With the cold nights arriving the peppers have slowed down and have not grown in size. I decided it was time to harvest the last of the Bell and Poblano peppers that were still on the plants.
After getting them all cleaned and chopped I put them in the freezer.
The following morning, I vacuum sealed them and I ended up with 30 packages of peppers from this season. That should hold me over fairly well until next year's start coming in. I also have plenty dehydrated too!
The White Lilac Tree
I had shared this photo of my favorite Lilac tree back in early spring. It was showing signs of struggling and had few leaves and less blossoms than ever before.
Two weeks ago, one of the branches fell over and split the tree wide open. This week my husband decided to cut the rest of the tree down and remove the stump.
It was surprisingly easy to remove once he had the surrounding soil removed from the main roots.
I thought for sure it would have a massive tap root or be very hard for him to get it out. Yet most of the roots were so shallow and only one side root went deeper than the others. Once, he cut that one root the whole stump fell over.
It only took him less than 30 minutes to get the entire stump out and loaded onto the tarp to take it to the woods to decay.
This was a shady area in the vegetable garden where I grew basil, Swiss chard, and had the grow bags with the potatoes. Now, it is wide open and will be a good spot for Zucchini next year along with the grow bags towards the back area.
I dug out the Lavender, Oregano, Thyme, and Sage from where I had them this year. The dogwood was creating too much shade, and they performed poorly due to the lack of sun. Now they are planted at the front edge of this area and will be easy for me to access next year. It will be full sun in this little section so they should thrive here.
The last eggplant and the cherry tomato were all picked and prepared for dinner that week.
I got a ton of cherry tomatoes in the freezer to enjoy in soups and stews this winter. From now on, I am only planting one cherry tomato plant instead of three varieties as that is way too much for the two of us to manage.
All in all, this year was an outstanding season, and I am amazed at how much food came out of my small garden. One of these days I will do an inventory and put up a post to share. My pantry is overflowing as well as the freezer.
The plants in the butterfly garden all got cut back and I had room to plant the Lavender and Foxglove that I had started early summer. It has been a very busy few days preparing the gardens for winter. Are you all doing the same before it gets too cold?
Geez, you 2 sure got a lot done in the gardens! I need to get out and get the garlic planted then start cleaning out the Big garden. 30 packages is about right for a year I’d guess.
If I don't work on the gardens every morning I get so far behind and I don't like working in cold rainy weather to finish it up. I had to order my garlic bulbs this year as mine were too small. Just waiting for them to arrive Monday. It's raining and cold out, ugh! I had to turn my heat on for the first time. :-(
Mine arrived during the week, but I won’t be able to get to them until the end of the week. We’ve got 2 days of rain starting tonight. And I’ve got to get all the storm windows washed as I have help coming on Wednesday afternoons to do windows.
Wow, you’ve had such a productive season! Its amazing how much you’ve harvested and organized for winter. Sad about the lilac tree, but it sounds lie you made great use of the space. Gardening keeps us busy but its so rewarding! 🌿
Thanks, it has been a fruitful year with all the produce from the garden. I still have more to harvest but am almost done for the season. Thanks for the visit.
A wonderful harvest. We collected our peppers a month ago. But we make preparations from them, for example, lecho, but we have never frozen them. I'll tell my wife about it.
By the way, all the lilacs in our village died, the trunks were covered with lichen or fungus, and the roots rotted right in the soil. There were 3 lilacs growing next to my house; they died 5 years ago.
Tomorrow I will be removing a dead apple tree so that I can plant a new one next year.