I'd love to have posted yesterday like I usually do, but I had a small procedure done on my hand and had to take a rest for a few days. I can't work for a couple of weeks which works perfectly as we're going on vacation tomorrow, so my hand will have enough time to recover. Yesterday, I was already so bored as I couldn't do almost anything, so I went to the garden just to walk around, take some photos and enjoy fresh air.
Let me show you around!
My pumpkin patch has tons of tiny butternuts hanging on its vines. We had to put some wooden boards under each of them to protect them from touching the soil. They could rot when it will rain a lot in autumn (which will hopefully be the case - I mean the rain, not the rotting part). While doing that we broke off this one and now I'll use it for soup when we get back from our vacation. It's still small, but it's enough for the two of us. It could have stayed on the vine for a bit longer, but it is what it is.
The temperatures went down a bit and we even had a day of rain which caused big changes in the garden. The pumpkins started pushing new fruits and now we have many more. They are at different stages and grow rapidly. I have noticed that they thrive when it's below 30 degrees Celsius and this is when I can see the changes every day. Exciting!
Some of them are still tiny...
Hokkaido pushed 3 new fruits which is really exciting as we only had 2 of them until now. I can leave them on the vines before the frost arrives which gives them enough time to grow.
I have always been afraid to grow pumpkins and I don't even know why. Now it looks like I will grow more varieties next year as I enjoy it.
The most interesting change happened on my Red Bell Peppers. I have always thought that they needed heat to thrive, but it turns out that they prefer when it's a bit cooler. This is how they looked like last Tuesday.
And this is from yesterday! Such a big difference! I'll harvest them today and put them in the fridge where they'll wait for us until we'll back. Luckily, they store very well, as I don't want to keep them on the plant because of the rodents.
Also zucchini are showing signs of a comeback. I thought they were done for the year, but they pushed several female flowers and many of them got pollinated, so we're in for another batch of them. I have removed the leaves affected by mildew and I hope that they'll thrive when we're gone.
Our gardening neighbour told me that the cucumbers will come back too, but I should remove all the leaves damaged by the heat. This is what my husband did yesterday, so they look like this now 😊 I'm looking forward to seeing them in 10 days. Maybe they'll surprise me with their growth.
There are still a few cucumbers waiting for the harvest. I'll eat them when I'll go to water the garden tonight.
The cucumbers in the greenhouse started to take off again which is annoying as they'll be way too old when we'll get back, so I'll have to ask our neighbours to harvest them as otherwise they would go to waste.
Tomatoes are making me happy every day. These ones will be harvested too and left on the kitchen countertop. They will be perfectly red and tasty when we'll get back.
I keep harvesting my Golden Pears every day, but they are faster than me. They keep ripening in front of my eyes! I have a feeling that if I looked at them for an hour I would already see them changing their colour.
My volunteer cherry tomatoes are full of tiny fruits. They are not ready to harvest yet, but I have a feeling that we will return to a lot of red colour...
They grow between my peppers and cucumbers, so it's kind of difficult to see them...
This sweet pea is way too cute. I normally don't water flowers, but I did water this one as I fell in love with it.
These look like a painting. They are so pretty!
And I have them in 2 colours 😊
My sunflowers are popular by bees, bumble bees as well as wasps. There are always a few of them enjoying the sweet nectar.
It's going to be the second time this summer that we will be gone for more than 1 week. Both of these trips have been planned for long, but we agreed that we can't go away anymore in the summer, so next year we'll plan a winter vacation somewhere nice. It's way too hot in summer and we don't feel comfortable asking our neighbours for so much help even though we bring a small gift for them every time. We both love being in the garden and seeing our plants grow brings us pleasure, so being away for so long is also a bit stressful as it's different when somebody else is taking care of the garden and we're not sure in what condition we will find it once we're back. This summer taught us a lot and we have to change how we garden going forward. I don't know how to adjust to the new weather conditions yet, but I have enough time to plan for the next year.
Also, I wanted to plant an autumn garden, but I'll be gone for 2 weeks in September which would make it difficult for our neighbours again, so I'll do that next year. I can't wait to grow radishes, beans, lettuce, beetroot, carrots and many more later in the year!
My hand has started to hurt, so I think it's enough typing for today...
Thank you for reading!
