the wife decided to drastically cut back on the tomato plants in hopes of them restarting producing for the fall. We are still getting a few of the slicers and a small hand full of cherry about once a week now. This has been by far our best year with the numbers they produced.

Little bitty baby volunteer cilantro plants. I only planted them once years ago. They are the perfect size to share with my neighbor gardeners. More seeds will germinate if the transplants are struggling. They are a gardeners best friend. They give off an aroma when they bloom that attracts bees. You can buy a package of seeds and plant them only once. They will be the gift to your neighbor that keeps on giving. The songbirds will drop the seeds in their gardens.

yesterdays pepper harvest:


All these jalapenos from a single knee-high plant! most 3-4" (I think I need to start a jalapeno farm!):)


Got some dandies!

This one will be too hot to eat!!

and the zucchini (these were just the big ones, that get shredded/freeze):


and this monster (sitting in front of a watermelon, and almost as big)!!

I think I'll put that one in with my pickled okra!

Usually have a big surge of jalapenos this time of year but I have a lot of blooms and not as many peppers as usual. Maybe too much nitrogen. Don't know.

I read somewhere that Indians used to plant squash together with corn (and a legume/beans) all in the same patch, to help cut down on the weeding. Thought I'd give it a try.
(And I guess the beans helped add nitrogen to the soil - but I didn't plant any beans this time, just compost & fertilizer.)
Working pretty good - I've never had squash plants 4' high before, and the corn I'm picking is coming out nice, and great squash (prev. pics).
This was a 2nd planting around july, irrigated.
I prolly packed plants in a little tight in the rows, but there's room to walk between the rows about 2' apart, and this spot gets sun from sunrise till sunset.

WOW

Gonna have to build a shade cloth set up for my strawberry patch next year. This past summer really did a number on them.Lost about half my plants to the heat.

That's called 'The three sisters'. You plant the corn and squash at the same time. As the squash vine grows, you train it around the base of the corn. When the corn gets about 3 feet high, you plant the beans. As the beans grow, you train it to climb the corn.

That's cool - I'll have to try that next!

interesting concept to plant multiple things together.

after hacking back our tomato plants mid Aug., they are covered in blooms again. should be a good fall crop in a few weeks.

Its called second growth. Fingers crossed. You could get a crop depending on the fall weather.

Not a bad first day of Fall pepper harvest.

- same here. also, right before the first fall freeze/frost - we pick all the big green ones and individually wrap in newspaper
- they keep/ripen gradually,
whenever we want a ripe tomato, we go thru them and re-wrap the ones still green - with some lasting all the way till thanksgiving!

Whoa! Beautiful variety!

Would look great on a Christmas tree.

It's now in the jar to the far right, in my latest batch of pickled okra!!

That's good looking pickled okra. Mind sharing what your canning brine is?

There are 2:

first I made is really really good - mixing up homemade 'mixed pickling spice' recipe here - https://keviniscooking.com/wprm_print/50313/
plus adding 1/4 tsp fresh chopped garlic and 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes plus 1or2 fresh whole jalapeno sliced in half (WITH seeds for Real Hot!) to each pint jar,
and then using the 'quick dill pickles' instructions on box of Morton Canning/pickling salt:




the second, which I've tried recently is much easier if you don't have all those spices,
and is 'ok' for HOT okra but definitely not as good as above, but tasted way better than 'storebought' pickled okra:
(also adding 1/4 tsp fresh chopped garlic and 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes plus 1or2 fresh whole jalapeno sliced in half (WITH seeds for Real Hot!) to each pint jar,)

That's what I use when making icebox pickles. Love them.

Thanks for the recipe. I'm going to put some up.

I thinned it yesterday by picking my first bunch. It simply taste better to me when it comes from my garden.