At Least 111 Years Old

I am fairly certain in these times, there is no way something like this happens. My Grandfather, born on July 4, 1895, when he came from Greece, November 25th, 1910, to America smuggled something in. Not really, because in those days, immigration cared little about bringing plants and animals into the country.

He brought with him, a small suitcase, really a change of clothes and some extra socks and underwear. And he brought a Mint plant. He was a gardener, and it was his touch of home. To ground him, I suppose.

Fast forward, he landed outside Boston, along with a ton of other Greek Immigrants, in a Greek ghetto. My parents originally were born there, and eventually married, and moved on. My grandfather passed along his love of gardens to my mom, and later, to me.

Speaking of gardens, after lazing around doing nothing except running nasty fever, and hacking up parts of my lungs for the past 10 days, I finally got around to doing something in my garden.

This mess above, needed some serious hacking away, to get to this below:

We have a hard frost coming this weekend, so I cut down the last 5 Bell Pepper Plants, as well as 5 Tomato. There's still a good dozen or more tomato left, plus Sweet Banana Pepper and 2 Purple Pepper. Lot's of Herbs, too. and some Peas, Onion, and Carrot.

And, clearly, the Hydrangea seem to be blooming nicely, still.

One of the LAST Harvests!

The Full Hard Frost is due, soon, within days in fact.In case I miss my timing, I grabbed most of the ripe-ish fruit and veg, and some of the larger green ones. I left the peas on the vines as I can grab them before dinner tomorrow night. Plus, the remaining Carrot and Onion are good even with a frost for a bit.

All in all, it's been a very good year, and I look forward to making the summary post of my harvests!

Oh, by the way? That mint in the first picture? It's a cutting from my grandfather's first mint. I've got one in ground, and a few small cuttings growing, in other pots, all from his original plant. Not bad for 111 years old.