It's a beautiful life

I just got back from a crazy weekend of sight-seeing with friends and family from Italy. Being thorougly exhausted, I decided to use my half-day of remaining vacation time to ... work in the garden! Of course!

Actually, it was a great, if tiring afternoon. Here's what I accomplished:

1. Weeded around turnips, beets, radishes, carrots, and fennel.
2. Transplanted fennel that was growing too close together (hopefully it survives).
3. Picked eggplants, peppers, radishes, lettuce, and chard.
4. Removed 30 tomato plants and stakes/cages, and carted it all away to the weed/compost pile.
5. Put up some stakes and string to incentivize people from not going into my garden. It's not much of a physical barrier, but I'm hoping it will be a psychological one.

The turnips are getting huge! I forgot how quickly they grow, and now they're blocking the light from the beets. I'll have to replant some beets elsewhere.

Still to do in the garden before winter?

1. Remove basil and make pesto.
2. Remove peppers and eggplants when they're finished producing.
3. Add compost to the areas where I still have to plant.
4. Plant fava beans, carrots, beets, garlic, shallots, and onions.
5. Remove lima beans.
6. Extend the watering system - this can probably wait until spring, if it starts raining anytime soon.

It's going to be a lot of work before I'm done, but I always love how the garden looks when the seasons change, when new sprouts come up and before the real weeding begins.