Yes, I know its been a while since I’ve posted.  But the last few weeks have been running by me fast.  I left on a trip and was gone a week, 8 days but who’s counting.  But we still have somewhat weird weather.  Last night we got down to 46 degrees.  Definitely cool weather.  Where it may feel nice, its not so great for my tomatoes.  Yes, I am worried about my tomatoes.  I still have a load of green tomatoes on my plants.  I would like them to survive and ripen.

While I was gone I’m not sure what the weather did.  But I can tell you what I came back to.  My lovely acorn squash plant is not doing so well.  Most of it looks like it died.  With all the rain, I wouldn’t be surprised. But I do still have one acorn squash growing.  Also it has another flower, though I don’t think that will amount to much.  My small watermelon and cantaloupe are still small and I’m not sure they will grow much now.  My string bean plant has given me a crop of green beans.  Where they were good, we probably should have harvested earlier.  Next year I should try peas instead.  My pepper plants are giving me a load of peppers.  I have harvested about 6 bell peppers, I have maybe an Anaheim pepper growing, and I have lots of serrano chiles and I’m not sure what else peppers.  These are green, ripe and if you touch them wrong they fall off the plant.  I think that means they are pretty ripe – at least green ripe.  I’m sure I could leave some on the plant until they turn red.

As for my herbs.  I’ve got more thyme then I can use.  I’m going to dry some for the winter.  I have an oregano plant that is doing well and I’ve clipped some of it to dry also.  Its currently in the green house, but I think if next year I put it somewhere else it will do well too.  My parsley is growing, so is the basil.  And the sage looks good.  I don’t think I’m going to grow tarragon again.  If I do, maybe only one plant.  And the little bay trees are doing okay.  I don’t think they are ready for transplanting, but they are alive and seem to be growing.

For next spring I’m think I should put all herbs in a couple of the barrel pots.  Mint can have its own pot, but everyone else needs to stay confined in pots.  I have more rosemary then I need, mainly because it grows in the yard so well.  But in the back yard I have a pot of it too.  But all the other herbs also need to grow in pots.  Some of them just spread too much.

They have marked out my new veggie planter.  So far it is 24 feet by 10 feet.  They are planning on 2 walk paths thru it, intersecting somewhere in the middle.  I also have the two 3 ft by 3 ft raised planter boxes I bought from Gardeners Supply I can use next year.  I’m thinking I might keep the tomatoes in one of those, but make sure I have enough soil in them to be more usable.  Since tomatoes tend to have those caterpillars, I may need to alternate the plants I grow in them.  That’s why I’m thinking of keeping the tomatoes in the raised planters.  This way the caterpillars won’t end up eating other things.  I’ll have to do more research on that one.