Yesterday was officially the first day of fall, and voila — we got snow on the mountains for the first time this season. I’m usually sad to see summer go and to know winter is on the way, but this year it isn’t so bad. With our baby last spring, this summer has not been as active a time for our family. We didn’t even go boating this summer once, and that’s a big deal for us. And likewise, our gardens have had minimal attention this year.

In the vegetable garden, we only grew two tomato plants: a ‘Better Bush’ for large tomatoes and a ‘Husky Red’ for cherry tomatoes. The ‘Better Bush’ was beginning to disappoint but finally started ripening in mid-August. It had a lot of fruit on it yesterday. It probably will only keep producing for another few weeks. The ‘Husky Red’ started producing earlier and has been a strong performer. Both bushes have not looked all that healthy, even though they’ve produced well in the past month. They have a lot of brown on them and lost most of their lower leaves. I think this comes from watering them with a sprinkling system, which tomatoes evidently don’t like.

Also, I picked some more Jonathan apples yesterday and the day before. I had picked most of them on Sept. 7th, but I left some clusters to see if they’d ripen more and they did. I still have maybe 15-20 on some branches that bent down and got shaded between some adjacent shrubs, so they haven’t turned red since they didn’t get enough sun exposure. I left them on the tree for now, but I don’t know if maybe they’re actually ripe but just not red.

I am working to transplant a bunch of perennials before we get too far into fall. I’ve drawn up a new design for my front flowerbed, and I need to divide some plants to put in there and outright transplant some others. It’s going to look very nice next year. I hope so, at least!