Early September Garden Report

The tomatoes are turning red at a rapid pace now.

The cucumbers have done well, as have the zucchini. The zuke in the front has reached billy-club size, in my opinion.

After a very rough start, the sunflowers are just now developing flower heads. The tallest sunflower is a little less than six feet in height!

I still don't know what to make of these purple broccoli plants. Like the sunflowers, they got off to a rough start because something was nibbling on them. (Grasshoppers, perhaps, or slugs.) Now they are huge plants, but no heads are in sight. Perhaps they were just meant to be ornamental.

My butterfly bush was originally planted near the house, but the deer insisted on nibbling on it. So I put it inside the garden fence, where it has flourished and bloomed!

Earlier in the summer, I didn't think I would ever get enough cucumbers from two plants to do anything with them. I was wrong! I have canned 14 quarts of dill pickles (usually 2 or 3 at a time), 8 pints of Crisp Pickle Slices, and made 2 quarts of refrigerator pickles. I've canned 6 pints of tomatoes, but hope to make tomato sauce (for spaghetti) later on when the Roma tomatoes are ripening better. Today I made 8 little jelly jars of zucchini relish. That's not nearly as much canning as I used to do when I was younger and had three children at home to help out, but it still gives me a sense of accomplishment to see the full jars on my pantry shelves.