Fall is Coming

As much as I hate to admit it, I have been very distracted for the past few months.  And now I am paying for it.  Summer has passed me by.  Granted, we had months of cold and snow, months of flooding and rain, a whole month of sweltering heat and days upon days of biting bugs.  But that is no excuse for me to hide in the house and watch my gardens get choked by weeds.  Well…I think they are good excuses.  My poor plants don’t agree. 

But with all my neglect, most of my plants have survived and even thrived.  I attribute that to my hubby and the type of plants I have; hostas, peonies, lilies and iris.  All of them are very hardy perennials; lucky for them. 

The vegetable garden is a different matter.  Because of the heavy moisture with cool weather, then the oppressive heat….our garden and many others are not producing well.  So we have had to resort to buying produce to can and freeze.  Thank goodness some of the farmers around here have had good luck in their gardens.  Our beans are just now starting to produce, and not many at that.  So we bought enough green beans to put up 24 ½ pints.  We got some great sweet corn and froze 24 cups, enough for Hubby to have this winter while I am gone. The cucumbers are hit and miss.  Some have ripened, some just hang on the vine and rot.  And there not even enough to share, so no pickles this year.   I have harvested some tomatoes, enough to put up 12  half pints of salsa (I had to buy the green peppers).    I have bunches of green tomatoes on the vine,  but they are not turning red very fast. And I am not sure the weather will hold long enough for them to ripen. We are going to get very chilly soon.   The only produce doing well this year are the Fairy Tale eggplants and our raspberries.  Once the berries got started, they went crazy and I can’t keep up with them.  So the birds are getting a good treat this year.  I have already shared bunches, eaten bowls full and frozen 3 gallons for winter.  And they are still going strong.  Thank goodness they freeze well. 
 
Arkansas Travelers and Pittman Valley

Fairy Tale eggplants

Hubby using the mandolin.

So the canning season is here, although not as productive as we wanted.    And fall is coming, sooner than we would hope.  How do I know?   Because they are gone…left without so much as a goodbye or thank you yesterday.  And now you ask “Who”? 

Our hummingbirds are gone.  After a month of scrambling daily to keep 6 feeders full (they are in a feeding frenzy before they migrate), being buzzed by up to 6 per feeder and watching them fight for control of the food….they are gone.  And we won’t see them again until somewhere around the second week of May.

We’ll miss the little darlings.

PS…I wrote this yesterday, then last night we got a freeze.  The cukes, beans, squash and eggplant are gone.  We covered the tomatoes and they still look good.  Now I need a couple more weeks of warmth to get them off the vine.