Wrapping up the garden

Well, it is time to start wrapping up the garden.  I need this to be done as of October 1.  I picked another watermelon and several other melons.  Need to eat 'em or freeze 'em and keep doing that everyday for the next week.  Whatever isn't done October 1 is going to the goats.

I managed to throw some of the melon vines that are done to the goats and I took out one patty pan vine and threw it into the goat pen, as well.  If I get rid of the least productive plant at a rate of one or two a day I should have them gone in a week.

I picked some more cayenne peppers and I have them on the expanded metal wagon hoping to jump start their drying out.  I cut the pepper plants back so that as much sunlight as possible would reach the peppers that are almost ripe.  I also cut off all the green peppers since there is no way they are going to ripen up now.

I got a spade out and loosened up all the onions that are left in the garden.   I turned the water off on those rows a week or so a go and now it is time to get those into the shade cover and get them hardened up for storage under the bed in the guest room this winter.  I dug up some earlier this week and left them on the hay in the shade cover to dry.  Those can go into a milk crate and get put away in the guest room to make room for the next round of onions coming out of the garden.  Really, there are too many onions for the two of us but I am thinking that I might be able to trade them for eggs for awhile this fall and winter.

I have quite a few acorn squash and I should start picking the ones that are trying to turn orange.  Those need to get put under the shade cover as well and then later I can store them under the guest bed, too.

We only have a few butternuts which is my personal favorite.  I am waiting until the last minute to pick those.

We need to get the hay out from the greenhouse so that I can get our rosemary and pineapple sage put in there.  I froze some of the rosemary so that we could use it this winter.  Dried rosemary is like pine needles so we are trying the frozen route.