Goodbye, Garden

The summer is drawing to a close...

Okay, it's already over. But I'm not ready to let go of my garden. Maybe because of all the hours of back-breaking labor I spent in it? "Anything worth having requires hard work." It's definitely paying off now. It's been so fun to watch it grow, weeds and all. But tomorrow is the day to tear out a third of it.
The above picture will soon just be dirt. We've had several meals of peas. I canned 27 pints of green beans. The lettuce was grown primarily for feeding pet bunnies and... we won't go into that. And the carrots are my big project for tomorrow. I like to blanch and cut them into tiny sticks for stir fry and then freeze them - oh, and some sliced for pot roasts too. Today I defrosted the freezer (not as easy as it sounds) so we're ready to go! I really am sad to be saying goodbye to my three months' passion. On the brighter side, I love using our big daddy tiller so at least it will be fun to demolish.

Plus this part of the garden will still remain for another month at least. The corn is just getting ready (we ate some last night). In a week it will be ready to blanch, cut, and freeze. I keep some of the corn stalks for Halloween decorations outside. The tomatoes are so yummy - the kids love them and I sneak out and eat some while they take naps too. Pear tomatoes, Roma, and regular. Then behind the tomatoes are the pumpkins. I took this picture last week, and they have doubled since then. It looks like a big Halloween bash going on in our backyard! I planted mini pumpkins too (like you get at craft stores) and they're super cute. So the harvest isn't quite over yet. But I will miss seeing the neat little rows of produce out my kitchen window.

Hopefully I'll still have all my fingers by the time I finish with the carrots tomorrow night!