Little Garden Visitors

Mom and dad visited today and mom helped me harvest veggies out of the garden.  I went to pull some carrots and I suddenly saw some little visitors.  Can you see them in this photo?  It's a little hard to tell in this photo.

So here is a better look.  See it now?  I took these photos with the crappy camera on my cellphone.  So I couldn't get it to focus.  Sorry for the blurry photo.  This little gal was munching away on the carrot tops.  This is my first time growing a bunch of carrots, I had no idea that it would attract so many butterfly caterpillars.  Interestingly, it seemed like they only were chomping on the carrot tops, and not much else in the garden. That is a relief!

Another view.  I Google searched caterpillars and found that these could be Monarch butterfly caterpllars!  There were so many in the carrot raised bed, I saw at least 10.  They were only eating the tops of the carrots, so I left them undisturbed.  If they didn't turn into something so pretty, I would definitely consider disposing of these monster eaters.  But since I don't eat carrot tops anyway, I really didn't mind my new visitors.  They will consume everything in it's path, but butterflies are such great pollinators so they can gorge themselves in my garden.  I'll forgive them.

Here are some of the carrots I pulled.  These are Purple Haze.  I got these seeds from Greens and Jeans. I have never grown purple carrots before.  These are pretty neat.  They don't look very "purple" to me, more like a chocolate brown.  I grew a lot of different purple veggies this year.  Purple tomatoes, carrots, and bell peppers.  They are fun to grow because they are so unique!

And here is today's harvest!  The garden is finally in full swing production.  I really can't believe I grew all of this!!  Wow!  I'm getting a little bummed that winter is around the corner.  I've got to get me a greenhouse!!  :)

Gorgeous Harvest

One of the reasons why I love gardening is that I love to share the harvests with friends and family.  I went to see my parents last week and I brought with me this gorgeous bounty.  Don't you just love the colors?  I still get giddy knowing that I grew all of this.  I do.  I mean, I only started gardening last year, so it's kinda funny to me that I actually grew garlic, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and green beans, and all from seed, (clove for garlic).  It just brings a smile to my face whenever I harvest, that I can actually grow food, it's kinda comical to me.   I guess I find it funny because it's like I'm in on a funny little secret.  That I can grow fresh organic produce and it won't break the bank.  Heehee.  I love the expression on my parents face when they saw the variety of veggies that are coming out of my little garden, and I think I saw them chuckle as well. It's like they are in on the joke too.  I think they are just as amazed as I am that I can garden with such amazing results and actually grow food!  Haha.  For the first time EVER, I haven't had to buy vegetables all summer long!  For some reason that makes me laugh out loud!  Heeheehee.  It is awesome!

Fall Harvest, Probably One of the Last

I've been so amazed with our fall harvests. The bell peppers are still producing even though it's been in the 50s all week. Nights drop down to the 40s. But, we are still harvesting bell peppers, and I also harvested for the first time some mustard greens.  Not much, since the bugs keep eating all the leaves, but I was able to harvest a handful of leaves that weren't eaten up.  They are really peppery tasting. I don't know how much longer before our first frost hits and kills off the rest of the vegetable plants so I have to savor the harvests while I can.

But, by far the best producing plant has been the giant habanero.  It just amazes me how many little peppers I harvested from this plant.  Before I brought the plant inside, I harvested 24 habaneros.  Just amazing!  The pole beans are still producing like mad and I picked my first fall radish.  Nice! And check this out, when I was clearing the tomato plants to put in the compost, I found an heirloom tomato growing! How about that??

I have no idea what I'm going to do with all these habaneros.  I mean, they are hot, hot, hot peppers.  I saw my neighbor the other day when I dug up my habanero plant and she saw me wheeling around the giant plant in my wheelbarrow.  LOL.   (so embarassing)  I shouted to her from across the street, "hey Liz, do you like hot peppers?"  She said yes, so I unloaded a dozen habaneros into her hands.  Score.  One of the coolest thing about habaneros is that even though I picked these peppers when they were green, 3 days later they turned colors!!  From one plant, you can get orange, yellow and red peppers.  So awesome!!  Does anyone know, can you freeze these whole?

For more fall harvests, visit Daphne Dandelions.