Garden After Vacation

Oh my Garden!  After two weeks away it was blooming everywhere, but looked pretty ratty.  September is usually the ugly turning point when leaves get all discolored, some plants stop producing and shrivel up, but others start to shrivel and still produce like crazy! 

Here are photos the day I returned home:

Pumpkin sprawl

Tomatoes need much bigger support this year

Zucchini with more tomatoes behind and bean vines on the right

Beautiful Romas from one farmer's market plant

Lots of cherry tomatoes from the other farmer's market plant

Random lettuce blooming still and the green beans I thought were done producing

I picked all this zucchini and a yellow squash

Lots of tomatoes and green beans (they are definitely not done producing)

I lots many tomatoes to the birds.  Here's just a sample of their damage. 

One gross problem I've run into is this year is fruit flies.  They are just swarming, but I've never had them violate my garden.  The birds peck a hole in the tomatoes and the fruit flies flock to it.  So gross.  There must have been a hundred on that tomato on the right.  I just threw it (and many like it away), but brought it in for a picture.  Fruit flies lay eggs so fast I just couldn't imagine keeping any part of the really well-eaten tomatoes.  The others with just one pecked hole I washed, cut in half and tossed the half with the bite.  I went ahead and chopped the other half of those ones. 

Here are the chopped tomatoes - 18 cups - and we ate plenty on our salads all week, too.

I ended up chopping and freezing the green beans (on left) and after 9, yes 9, batches of zucchini bread I still had enough shredded zucchini for 7 more batches.  And we had sauteed zucchini and crookneck squash one night, too. 

 I love storing up food for the year.  I feel such satisfaction when I see my freezer filling up with tomatoes and green beans.  I love to see my canning pantry with full jars filling the shelves.  I delight in baking for friends and sharing the produce of our garden.  I'm really looking forward to the next couple of weeks.  =)

Katie