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My weekend was spent cleaning up garden beds. The one I had dreaded doing, with the ‘Chef’s Orange’ and ‘Chef’s Black’ tomatoes is finally DONE. Those plants are ridiculous in size and range! I am now on the lookout for a decent-tasting orange Determinate variety. Dealing with MONSTER tomato plants at the end of the season is something I’m tired of; always find a way to do things easier and cheaper. ;)

I did harvest another good dozen ripening tomatoes, and a good amount of cherries off of the ‘Valentine’ plant - but she’s been pulled now, too.

Rain all week, so it’s on to indoor chores for a while. :)

The Beagles (Chief and Dolly) went on a 4-hour Volksmarch from 4-8pm last night, so both are sacked out on their beds behind me as I type. I’m already thinking about my afternoon nap with rain on the roof - and I haven’t even had breakfast yet, LOL!

We have a gorgeous week ahead - sunshine, fall foliage, the perfect fall days. It was 38 this morning so my two pepper plants, that I left in the garden, are not happy - rather ‘wilty’. They may perk up again with the warmer weather ... if they don’t, that’s ok.

This morning, while it’s ‘chilly’ and the grass is wet, I am making ghee & cutting up a pork loin into medallions & putting them in a marinade. They can stay in the marinade for 3 days ... hopefully by then, I will be tasting/smelling again ... I don’t want to make them until I can enjoy them.

Sungolds are like your Chef’s Orange/Black tomatoes. The plant gets HUGE and becomes a total pain - hard to get to some of the tomatoes to pick them, sprawls majorly out of the raised beds, gets tangled in the fencing. Not only that, but the next year, you end up with baby Sungolds coming up everywhere - they even grow in the wood chips (no dirt)! I planted Sweet 100’s for mom, but let one Sungold volunteer come up - got maybe 2 feet tall & just picked the last tomatoes off of it.

During my forced ‘quiet’ days, I am thinking about what & where I am planting things next year ... already! I am cutting way back & going herbal/flower. “Salads” are going to be mostly herbs ... might grow some greens for a base. German Johnson tomato for mom & one cherry tomtato plant. Jalapenos of course. Probably a bell pepper plant. NO cukes. Spaghetti squash outside the fence ... deer should leave them alone. DAHLIAS ... my new favorites ... for sure! The tithonia shocked me & self-seeded this spring in the hummer garden ... I think my hollyhocks that germinated in there got crowded out - I need to go on a hunt for them.

Today, trying to figure out if I mow (& roundup leaves into piles around the maple trees) or spend the day putting up a new compost pile & mow/move leaves in the next couple of days. I think it’s going to depend on how windy it is.

Deer processing will probably be tonight unless my SIL decides I should be treated like Typhoid Mary due to my adventures with the “flu” last week. I’m fine, actually have some energy ... back to my allergy issues, nothing else.

BTW, that podcast I like ... he bear hunts :-)

Go sack out! Glad you got it all done before the Rain! The rain here starts tomorrow.

Fall/Winter Garden: Planted Broccoli in 2 low tunnels about 3 weeks ago. (Pictures taken last week!) They are now about 10" tall. Two varieties, Castle Dome (22"H 50 days from transplant) and Gypsy (30"-36" 60 Days from transplant). Used a fine Nylon pest barrier rather than frost barrier. I should probably have just planted the Castle dome since it would fit under the low tunnel.

The tunnels and mesh are not really optional, squirrels dig anything you plant looking for stuff to eat, and while I had the tunnel off yesterday I had cabbage loopers flitting around trying to sneak in and lay eggs. (They did, and I picked the off wherever I found them and sprayed everything down with spinosad.) Note that the green rings are sections cut from plastic drain pipe. I put them around the seedlings to prevent them from being eaten by sow and pill bugs. I interplanted lettuce with the Broccoli since there is a lot of space between the growing plants.

View up the broccoli tunnel and view of some multiplier onions and inter-planted lettuce protected by chicken wire.