Garden Update: The End Is Near

It is October and we have already experienced our first frost. Some of the the tomato plants look like they might want to hang on for awhile longer, while the others have had enough of the cooler temperatures. We have been picking the tomatoes off of the slowly dying plants every few days and pulling up the plants that are done for. The zucchinis are blooming a few hopeful big yellow flowers, while most of their large leaves have shriveled and are melting away. Last spring Shelly accidentally bought a habanero plant with the green pepper plants and I have harvested it twice. I decided to try out a small food dehydrator that was a gift from several years ago and I now have a small glass jar full of dried peppers for some wintertime chili and maybe some hot sauce. We also put up several quarts of shredded zucchini for winter stews and soups. All in all it was a below average production year for the garden because of the drought and concurrent heat wave over the summer. But like all gardeners we are looking forward to a fresh start next spring.