October slid in, still warm during the day, but only for a few hours in the middle of the day. Tolerable heat. Some days in the 60s, which feel so good. The first frost came early. We had multiple light frosts before the month ended. But none truly were killing frosts. The Basil survived them, even without being covered.
The sweet potatoes keep growing, taking over an entire bed.
They finally put on flowers, and the tiny ants love the nectar inside.
One of the back beds randomly grew a cilantro plant that seeded itself. In it, I added a second Mountain Mint and an allium plant. Both are native plants and will grow next year to fill the bed.
The hardneck garlic is the second fall I have planted it. It grew well this year.
We got the garlic in ground before the first frost, in the second week.
For the first two weeks, I harvested peppers almost daily. They had produced heavily this year.
And more. I pulled the plants the day before the first frost.
Little Gem lettuce.
Beets, which I harvested before the frost.
I started taking down decor and tucking it away for the season. The little greenhouse needed a bit of color.
Late season strawberry starts that I hope make it through the winter.
A few more starts.
Temps in the mid-month.
Vivid Swiss Chard.
I harvested a bunch of the Eucalyptus and dried it.
The flowers are loving it.
They have all come back, and some even stronger than in spring.
Blueberry leaves in fall mode.
Nasturtiums.
The delicate Italian Basil didn’t die during the frosts, but some got cold-singed on the tips. The flowers keep coming, and the native pollinators cover the plants.
Fall comes; leaves start falling.
The last Sage flowered. Very, very far behind schedule but October has been stunning for it.
Some of the lawn bulbs decided to show again, and really shined.
Randomly seeded Borage – it grew fast and put on flowers quickly.
We got the tail end of the Hurricane, as it came up the East Coast. A lot of rain: 2″ in 24 hours
The final buttery yellow rose blooms stopped around the 3rd week.
Mid-month rains brought fungi all across our land.
The weather was all over mid-month, into the 3rd week.
That single sweet poato was over 4 pounds!
Apparently I can grow sweet potaotes here that are crazy big.
Freezing? Sure.
But also, it might get hot.
Then back to cold.
The lettuce stayed covered with frost fabric that week.
The Passionfruit flowers finally slowed down by the start of the 4th week.
This tiny fuchsia hasn’t grown super well this year, but it did produce flowers. I think it is just too hot here. In Washington State, I would grow massive baskets with barely any effort.
More borage flowers.
While the Goji bush/tree grew very well, it did almost nothing for flowers all year. Until I realized….the flowers are very tiny. Suddenly the bush was covered with fall berries.
You have to lift up the branches to see most of the berries.
Raw Goji berries are not exactly tasty. They remind the mouth of the most unripe green tomato. Very unpleasant.
The hardy basil plants keep going. Covered in pollinators all day.
The fall carrots have been coming in nicely.
And as the month ended, the leaves truly popped.
~Sarah