Warmer days and less fog kick-started the red bell pepper plants. These were the first four of the season and there are another half dozen in various colorations. Stuffed green bell peppers are ahead and some will be diced and frozen for winter uses. I can be patient for a week or two as the cauliflower starts need to size up before supplanting the peppers.

Over the last ten days I’ve removed the three dwarf tomato plants and the black cherry. Though the Rosella Purple were often “cat faced,” they echo my favorite tomato, Black Krim. A recap of the “dwarf tomatoes in the fog belt” experiment is coming soon. Capsule summary: we got tomatoes though the months June through September were the cloudiest in four years as measured by our solar panel production.

With the messiness of end-of-season tomatoes and dry beans cleared, I refreshed the beds with compost, organic fertilizer and gypsum in readiness for the second season garden. Premium Crop and Jacaranda broccoli thrive in the bright winter sun and cool winter days. Netting protects the plants from cabbage moths for a few weeks and 40% shade cloth is at hand for hot, dry Santa Ana conditions

We’re still in strawberry guava season with the total harvest at 75 pounds and another 20 percent of the crop to come. That is thousands of guavas. The fruit is larger and more abundant this year likely due to excellent winter rains last season and two inches of rain in August with the tropical cyclone. Yesterday I did guava drops at church (pizza pan) and three pounds or so to a friend’s front porch. If they weren’t so perishable, I’d give to a local food bank.

Click on the square in the lower right corner to expand the guava shake. You can hear them plop down on the trays below the tree. We harvested 15 pounds on the weekend. There appears to be a smaller winter crop coming on as well, guessing around January or February.

Light is everything and late season roses are enchanting. Hot Cocoa and Ambridge.

This is most of the dry bean harvest from a 3 x 4 foot area, drying on the warm stone patio. The reveal comes next week. I may struggle with tomatoes, but my garden in amenable to beans. I doubled the ground devoted to dry beans this year.

October brings the asters and fond recollections of the ones I grew in my Massachusetts garden.

Check the What I’m Planting Now page as I transplant and sow seeds for the cool season garden. Then head today to Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Happy Acres blog and see what garden bloggers around the world harvested last week.

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