Late Summer Crops from the Garden

It's been raining for weeks now here in the Pacific Northwest, and it finally stopped long enough this morning for me to venture out into the yard and garden. I turned over my compost pile and then headed to the garden, seeing how beautiful everything was after the rains. Even though it's been wet, it's been warm and the plants have responded to this combination of conditions. Everything is making its one last effort for growth and maturity before the first frost arrives. Since the autumnal equinox is only four days away, the weather could change very quickly in the next few weeks.

There was some beautiful chard in the garden, and I picked my first bunch of green beans. There were two very small yellow tomatoes that were ready for picking, and I'll probably just eat them as is and not bother with a salad.

As I progress through my Master Gardener training, I am learning so much about plants and shrubs and soil, and this week we are concentrating on composting and fertilizers. This training will be so valuable to me as I start to really develop my property here in Maltby after living here for 9 years.