Organic Brussels Sprouts Rubine Red

A fine fall afternoon.

Wouldn’t it be nice to sit back, relax, and just enjoy the nice fall weather we’ve been having? I have to confess that I don’t do that nearly enough! But today is our American Thanksgiving. So today, especially, is a day to take note of all of our blessings, each and every one of them. For this blog post I’m just going to focus on my garden (my family and friends, of course, would come ahead of the garden!).

The last slice of zucchini (courgette) bread.

The last two slices of zucchini (courgette) bread.

Time for a relaxing cup of tea with some zucchini bread. These two slices were taken from the last loaf from our freezer. Good thing I now have pumpkins to make some pumpkin bread. My kids enjoy the breads for their after school snack. You can find the recipe for zucchini bread here: https://mominthegarden.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/time-for-a-cuppa-zucchini-bread-with-crumb-topping-is-perfect-for-your-break/

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know how thankful I am for my garden. I find my time in the garden to be peaceful and sanity saving. Even if I sneak in just a little bit of time here and there, it rejuvenates me. I love it. Honestly, it isn’t a spectacular garden. But I’m creating it, nurturing it, and continually growing and changing it; all as organically as I can.

The last of my potatoes.

My potato bed had just a few spuds left in it. Since I wanted to plant some rye in the bed, to protect the soil and benefit the soil as well, I dug them up. I think the potatoes were my favorite veggie in the garden. They really were very good potatoes. Even so, next year I am going to try a different variety. It’s nice to try something new!

The last of the spuds (Sarpo Mira).

Let me show you how well the rye is growing. I know, it is crazy, but stuff like this just makes me all happy!

Rye from just a few weeks ago.

Remember my post on rye at the beginning of November? https://mominthegarden.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/fall-plantings-of-green-manure-its-just-rye-organic-vallelado-garlic/ It is already taking off and doing great!

The front bed on left (with the chicken wire) and middle bed on the right have rye growing already.

In the two beds above, I planted the rye in rows. Yeah, I think it doesn’t matter, but for the potato bed, and my newest bed (can’t be seen in this picture) I scattered it. Really, I don’t think it matters… Says she to herself, to convince no one in particular…

Blueberry bush in November

What does the rest of my garden look like on Thanksgiving? My blueberry bushes are a vibrant red! What is not to love about that color?

November look at the garden

Organic Brussels Sprouts Rubine Red

My Brussels sprouts are still growing. I like the purple look to the plants.

Organic Brussels Sprouts Rubine Red

I’m being a bit impatient as it really feels like they are taking forever to grow!

Organic Brussels Sprouts Rubine Red

The top of a Brussels Sprout plant

My littlest one is hoping they never get picked from the garden. But the rest of us really like Brussels sprouts. I can’t wait to try them!

Fall harvest with quite a few pumpkins

Here is a peek at some of the pumpkins from our garden. Look! They are all orange! Remember when they were green?

Green pumpkins sitting on the wall in October

They all turned orange after I brought them inside. Our front hall is rather chilly, but it was warm enough to turn them orange, and cool enough so they aren’t going rotten (thankfully). My geraniums are quite happy in the hall, too.

Geraniums looking happier inside than they did outside!

Most of my fall decorations are in my front hall. They just seem to fit nicely there. Lots of fall colors, scarecrows, and pumpkins! I’ll be sad to take them down this weekend. But I’m looking forward to decorating for Christmas! But really, one holiday at a time please.

My scare-crow was given to me by a special friend.

Shine on Harvest Moon!

A lovely sunset in November.

Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh now isn’t that turkey just what you’d expect to find in my garden? I hang it for the kids. And for me. 🙂

Happy Thanksgiving, to my friends, family, and blogging friends!

In peace,
Dana

Organic Pea Karina with a sweet pea flower

Life has seriously gotten busy recently, so I do apologize for having neglected my blogging, and for not having visited your blogs as well. I am very much looking forward to sitting down and reading what all of my gardening and cooking blogger friends have been up to! When exactly that is going to happen is another story…

My last post was about my summertime flowers. I feel I have split loyalties, between my flowers and my vegetables. I do love having both of them, but when it comes to taking pictures the flowers are just a wee bit more glamorous. And I love taking pictures! I’ll do my best to show off my vegetables looking fab (which might just be covered in muck!).

Red Robejla organic onions

My red onions did very well this season. That picture above is of them before I dug them out. They were very nearly out of the soil already.

Red Robelja organic onions

I think I will try and grow more next year. There doesn’t seem to be a lot there!

A nice size Robelja onion

Red Robejla organic onion

After the stems started to dye down, I dug them out and placed them atop of my garlic bed which had already been cleared. We were lucky enough to have some dry weather so I left them there for a week or so. They are now finishing their drying in my back room.

My onions drying out

I’ll throw in a picture of my potatoes for good measure. They are not glamorous, but they did taste good! Sarpo Mira is the variety, which is blight resistant. I’ve grown them for 2 years now. I think next year I will be adventurous and try a different variety.

Peeled spuds (Sarpo Mira)

I have only one picture of my carrots and it is not pretty! They are good large, sturdy carrots ( organic yellowstone), not like the orange ones you typically see. But they taste good!

Organic Yellowstone carrots.

Organic Brussels Sprouts Rubine Red

Talk about winning the prize for the least glamorous vegetable! My Brussels Sprouts were completely covered with caterpillars on a regular basis. What I’m sure would be beautiful leaves if left uneaten by those critters, is simply ugly after all of that destruction.

Organic Brussels Sprouts Rubine Red

We do have sprouts! I’m really not sure if they will be worth it though. That process of picking off caterpillars is really for the birds.

Organic Brussels Sprouts Rubine Red

Did the critters leave anything for us?

Organic Brussels Sprouts Rubine Red

Another view of the least glamorous vegetable in the garden.

Let’s talk pumpkins! We planted pumpkins in a few different spots, but they thrived in one bed in particular. Guess I know which bed had the best soil! Pumpkins like a lot of food. Also, to get bigger pumpkins, you can cut the vine after the pumpkins are formed which will force all of the energy to go into growing the pumpkin and not on growing the vine and further pumpkins on the vine. The problem is, I really like the flowers! 🙂

Not to worry, I did get some pumpkins and their size will do just fine for me. They are baking pumpkins, actually, so would be on the smaller size anyway. I have quite a few photos because I thought it was neat to see how the color changes. I only have a couple that are orange, but the rest are on their way.

In the beginning…

A long, long time ago…

My favorite pumpkin with a perfect shape!

Phew! Finally a size that is respectable! My favorite pumpkin with a nice round shape.

Two hangin’ together.

The two hangin’ and changing color!

Love the speckled look.

One orange pumpkin!

This is the same orange pumpkin, but with my foot in the picture which shows you how small it is! (the pumpkin, not my foot)

Can you believe how many photos of pumpkins I’ve taken?

I’m moving on from pumpkins. I have a feeling you’ll be seeing more of them in my blog throughout the fall. I bought a globe artichoke plant in May and I am so glad I did. I didn’t manage to eat any of the artichokes, but the benefit of that is that they form really interesting flowers!

Globe artichoke Cynara Scolymus before blooming.

Oh but wait, it gets much better!

Globe artichoke Cynara Scolymus in bloom.

Globe artichoke Synara Scolymus

The entire plant is coming into bloom!

Globe artichoke Cynara Scolymus. Something interesting to look at!

The globe artichoke plant is so different from anything else in the garden, and I love that. I must show you how that particular garden has really shaped up this past year. That will be for my next post!

But before I go, I’ll leave you with some more flower pictures.

I hope your schedule is less hectic than mine has been!

Dana