Reaping the Last of It

 Pickins' have been slim lately from the garden. You can definitely tell it is autumn.

The cooler air at night has started making all of my watermelons ripen. I had five on the vine. I took in the small one I had broken the vine on so I could cut it open and see if it was ripe. 

Surprisingly, it was. I guess it had enough notice from the cooler air to get ripe before I accidentally broke the vine before leaving for Girl's Weekend. It was so small that we ate it within a day or so. 

But when I went out to look around last night, this little one had a dried up tendril too. So I carried it inside and cut it open to see. 

Sure enough, it was ripe and ready too. So we are eating it now. It didn't have a whole lot more than the first.

So I was down to three. Well, I walked out there today and noticed that both of these also have dried up tendrils.

So I brought them in and will cut them up later and check to see if they are ripe. That just leaves the biggest one. It's tendril has begun to brown but it isn't quite there. Maybe without the four littles pulling energy from the plant, it will put a little more into the the big one and give it some more time.

I think my cucumber plant is done as well. I got the last cucumber off of it when we got home this weekend and I haven't seen any more babies. There does seem to be a flower though so we'll see if that becomes anything before I pull it up.

My luffa have 2 gourds that are pretty good size on them, at least in my opinion. 

This one was the first to appear and it outer skin is pretty scuffed up from trying to grow over the trellis. When I finally got it hanging like it was supposed to, it filled out pretty nicely.

 

The other has been hanging from the start and doesn't have the 'dents' and scrapes this one does.

Each plant only has one. I am assuming that if I had started them when I should have rather than so late in the summer that I would have quite a few more. 

I am okay with that. It's been a fun experiment learning about them. And that learning should contribute to a nicer harvest next year.

My tomatoes and my one lone red onion are pretty much all that are left. And they are doing well still. My tomato plants are all about my height but had not done much of anything all summer. Then a storm came along a few weeks ago and blew them over so that they were laying on the ground. I tried to stand them up but they were too heavy so I left them alone and figured I'd just pull them up later. 

Lo and behold, they are now loaded with tomatoes. Like loaded!!!! I told Chick next year I would just wait for the plants to grow tall and then go out and kick them over if that's what it takes. We may have some salsa and spaghetti sauce to can yet.