Gwen's Blog

September and cleaning out the garden
Sep 17, 2008 | 9:21 AM PST
Well half of September is gone.  Where does the time go??  We jumped from 80+ degree weeks to 70 and below.  I want to go back to 80 degrees to garden some more veggies.  My tomato plants took a dump.  I posted some pictures in the forum Vegetables but they are looking bad.  The whole bottom of the plants turned brown (before we got all the rain) and have dropped a ton of the tomatoes.  Bummer.  I was hoping to get another big pick to dehydrate them.  The jalapeno's are taking off though.  I made my first attempt at jelly from an old canning recipe I found on this site for Hot Pepper Jelly.  I hope it turns out.  We have green onions and radishes still but I am pretty sure I picked the last zucchini of the season.  Now its time to start cleaning it all up.  Not sure how to do that since its my first year.  If anyone has any tips or tricks or even a how to list would be great.  I think I just start picking everything out that's dead and leave it for the spring.  This year I really focused on the vegetable garden but now that I have a year under my belt I am going to focus more on flowers and plants next year around my sunroom. I'll be checking out the shade forum and hummingbird and butterfly forums.  Yea.  Tonight I am doing the last canning project and can some garlic/basil tomato sauce.  That'll be yummy in the middle of winter.  If my tomato plants come back I would love to try to can tomato soup.  For now I am at work taking a break but in 5 hours (UGH) I will be able to leave this little cubicle and start the night with Derek Party of Four.  My son who is 10 and my boyfriends son who is 9 have a playroom to clean up tonight but I know they will want the wrestling match Derek promised them last night.  Fun fun family time.  Enjoy your Wednesday everyone!