October's Veggie Gardens Updates

Tina and Skeeter, from In the Garden, do veggie garden updates the 20th of the month, and put links in their sidebar to other bloggers also doing updates. The season is about over, but there are still a few things going on. I was able to pull out the tomato and pepper plants at my home garden a few days ago, but haven't made it across the street yet. I have next week off, so hopefully my knee and ankle will be healed enough to get lots done. The temps are supposed to be in the 50s and 60s.

The first 3 photos were taken Saturday. Grandson thought it was cool digging in the dirt, and at first, didn't want to give up the trowel to get the sweet potatoes harvested, but once he figured out what we were doing, he got into it. I also harvested the ornamental sweet potatoes, but plan to do a separate post on them after I cook and eat them.

Last year's sweet potatoes weren't so skinny. I think next year, I'll go back to not planting flowers in with them.

Here is a long view from the east end of the garden.

This is about halfway in. The flowers in the sun are Verbena bonariensis, a favorite

hangout of butterflies and bees.

The day before the snow, I harvested a lot of the lettuce. I'm glad I left most of the roots in the ground. They are growing again.

This is the kale I planted this year.

Looking back to the east:

In our dash to pick the last of the veggies before the freeze, we didn't get the grape tomatoes picked. I was disappointed, because they were loaded. I had picked some of them up before taking this photo.

Back to the east end of the garden, here are some closer looks at the Nero Toscana kale. I have been including both kinds of kale in soups this fall.

While cleaning up the garden, I laid some marigold seed heads down in a row. Today, when I did more picking up, I had fun pulling spent flowers off a plant and throwing them all around the garden. It will be fun to see where they come up.

It's looking pretty sad across the street.

The zinnias and Mexican sunflowers that were teaming with bees and monarchs a few weeks ago, are now ready to be pulled out.

These tomatoes that I started inside were so small when I planted them, I didn't know if they would grow. They did very well and would have continued ripening all the lovely tomatoes that we had to pick green to avoid freezing.

I have kale and lettuce here, too. I forgot to take a photo of the area behind the butterfly shelter, where I planted strawberries this summer. The 2 kinds of parsley and fennel planted for the butterflies are to the left of the chair, still green.

The bushes I planted near the back fence seem to be doing fine.

Soon, there will be lots of bare dirt, and I will be excited to make plans for crop rotation. There is a good chance the kales will still be producing next month. Most of the perennial herbs are doing fine, too. How is your vegetable garden doing this month?