Wrapping Things up in the Garden

Every day I've been driving like Mario Andretti, rushing home to harvest sweet potatoes.  The days are getting shorter, so I have to pack a lot of work into an hour and a half.  To the best of my calculations, I think I have exactly one and a half days left of harvesting and then I'll be done.  Each day after harvesting, I immediately cover the soil with wood chip mulch to discourage weed growth.

When we get finished, we'll begin planting.  We need to get that done QUICKLY!  Our time is running out!  The sweet potatoes just seem to be a bumper crop this year.  They are plentiful.  They are big!

There's really only a few things producing now... Sweet potatoes, peppers, eggplant, louffa gourds, and okra.  Sweet potatoes will be done in a couple days.  Eggplant are almost done.  Okra will continue until the first frost.  We're eating a bunch of okra and have put some up in the freezer as "gumbo season" is upon us. 

Oh, I almost forgot.  There is one other thing still producing with no signs of letting up.  Zinnias.  You can't eat them.  Well, I guess you could, but I'm not gonna.  They're just pretty.  Previously, I would never use up space in the garden to plant flowers, but I saved seeds from zinnias I planted outside the garden last year and this year, planted them IN the garden.  I'm glad I did.  They really brighten up things.

It is nice to see the variety of colors.  Zinnias grow great in the heat of summer, too, and just keep blooming and blooming from spring to late fall!  I'll save the seeds from these and plant a row again next year.