Harvest time, a time for reflection (cue the music).

Well it's the end of August, and I hate to say it, but it's harvest time again. Not that I hate harvest time, but it means that the nights are getting colder and every morning when I wake up, I can see my breath, and half expect to see frost on the deck. This weekend I went to Rona and purchased a 50' roll of heavy-duty clear plastic, because it looks like all my little green tomatoes need a bit of protection if they're going to get red without first getting frostbite. I'm tired of dragging old sheets all over my yard.

It's been a weird year. It rained pretty much every day through June, July, and early August, so we had a billion slugs and juuuust not enough sun for some of the fruits and veggies. However, I suspect the rain played a part in one of my greatest successes of the year, the plums. Remember how I always lament the troubles I have with the plums? Well they're far from perfect, but I have a lot of them, and the ones that are ready to eat are delicious. Behold:

There were two factors this year that may have contributed to their success: I pruned off all the useless, plum-less branches early on, and we had a lot of rain. I'm going to try to water the tree extra next year (if it's not rainy like 08) and see what happens.

However, the rain, paired with a not-perfect planting site, prevented me from growing any pumpkins. This was going to be a monumental year for pumpkins but I think the site I chose got too shady once the surrounding sumacs got to full-size, and the soil may not have been rich enough. It's tough to find a sunny site in my yard where pumpkins can grow to their full glory. I have a few ideas for next year but it means a lot of work. I didn't get so much as a baby pumpkin this year - nor did I see hide nor hair of squash. The melons never made it past seedling stage. I have to learn that surrounding plants grow bigger faster and choke things out easily - I don't know why it's taken me this long to figure that out, I guess I'm a slow learner.

It's not all doom and gloom, though, by far. Behold the beautiful things I harvested this weekend (plus the onions that I harvested over the course of about 2 weeks):
I am in love with those purple potatoes. Digging them up I felt like an archeologist, digging up jewelled egyptian beetles or something. They're iridescent. They far outgrew the 'Russet Burbank' yellow potatoes I grew (see the photo - they're the weenie ones) so they are the stars of the show. However, I served up all the tiny potatoes for dinner that day, and the russets did taste a bit better and cook up more elegantly - the purple ones are floury and go a bit soft for my liking. They also do not make great french fries.

I got two tomatoes but when I turned my back, Rosie ate one. Well, she sort of only mangled it while using it as a ball, but it was inedible so I let her have it. I got another three later on though, along with the remaining leathery beans. The garlic you see in the photo is the world's most potent garlic. I made a greek-inspired dinner on Saturday when a friend came over (and we lost power for 8 hours - I did it all on the BBQ), and I made chicken souvlaki-like skewers with garlic, yoghurt tzaziki-like sauce with garlic, greek-like salad with garlic in the sauce, and I used one clove in total. And had wicked garlic breath the next morning. So tread cautiously with my garlic. I take heart that I will finally rid myself of that pesky vampire problem that's been plagueing my household.

This poor guy grew through the fence. I am such a softie that I cut the fence to free him. My dad said "why the heck didn't you just cut the cucumber?" but I am not like that. The fence is not living. Now he's got an awesome studded collar and is the envy of all the other cukes.
Quietly, in the background of all of this, the grapes have been staging a silent coup on my deck. They almost ran off with the BBQ but I caught them red-handed.
I am wise to their tricks:

Maybe I'll have a Lucille Ball moment and make my own wine? Why not? I already make cider, how different could it be? The vines are heavy with grapes this year. Speaking of cider, here's the apple tree:

turn your head to look at it.

Hubby insists we have a much lower yield this year but I think he's being alarmist. I think we'll have plenty. Besides, we talked about getting some wild apples off the neighbors to increase the variety of apples used (ergo, increasing the complexity of our cider) so it won't matter in the end. We'll still be able to fill two carboys. He forgets that after making cider last year, I still had two pailfuls of apples in the downstairs fridge for ages and ages - long enough that they became like little shrunken heads. I should have carved them all up into faces and left them in the fridge for effect. I ended up throwing them into the snow for the deer, but the squirrels got them first.

I guess that's that. I have basil too, and thai basil, though not a bumper crop as I've had in previous years. I had a truckload of cilantro, and there were some strawberries early on. I have tiny beets that I still don't know how to prepare, and I have a few clumps of swiss chard as well. There are more cucumbers to come - the vines are escaping the garden, into the lawn - and the tomatoes are ripening. The marigolds and nasturtiums did really really well and got enormous. My peppers were dismal this year - the little ones I got got eaten by something, even though I did use diatomaceous earth. I think it was the rain and the lack of sun. The leeks are still in the garden but I don't know what to do with them. I may cut them off and thin them out and leave them for next year, to see what happens. They came back bigger this year, maybe they'll be the right size next. I still have ground cherries ripening - those are my little gardening snack for while I'm weeding, pulling out spent plants, etc. I also managed to get rhubarb well into summer, and hope that picking it will increase next year's yield.

Now that things are being removed from the garden, I have to space out the strawberries a bit better, weed the whole thing, and try to control where the cilantro drops its seeds.

So here's the list of things I'm going to do next year, and things I will leave behind:

- Plant squash and melons in a sunny, dedicated, well-fertilized spot.

- start tomatoes sooner, and harden them off better.

- Plant peppers in pots, not in the garden. Be vigilant.

- Get the leeks out of there.

- Plant more beans, so I can harvest more than 6 at a time.

- Plant more spinach (I may do that this weekend actually).

- Plant some things that ripen early and make decent side dishes.

- Plant russet gold potatoes earlier and leave them in the ground longer. Plant purples later and take them out at the same time.

- Plant more onions and garlic. Put them among everything. Leave them in the ground longer.

- Plant more basil.

- Maybe try romaine lettuce again?

- Don't attempt corn.

- Try asparagus again.

In conclusion, it looks like the veggie garden itself next year will be tomatoes, basil, onions, garlic, cukes, spinach, romaine lettuce, strawberries and beans. That's pretty traditional but fine with me. In pots I'll have peppers, and potatoes will be in the potato bin, and the squash and melons will be elsewhere, likely with the asparagus (if that works). I will also invest in a pear tree, to put up near my (recovering) cherry tree, and take good care of the existing plums and apples. I may also try blueberries, but I already have a decent blueberry source so what the heck. Why add to my workload?

Besides, next summer has the potential to be really busy, but that's another story.