Closing the garden for the season.

It has been a while since I have updated my garden blog. September is a busy month for getting lesson plans and overseeing a new weekend course at our local College.  Our garden was successful for the most part but there are definitely changes I would make to what we learned in our first season of growing:

Seedlings - 

Tomato:  We will seed about a dozen tomato plants of different varieties - we initially planted far too many which crowded the designated tomato bed and had to remove them.  We seeded far too many that were eventually killed by a cold breeze moving through the garage.  

Peppers:  we purchased these at a nursery and they grew and produced very well.  The two plants produced by store bought peppers were slow to grow and produced only a few small peppers.

Onions/leek/garlic:  we will seed these in the few weeks before planting season begins.  They grew well and were a delight in our soups and stir fries.

Potatoes:  This experiment was an epic failure.  The season was too cold and the plants only produced berries.  We will make an effort to plant them in tubs and place them in warm spots out in the back garden.

Brussel sprouts:  These plants produced tiny sprouts due mainly because they were shaded by the tree on the boulevard.  They need full sun.  Cutting the leaves as the plant grew worked out quite well in that the sprouts will only grow when you remove them.

Marigolds:  These were phenomenal flowers and once planted grew much larger than anticipated.  Next year they will be planted outside of the fence to keep the animals at bay.

Front bed:  The flowers here did exceptionally well and the blending of colours and trimming out the bushes encouraged tremendous growth.

Rear yard bed:  The squirrels ate all our apples so we will have to net the entire tree next year.  The squirrels also ingested tomatoes and our one watermellon in the enclosed rear garden.  This too will have to be completely netted.

Cucumbers:  These took up way too much room in the front bed and did not produce well.  We will look to growing these along the fences in the rear yard or create a climber for the beds closest to the house where they will get full sun all day long.

Pumpkins:  These were fun to grow but again, they took up a lot of garden area.  These can easily be grown anywhere.

Cleaning up:

The garden beds are partially frozen this morning and I am out there pulling out the remaining plants.  I had intentions of putting remay cloths out to protect the swiss chard but maintaining the garden through the colder weather will have to wait until next year.

We grew our own pumpkins.......

and then carved them for Halloween.  The two in the middle came out of the front bed.

These were the last of the veggies in September just before the first frost came.....