Look what was protecting my giant ear of sweet corn! This dude was a little scarey looking… I went to grab at the ear of corn and I almost grabbed this praying mantis! Yikes! I’m not a big bug fan, but he was pretty cool looking. He? She? Not sure…

I can’t believe the amount of bugs and wildlife that planting a bunch of gardens has brought in around the moby! I think it’s a good sign. I didn’t use any pesticides or chemicals this year. The only thing we used was the garlic mosquito spray and I have to say, that stuff was pretty effective. We had to apply it a couple times in the early spring, and first of summer, but after that, we only did it one more time. And we have not had bad mosquitoes this year. Really effective and safe for most other critters and all. Highly recommend that stuff… Mosquito Barrier.

It’s been getting pretty cold at night. Once or twice I had to turn on the furnace.., just to take the edge off the cold. And the plants are definitely starting to look a little weary. Corn is drying out, and most of the tomato plants are droping leaves and turning yellow. Most of the big tomatoes are done and ripe… there are a few left that I’m just letting finish. They might make it… they might not.

After all, we are only a week from October. The sunflowers on the south side are finishing up as well. I might give them a few more days and then I’ll cut the heads and the stalks and through it all in the compost pile to work on over the winter. I’m wondering it the stalks will decompose very well. I might get a little box of compost booster to work on my pile. It’s sort of doing okay… but seems a little leggy and all. I suppose maybe I should be chopping the stuff up more, but well, I’m kind of a lazy composter! I will be pulling all the tomato and pepper plants, but I plan on using my corn stalks for decoration!!! How cool is that?

Since the stalks are drying out and turning brown, I figured it was time to start harvesting some of the corn. I picked ten little ears and I must say, most of them were pretty little. I’m not really sure why, it’s going to be some of my late night reading I think before bed. They might as been a little too close together? Or just too late in the season and all… not enough rain? Gardening is more than just a seed in the ground and poof, harvest in 90 days! Lots of variables for sure!

Doing pretty good though… up to 72 pounds of produce from the gardens. Still got carrots, broccoli, more tomatoes and corn as well as a few late peppers trying to finish up. We MIGHT make it to 100 pounds!!! Especially if I count all the sunflower heads. We’re drying out the north side flower heads, though we have a squirrel thief that is wrecking havoc with our drying process…. but there are like 4 times as many big head on the southside! I was actually thinking of making a drying screen rack for them…. like two old window screens and bungy cording them together with all the heads inbetween? So we can lay then out in the sun, but not have all the varmits eat them raw.

Well, I husked the corn… and it’s more suited for the Green Giant’s nibblets bags than any state fair winners, but I don’t care. It was awesome… straight from the garden into the hot pot for a dinner of sweet corn from the garden and a grilled cheese sandwich! Pretty simple, but super rewarding. They say if you can get it into a hot pot within 30 minutes of picking, the sugars in the corn don’t convert to starch and you get some of the best sweet corn around. I do declare, they are right. It was delicious!

There are probably another 20 or 30 heads left. We’ll pick some more over the next week and see how it goes!!! I had to take a video of the biggest ear and it’s unveiling. And of course, some silly Gypsy footage of her obsession with fetching her icky stick. Hope you enjoy it!

It was a perfect Sunday afternoon…. some garden harvesting, a little time with the dog, and some hammock resting with the kitties. Pretty decent afternoon if you ask me.

Going to make stewed tomatoes in the crock pot and freeze them I think… I have a lot of tomatoes for the effort! Got a cool recipe I’d like to try, it seems really easy and a great way to use up some of the harvest for soups and meats later in the year.

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