As I mentioned yesterday, I spent a good part of the weekend outside in the garden. Temps hovered around 25C, and I know there won’t be many days left like that this year.

I’d also been sadly neglecting the gardens the past couple of weeks. Part of that is because I’ve just been constantly on the go, but also because of the mosquitos.

The mosquitos have been absolutely murder this past month. I’m guessing it’s because it was such a wet summer. You could not step out into the yard without being absolutely swarmed. The only way to get anything done without being bitten to death was to practically bathe in OFF.

So even when I had maybe 20 minutes or so to go out and pull a few weeds, I didn’t, because I didn’t want to have to spray myself down, then feel (and smell) bug spray on my skin for the rest of the day.

But this past weekend, their numbers did seem to dwindle a bit (though I did take an OFF shower before going out) , so I decided it was time to tackle that weeding. Plus, I was keen on cleaning out a few parts of Edible Alley.

The peas and the cucumbers have been done for quite a while, so I cleaned out what was left, and cut away all the string trellising I’d put up for them.

I will definitely grow snap peas again next year. Dave loved them, and I surprised myself with how much I loved them too.

While the cucumbers did well, I think I will try an English cucumber next year, just for something a little different.

The tomatoes were still going, but the plants themselves were looking a little sad. I have had MORE than enough tomatoes this year, so I figured I’d pull them too.

I still got about a half-bushel full of ripe ones! Talk about tomato overload! I will definitely be making sure I get cherry or grape tomatoes next year. This was definitely too much!

I also cleaned out the beans. The regular green beans were done. The Chinese Long Beans were still going, but I wasn’t really fond of them. Dave said he’d eat them, but every time I picked some and brought them in, they just sat there. I won’t be planting more next year. They were a fun experiment and grew really well, but I think I’ll stick to just regular bush beans next year

The carrots I left where they were…. well… I pulled one.

They are still quite small. These are the ones that got planted much later. I don’t think they will get too much bigger, but I figure I have time to give them another week or two to grow as big as they can.

The carrot patch looks rather wild and crazy right now! Those marigold have just gone crazy over the last couple of months.

And of course, the squash are still growing.

We will eat it this week. I still have two more of a good size on the vine. There are a couple new ones, but I don’t think they will have time to grow and ripen before the frost hits. Still, with the two big ones still on the vine, that’s four squash this season – which is just fine in my book! These got planted a little late too.

But it’s not just veg in the Alley.

The strawberries are smaller, but all the plants are still producing. I picked a few for me…

And left a few for whoever has been munching away on them in the night.

I’ve also got raspberries! At the townhouse, my raspberries always grew nice and tall on their own. But here they seem to just flop about. I will work on some proper supports next spring, but for now I banged in a few stakes and tied things up.

And as I did, I discovered I had quite a few ripe berries! I ate all the red ones before I thought to take a picture.

But I did get a pic of the golden ones. They were a gift from the neighbor last year, and they’ve done really well. They are a touch less tart than the red ones. I’m hoping to get enough next year to make a batch of jam from them.

And there’s still lots more of both the red and yellow to come!

And last…

The catnip that took so long to start from seed this summer has finally filled out and come in!