September has been a very busy month in the garden. I don’t know where the time went. I harvested so much produce from the garden, and gave a bunch of it away as well. The dahlias were very pretty, the pumpkins and apples ripened. Fall is officially here!

I’ve picked over 150 dahlia flowers to brighten the kitchen counter and table. I’ve really enjoyed one of the new varieties, it has lots of pretty shades.

Pretty shades of pink and yellow

Typical late season harvests. The beans and tomatoes were very prolific. Zucchini and cucumbers did alright. I harvested quite a few small green peppers, but only had a few that ripened on the plants.

I did finally manage to get a few nice slicer cucumbers late in the season, most of the early ones were pickling varieties.

I cleared most of the greenhouse tomato plants early in the month, since they had powdery mildew. Got a bunch of green tomatoes which I have been ripening in the kitchen. Some of the bean plants were also on their way out, so I harvested a bunch when clearing the vines.

Not everything did well, for some reason the corn patch only grew a handful of very small ears. Most were only about half pollinated, and not really large enough to bother cooking. My attempts at acorn squash and gourds failed as well. I got a few figs off the potted trees, but not many. The gladiolus were a nice surprise, and I plan to dig up the corms in a couple weeks to store inside over winter.

The pumpkins really added major poundage to the year’s total this month! I have now harvested 7, with three more to go.

This massive jack-o-lantern pumpkin is the biggest I have ever grown! It’s the only one that the plant grew and it came to 30 pounds! Together with the other 5 smaller pumpkins I’m currently at 65 pounds total. I still have a few nice sized late season butternut squash which I’m hoping will have enough time to ripen before the frost hits.

The true showstopper for September has been the old apple tree. It was already here at the house when we moved in, and I don’t know what kind it is, but this is the most productive it has ever been. Currently at 70 pounds of apples, and there are still more on the tree!

I’ve been getting between 3-5 pounds of drops each day, not counting the ones that are rotten or which get munched on by the local deer. I’ve made applesauce and crisp and have given a bunch away to friends as well.

10 pounds of apples in a garden plant pot, harvested before the most recent rain storm hit. Two of the four younger apple trees also produced this year. I harvested 2 pounds off the Cortland tree and 10 pounds off the Liberty tree. Haven’t gotten any fruit yet off the Honeycrisp or Cox Pippin.

As of the end of September, I am up to 285 pounds of produce harvested from the garden this season!! That’s the most I’ve ever grown by weight.