Welcome to my Starting a garden Post #26 🌻🙂
Fall is definitely upon us in Vermont 🍁 Leaves are starting to turn at least some of the maples. My garden is also changing. Butternut squash 😋 are starting to ripen. Zuchinnis won't stop 🙄
Pumpkins are starting to look like pumpkins haha Bright Orange.
More butternut squash still on the vine.
More pumpkins on the vine too. These are the the funky striped pumpkins. They start green and striped like the heirloom zuchinnis we have. Then turn yellow with green stripes. We shall see if they turn pure orange 🤔
Here is a more traditional pumpkin that was all green and is now turning orange. And is trying to keep going with another bloom 🤣
All summer long, I started every post with a flower. The flowers aren't as perfect any more but still beautiful 😍
When we moved in last year the hydrangea were out of control and way overgrown. We cut them way back and didn't expect any blooms this year. But they did ok 😉
Marigolds are also still looking good. Although some did suffer leaf mildew. We took all those out to try to keep mildew from spreading.
Our multicolor rudbeckia is also still looking good in late summer.
Red on red rudbeckia is also still healthy. We are excited how well our perennials did this summer and how much they spread.
Back to the garden, here is a typical daily harvest. Tomatoes, a few peppers, some green beans, squash. Still plenty of basil but we just go get that as we are cooking.
Peppers are turning.
Bright splashes of ripening peppers are really pretty as some of the plants are starting to die away and leaves are starting to yellow.
The final harvest will be these brussel sprouts. Not a great photo but the little brussel sprouts are coming along.
Harvest time in the orchard... I wish! We have planted 6 apple trees, 2 pear trees, 2 cherry trees, and 2 crabapple trees. The sum production this year is ONE pear. Most of the trees are doing pretty well. Its just the first season 🤷♂️
There was one crabapple tree here when we moved in. It was being overtaken by the forest and undergrowth. We pushed back the forest and gave it some room. And were rewarded with about 7 lbs of crabapples this year. We had never eaten crabapples but it was all our orchard had to offer this year 🙄 Crabapple is actually quite tasty. We baked some muffins and made a (crab)apple crisp.
New low tech toy 🤣 with my binoculars I can read it from the house. But we are not close to any Apple weather stations so I wanted something better than my phone.
Thanks for checking out my Starting a garden Blog 🙏☮️
Bonus pic:
Lovely cool late summer day at Lake Dunmore 🤩