nervous that I wouldn't get ripe pumpkins, but this weather helps.  The photo is yellow pear tomatoes. 

Wild Blackberries

I had one awkward moment when picking this morning. The thorns of one cane caught my pants, the thorns of another cane caught my sleeve, and I moved my hand without looking, the thorns of a third cane catching my flesh. Thankfully, no one heard my yelps of pain. I know, I know, I have to get rid of these nuisances, but I'm going to wait until I get one more bowl of berries.