A walk through the fall garden

   

To say it right off the bat: I'm not much of a season-extender in the garden. I have not yet gotten the hang of successive plantings (everything seems to grow and ripen based on weather, not on planting time, for me). I have tried cold frames, only to have a sheet of plexiglass bust into a million pieces right over my head, as I was harvesting the measly 7 leaves of lettuce I grew. This year, I'm happy to have planted a few flowers on the house-side of the new garden, because they do sort of mask that empty, wilted and overall sad look of my fall garden. They were meant to be cutting flowers, but we haven't cut them too much. They're too pretty right outside the dining room window.

    

My two biggest successes this year, quite literally, are the amaranth and giant sunflowers. A lovely duo, both something like 8ft+ tall. Sadly the amaranth is a bit lopsided since a recent heavy rain storm. What a plant, though! The young leaves can be eaten like spinach, the flowers are beautiful, and the grain (which is not there yet, I'm hoping it will before frost!) can be toasted and eaten in cereal. In theory, at least. I'll keep you posted on that, and also on a few options I have researched for shelling sunflower seeds. The process engineer in me is itching to play!

   

Speaking of big success - I wear a not-exactly-dainty size 9.5 in shoes, just for reference. This is going to be a BIG pot of butternut squash bisque. The parsley and swiss chards, of course, are loving the cooler weather.

The new everbearing strawberries are living up to their name! We pick a few every couple of days, and the birds and chipmunks get their share, too. It's a first for me, to be picking strawberries in September!

   

My favorite, the malabar spinach, is blooming in lovely purple, and you see the last red tomato through its shiny green foliage.

   

A handful of green and purple pole beans every few days, still, even though the rabbits have decimated the vines so much. In the cold back plot, most the potatoes were dug up, the winter rye is hopefully germinating as I type, while kale and swiss chards are holding down the fort. 

   

Fall is no time for a cucurbit beauty contest, says the garden variety cucumber, but the decorative gourds beg to differ! Fall can be glorious, they say!