I did some much needed clean up this past weekend.
Finally pulled up all the zucchini plants. There were a few tiny ones on the gigantic plant that I thought wouldn’t reach maturity now that the temperatures are starting to cool off. I didn’t realize there was a large one hiding underneath all the leaves until I started breaking them off. A welcome surprise! The plants all snapped at the base when I tried to remove them, leaving the roots deep within the soil. When I tried to remove the the large zucchini’s damaged root (the one destroyed by the squash vine borer), it broke it half and dust and flies came out. A worm also oozed its way out of the stump and back into the soil. It was pretty gross.
I pulled up my eggplants as well. They haven`t done anything for weeks. I did manage to harvest some seeds which I’m really happy about. I picked the seeds out of the pulp using a paring knife and then rinsed them according to the Vegetable Seed Saving Handbook I saved on my Resources page (I only remembered to consult the handbook when I started getting tired of picking out the seeds. They’re so tiny! I did one eggplant and gave up).

From the back: dill (in the bag), nasturtium, calendula, morning glory, eggplant (in the plate), acorn squash, okra, peppers
I saved some morning glory seeds to try growing them in containers next year. I found a site that recommends using a tripod setup for the vines to climb. I thought it was a neat idea. I noticed today that a house on my relatives’ street in Hamilton that had a few pots on the porch with the same design. The plants looked really beautiful.
I couldn’t help but take some pictures of the grasshopper I saw when I was taking down the sunflowers.

You’ll notice there’s a beetle inside the the exposed branch underneath the grasshopper. I wonder if he’s helping to decompose the plant from the inside. It was pretty dry and dusty when I cracked it open.
I managed to give myself a few good scratches from this rusty support. I’m going to tell my uncle to discard it. It’s not safe.
I tried to dispose of all the normally decomposing plants in the compost and the ones that may have had some disease or infestation I separated out as garden waste. It’s a tough call to determine what should go where because sometimes I’m not entirely sure what normal decomposition looks like compared to disease. I put the small zucchini and newer leaves of the plant in the compost and saved the older leaves and the root for the garden waste.
I also tried to leave most of the roots in the soil by cutting off the plants at the base. This was suggested by one of my neighbours at the community garden last year. He said the roots were beneficial for the bugs in the soil.
I left the tomatoes because there was no more room in the compost and frankly I couldn’t deal with the mess. I’m hoping that before the fall frost comes around October 6th that some more of them will ripen.
Seeing this parsley in the dandelion pot made me thinking that maybe it’s not too late to get some greens growing before a serious frost kills them off. In fact, I hear some greens taste better after a mild frost. I can probably make good use of the greenhouse once it really starts to get cold.
I put them in the greenhouse today. It’s supposed to dip down to single digits again overnight.