Fall has arrived here in the PNW! The colors are starting in the trees and bushes. It’s beautiful! Things coming along in the garden, which is surprising, but I’ll take it!
Our berry bush leaves are turning. The blueberries and honey berries are just gorgeous! The honey berry bushes in the foreground are yellow and the blueberry bushes are mostly shades of red.
In the main garden, the fall peas are somewhat blossoming. I should have planted these where they could all climb something. Most of these are sitting on the ground. Lesson learned for next year, plant the peas where they can climb.
The beans are drying out. I have harvested quite a few black beans that will be seed beans next year. There are two pods that I think are scarlet runner beans. I’m still waiting for those to dry to know for sure.
We have a TON of green tomatoes. They went in late this year, but eventually got around to fruiting. Now, they need to ripen. We’re not yet at risk of frost, so I’ll let them keep going. I’ve harvested 3 ripe tomatoes so far.
I have 2 peppers growing. Time will tell if they will actually ripen in time. These seeds came out of some small snacking peppers from CostCo. What’s growing doesn’t look like the same pepper I had gotten them from.
I’ve also have several pickling cucumbers that have come in. The ones picked are now sitting in brine in the fridge. We’ll have to see how we like that pickle recipe.
We have an onion (maybe 2) that might decide to grow by spring. I originally had about 8 onions that took, but only this has stuck around. I can’t tell if they’re just dying or if they’re being eaten (slugs?).
I have beets that are growing, but still pretty small. I think the beets must need something that the soil is missing. The beets in my fall garden are also growing VERY slowly!!
Kale is coming along, but still getting eaten by slugs. I’ll put some anti-slug stuff around them to allow them to grow uneaten.
The alpine strawberries are still flowering and growing berries. I guess these babies are an all-season berry. They seem to be even more ongoing than the other everbearing berries we have in the yard.
(the one in the photo below has a blossom petal that fell on it. So cute.)
The fall garden on the side of the house is coming along. (Beans, radishes, beets, spinach & kale) The slugs have enjoyed this one too, but the anti-slug stuff does help.
I have harvested a delicata squash. It is small but based on what I’ve read, the coloring was right for harvest. If it went toward an orange color, then it went too far. I have a couple more growing which are smaller, but the coloring is getting about right. I’ll leave those until the first frost and see if they’ll get any bigger.
The tubers seemingly look good, but until we dig them up, we don’t really know.
The fall harvest of the raspberries has been fantastic! Everbearing berries are great! I think the fall harvest of these is better than the spring harvest – bigger berries, more of them! They are starting to wrap up.
Lastly, the chives are flowering again. I’m not sure what to do with all of these. I need to start cutting and using more of these. I hear they’re delicious, I just forget to cut them.
The sweet potato, like the tubers, seems to be doing great, but until I dig them up (after the first frost), I don’t know how they’re really doing!
I harvested all of the apples from our columnar tree. The other apple tree that grew any apples has been cut down. My hubby said that tree has never grown good fruit since he planted it over 10 years ago. We cut it out and will move some blueberries to that area and then plant a few more blueberry bushes.
The total harvest from the back yard so far for 2024 is at 117 pounds. I think with the tomatoes, tubers and sweet potatoes, 150 pounds is still well within reason to finish out the year. Time will tell!