End of September garden with surprises

I spent a few peaceful hours in the garden this afternoon. The only sound was crickets and the occasional soft cluck of a chicken. There’s a definite fall feeling – not sad – but part of a cycle that recurs. I feel like I wasn’t as aware of the plants in their prime as I could have been, and now they’re past. But there are many still going. I’ll try to pay more attention.

I removed the cucumber vines from the trellis and composted them. There were five remaining cucumbers of various sizes to harvest. There are still beans on the other side of the trellis and some kale at the back.

The red “greens” above are Rainbow Tatsoi. It had a rough start, got eaten by flea beetle, but it’s come back strong. It tastes great. I’ll try to grow it again.

The greens below belong to a surprise volunteer radicchio. I grew them in this spot last fall/winter, and some lasted until spring. But I didn’t expect to see one pop up this fall. Kind of amazing. From a seed? A new seed or an old seed? And how did it know to come up now? I can only wonder.

There are still beets to harvest. They look nice and healthy.

And a few more surprises. This seedhead was perched on a pumpkin leaf. I have no idea what plant produced this, or why it was so neatly placed on the leaf. Its form is fascinating.

And here’s a ground cherry where the husk has decayed to leave a delicate skeletal form exposing the berry inside. Some of the husks get skeletal like this, others don’t. Most of the skeletal husks I found had no berry inside, or just a rudimentary one. Ground cherries are mysterious to me. I never encountered them before we moved to Maine, but they are popular here. Often available in farmer’s markets. They are fun to grow. Mostly valuable for snacking because each one has to be opened individually. A little burst of flavor.

I took down a lot of strings that were holding up tomato vines. And pulled up dead vines. Any tomato that showed a bit of color was added to this pile to be taken inside, where they seem to be ripening quickly. There are still a number of green ones left on the vines.

And a final surprise. This snapdragon. A volunteer. I don’t know where it came from. I’ve never grown them. It must have come in with a purchased seedling? Or got into a seed packet through random accident? It is at its peak, really. Stunning. Such a blessing that I didn’t pull it up when weeding.

I was so mesmerized by the snapdragon that I had to take a closeup.