Garden & Stuff

Many of you have been asking me (okay, no one has asked, I'm just projecting that you WOULD if I ever picked up the phone), "what's going on with the garden"? The question should really be, "what ISN'T happening with the garden!"

Actually, nothing much is happening. My last update in late summer mentioned how the squirrels ripped through my pumpkins and tomatoes. Since then I haven't given much thought to the garden, but I've noticed over the past couple of weeks that more tomatoes are coming in. Unfortunately, with this thing they call "autumn" creeping in, the backyard gets very little sun during the day, and I don't think I'll get many ripe tomatoes.

I planted some late summer lettuce and peas, but not much success with those. The lettuce began to grow, and then after it got about 2" high it just left. I assume it just died off for some reason, or something came down and ate it all, but either way, one day it was just gone. Of all the late summer peas I planted only 2 vines began to grow. They're growing very slow, and as of today, we've had a total of 2 peapods from this second batch. So, not too exciting.

The best part of the garden all year has been the peppers. I've been lucky with not only the Topsy-Turvy hot pepper planter, but also the bell peppers I put in my new plot next to the house. Today I went out after a week or so and got a nice bounty of bell peppers, chili peppers, and a couple jalapenos.

My October pepper bounty

They're not huge, but big enough for me. I still have plenty out there waiting to ripen and be picked. I'm thinking that next year maybe I should put my tomatoes in that plot.

Beyond that, we're not doing too much. Watching the Hokies this year has been frustrating, exciting, and overall unexpecting. Each week I never know what to expect, and while the ACC championship is still in play, the team needs to get a lot better come November to realistically have a shot.

The weather has turned on a dime, and most days are cool and crisp. The leaves are turning, the squirrels are gathering nuts at a hectic pace, and winter can only be a short time away. Sigh.