It is Getting Cooler

It seems that fall has arrived (fingers crossed). The weather has gone from highs in the upper 80s and humid to highs in the 70s and dry. The plants seem to be enjoying the change of weather and the ones that don't like the realy hot weather are getting back to producing again.

Basil Harvest

He had Dr. Lelia Kelly, a retired Mississippi State Extension Specialist, on Family Plot and she showed us an easy way to dry basil at the end of the season. You just cut off the whole plant and hang it up. Here is the video of what she did

When she was done we went and trimmed the other three plants and total we got 0.654 lbs of basil. I am amazed at how much we have harvested off of just four plants in this growing season. So far we have harvested 2.71 labs of basil, which is more than a typical family would use in a year.

Other Harvesting

During this time we have also picked 10 more cucumbers for another 5.34 lbs. The cucumbers are still producing and we will have more again soon.
We also harvested three more eggplant for 1.22 lbs. There are four more growing on the plant.
We got only 2 cherry tomatoes for a measly 0.02 lbs. This is because in the heat the large tomatoes stopped blooming. The good news here is with the cooler weather there are lots of large tomatoes growing on those plants again.

More eggplant that will be ready soon

Other Happenings

The fall lettuce patch

Cauliflower and broccoli

Here are the other things going on that are not harvest related.
The fall vegetables are growing well. The romaine lettuce has about doubled in size so far. The oak leaf lettuce started bigger so it has not grown as much relative to how it started. The cauliflower and broccoli are doing well.
The cantaloupe has another fruit on it and the watermelon has one too.
The sweet potato vines have recovered from being mowed off by the landscapers and are doing well. It is trying to invade the lettuce patch.
One piece of bad news, the potatoes are dead. They did not grow well and I think it might be because of the heat.
Also, if you remember last time I talked about how I needed to pull out some pepper plants because they had wilt. Well with the empty space I planted another cauliflower next to the ones from the previous week.

I always enjoy the transition from summer gardening into fall. I realy like to grow the cool season vegetables. If everything goes well we should have lots of them soon.