The Last of The Season for Pole Beans and The Garden

Last week I picked some more pole beans that have been growing over the past month or so.  Most of the small beans that had started growing in the beginning of October have finally reached a good size for them to be harvested. 

I actually didn't think there was going to be enough to fill up one container since the previous harvests of pole beans didn't yield as much.  To my surprise four containers were needed to collect all the ripe pole beans that were ready for eating.  This pretty much marked the end of these beans for the season.  Now it is time for cleaning up the garden.

It was more like three and a half containers that were completely filled of pole beans.  They weighed over ten pounds and there was about a few hundred of them that needed to be canned for the Winter season.  Now I can enjoy them all the way up to next years harvest.

Cleaning has began a couple days ago with the removal of tomato plants and stakes.  This usually doesn't take that long and only a couple of hours at the most. 

Most of the stakes from my tomatoes and the plants have been removed.  I placed all the plants in the totes for them to be discarded or used for compost for next season.

As you can see in the background I still have my pumpkins out in the garden and haven't yet picked them.  I will most likely pick them before Halloween which is coming up this Friday.  I always like to have at least one pumpkin that will be carved and placed on the windowsill.  This is something that I like to do every year.

Cabbage plants are what I am going to be doing this fall.  Many of them are growing quite well for the lack of attention that I gave them this year.  Usually in the summer you just have to keep the soil moist for the most part.  Once the cooler weather comes then watering usually doesn't become a problem.

With the continuous rain that we have got this past month I will not have to water them for the rest of the year or until I harvest them in November hopefully.  It would be great if I could cut them at the same time that I dig up my carrots near Thanksgiving.

Just Another Harvest of Eggplants

Another harvest eggplants was completed today and with four left I was deciding whether to just pick the rest of them to end the season for them.  Unfortunately one of them was still ripening and I didn't want to pull it prematurely.

Instead I just took three of them that were done for the year.  Now there is just one that is still on the plant ripening at this moment.  I might pick it sometime later in the week, but for now I will leave it there for at least a few days.

They weighed in at about four and a half pounds making them a little bit smaller than the last two, but still a pretty good size for any garden.  I am definitely happy with them especially when they started growing flowers late and were the last plants to be added to the garden soil.  I try to look at the positive things when it comes to gardening.

Pole beans are also the news for today although I didn't harvest any of them.  I was looking at them and I wasn't sure if I should pick them today or wait another day.  Since I picked three eggplants I decided to wait since many of them were not going to go to seed anytime soon.  Tomorrow I will pick some pole beans that are ready and hopefully I will get more than I did during the last harvest.

Here you can see more beans growing along with the flowers.

Just wanted to give you a quick update on my cabbage plants that are growing in the garden.  They are growing good because of the cooler temperatures that they love and thrive in.  Take a look at them and within a couple of months they should be ready for harvesting.

Collected More Pole Beans and Two Eggplants This Week

This past week had been quite uneventful with all the rain that we received and my plants desperately needed.  After the rain they usually grow quite well and I checked out the garden and found that my plants were doing just that.

My pole beans are producing many flowers even in the cooler month of October and they are creating many more beans which I will pick by the end of this week as long as the weather cooperates.  It is supposed to be sunny so I hope that I can pick some more pole beans to make a meal into like I did today.

Here I took a picture of the few pole beans that were ready today.

Just think a couple months ago I was harvesting about five of these per week.  Now the vines have slowed down mainly due to the weather because now it is getting cooler for them especially at night when the temperatures drop into the high 40's. 

Eggplants are still growing and now they are basically in the ripening phase.  Most of them are pretty much done, but I am leaving them out there so that I don't have to have five of them in the refrigerator.  When I use one then I will pick another one and so on.

I picked the one above today and the one below this past week when it wasn't raining.

Cucumbers are Now Done for the Season

The last cucumber was picked this week and that means once I finish eating this last cucumber I will have to wait till next year to eat delicious, home grown, organic cucumbers.  This happens every single year and this makes me look forward to the next season.

Although the cucumber season is coming to a close that doesn't mean that the entire garden is completely done this year.  I still have plenty of food that needs to be harvested such as eggplants, pole beans, carrots, some celery, pumpkins, peppers, and some regular and Roma tomatoes.  It is not completely over until the first frost comes.

Here is the last cucumber that I was able to harvest today.

Here is a look at the pepper plant that is still growing flowers even right now.

Eggplants are also still growing quite well and I have six of them that should be ripening within the week and I will pick them very soon.  I am not getting flowers on them and if I were it would be too late for the plant to produce another fruit.  Right now I have six and it looks like it is going to stay that way till the end of the season.

Sunflower Heads The Last to be Harvested

This is probably the last summer plant that needs to be harvested if you plan on using the seeds for various reasons.  I like to bake some of them and eat them while the rest is going to be turned into compost for next season nutrients.

I was able to cut a few of them down that I had growing in the garden.  All of them were pollinated correctly by the bees that just love them.  Once they were pollinated and some of them were ready for picking birds and squirrels took many of the seeds.  Luckily this only happened to a couple of heads and the rest were still fine.

You can see some of the damage on this sunflower head here.

You can see on the left side that some of the seeds are missing.  That is where most of the damage occurred, but still plenty of seeds to use were left.

Here is a head that was supposed to be left on the stalk a little bit longer, but I didn't want them to be eaten by the birds.  I could have covered it, but they tend to collect insects and fungus when I do that.  Once they start being eaten then I know it is time for harvesting.