Mini Garden Comeback

 I had pretty much come to the conclusion that my garden was done when I posted last about it. Well, shut my mouth! I should have known better.

The watermelons were finally done and I had cut the last big one off last week. I went out the next day and pulled up the vine. 

And found this hiding in  the corner. 

Like the other small ones, it had taken a hint from the cooler night air and ripened early. So, the last (literally this time) of our watermelon is in the fridge.

The cucumbers are trying to make me enough for another small batch of pickles, I guess. It has small ones all over it. We aren't expecting a hard freeze yet so I am just letting it go as long as it can.

By far, the biggest producer right now is my laying-on-the-ground tomato bushes. I have had enough to make a batch of salsa and still load up our salads and sandwiches. Every day when I go to take a look, I have brought in several tomatoes. 

The cherry tomato plant made so many that I actually told Rugrat to go to town on them. It had filled up a little custard bowl and was getting to be too many. She pretty much eat cherry tomatoes like other people snack on nuts or chips so she was pretty happy with that.

And then there's my luffa. My last post mentioning them said I had two (one for each plant). Well, it's not surprising to find they are related to cucumbers. They certainly have that whole camouflage and hiding thing down.

First, I found a second hanging down from the vine that had produced the first luffa and it was every bit as big as the first. Then I noticed that a vine had taken advantage of the downed tomato bushes and climbed a tomato cage. So, right in the middle of a bushy tomato, there hangs a quite long luffa gourd that was a beautiful shape since it had nothing but air and gravity working on it.

Since then, I have found a few small ones formed and getting ready to 'hang' down. Looks like I'll have a few more than I thought.

For now, I will just have to watch the weather forecast. If it looks like we'll have a frost, I will have to cut the luffa off and find some place inside to hang and dry them. I'll also pluck all the tomatoes and lay them out on newspaper to ripen. 

I'm hoping for a few more late season goodies before I have to clean it all up and get it ready for next year.