October 23 Harvest

This weekend's harvest was big. I expected an insane amount of ripe peppers, which we got, but I was surprised by the amount of cherry tomatoes and the size of my carrots. So, left to right in this picture we have scotch bonnet and kung pao hot peppers, tomatoes (probably the last of them for this year), a couple rubbery green beans, Jalepeno and Altris peppers, a crookneck pumpkin, carrots, radishes, green onions, and turnips.

Here's what I have left in the garden...more pumpkins, green onions, radishes, turnips, carrots, and kohlrabi (which doesn't look like it's going to produce root bulbs). I also massive quantities on hot and green peppers. My peppers are still flowering and producing fruit, which they will do until frost hits. I have two volunteers eggplants that should give me 4 more fruit. The volunteer mustard greens are going strong. I'm eating those greens in my lunch salad every day. I also have chives, volunteer dill and some 2nd season cilantro I planted.

The most surprising plant left is the sweet potatoes. These vines have taken over the middle part of the garden. The leaves are edible, and taste good in salad, and there are a ton of roots to be harvested. My plan is to wait for the first frost, let the vines die back some, and then harvest them. There's going to be a ton of sweet taters.

Givler Garden on Google

Google Maps is pretty cool, and I'm a little shocked how up-to-date their satellite view is.  I recently took a look at my house, and was surprised to see the 2011 garden right there for the whole world to see...

So there it is, in the top right of the picture.  This looks like the garden in May, I think.  Just below the garden you can see the greenhouse, and to the left of the garden is the batcave.  This aerial view shows just how massive our two pecan trees really are.
Also, I do not own a creepy white panel van.  I'm not really sure what that's doing in my driveway, but we had a bunch of AC work done around the time this image was created, so I figure that's our HVAC dude's work van.
The garden looks surprisingly small to me from this view.  Clearly I have room to expand, but 1000 square feet really should be enough for now.  I've thought about putting in two smaller, narrow raised beds between the garden and the greenhouse, but deciding that is a task for winter.

October 15 and still growing strong

It's mid-October, and while much of the garden has died and been overrun with weeds, I'm really pleased with how much is still being produced. Crook-neck pumpkins are ready, and the vines are still flowering and producing fruit that has no hope of reaching maturity. Peppers in all varieties are doing very well. The attached pic shows what I harvested this morning...only a fraction of the ripe peppers still in the garden. If you want some heat, get your butt over to the Givler Garden. I'm also finally getting carrots like I want them to be...long and thick, not the shrivelled hairy stubs from 2 months back. Sweet potato vine is taking the garden over, and where the vines were planted, the roots have started to push up and make mounds. I'm not going to harvest them until after the first frost and the vine dies back, but I'm stoked about them. I've been putting the leaves in my salads. Tasty.