Fall Gardening

I've felt crummy for days, just sick to my stomach and icky. My DD has a nasty cold and tonight DH said he's got it too. I suppose this is the beginning of the flu season already! But even when sick the chores must be done, like milking and feeding all the animals. In the middle of it all I am slowly clearing off the back deck and getting the vegitables harvested.

The beans are Red Lady, I've put them in soups but they are really too tough to eat that way now so I'm going to let the rest ripen on the vine and dry them for winter use.

Here you see some flowers and a nice tomato plant on the back deck. We were trying to see which would give us more tomatoes, pot on the deck or in the ground. They each have given us lots of tomatos but the weather this year was so lousy I only got one red tomato and that was from the one on the deck. I see lots of green salsa in my future!!

I'm going to be putting most of these in the greenhouse in another week, hopefully they'll make it through the winter and I"ll have some nice plants next spring.

I've got three tomato plants that have green tomatoes on them, just not sure how to proceed with that. I hear you can put them in newspaper and then in a box and in a cold place and they will slowly ripen so you can have fresh tomatoes through Thanks Giving! Sound great! Another told me to up root the plant and hang it upside down, all the fruit will ripen at once and then you have to figure out what to do with it from there. We love salsa so I'm sure canning some would be in order.

Here is a nice suprise in my garden, turnips!! I've already started using them in my soups!! Nothing like it to help make good for you soup.

I know these are considered 'weeds' by some, but I love to look at them! Scottish Thistle is what my mother used to call them and they are a volunteer on our property. I like their pretty pink flowers!