Harvest is Here! The Garden Experiment at Mabon

Ok - so Mabon is a couple weeks away yet, but I'm feeling it in the air.

The garden has been a constant for me since Vernal Equinox when we planted some seed trays. Through April when the seeds really weren't growing well and I was trying to prepare the garden beds... May/June when things were finally in the ground and growing...

I worried through cucumbers rotting on the vine - didn't get much of a harvest there this year...boo hoo...but got a TON of cukes from the CSA farm share...YAY! Even made some B&B Pickles last weekend...but I digress...

Another problem was that SOMETHING was getting into the garden and eating my beans pepper plants and sweet potatoes and a few tips of the tomato plants.

A few squash rotted on the vines - but I had enough of a harvest that it wasn't a big deal.

The basil was a constant. I planted it early and have been harvesting all summer. YUM.

The tomato plants grew gangbusters and got me SO excited - but one by one each of the beds got too top-heavy and higher than the cages could handle,then toppled themselves...so the beds look a bit unruly, but the tomatoes didn't stop setting....they just didn't get ripe very early either.

Finally, the tomatoes are turning! All of them - not just the store-bought plants, but the stunted ones planted indoors on St.Pats day! So we've got a variety.

In the picture above there are examples of the "better boy" from the Home Depot, and the Green Zebra - yes that green one is RIPE! and some reisentraub and one yellow plum tomato that should really be a pink stripe, but someone forgot to tell it that.

The butternut squash was a volunteer plant from the compost I used in the garden .... The long greenbeans are finally producing - after being planted late and partially nibbled by my pest early-on and I harvest about 4 a week.

I have been picking about a box-full of veggies every couple of days at this point in the season.
So, the experiment is a success - the garden is really bursting its fence this year - I will need to increase my space next year or not try to plant so many things.....