Nearing The End

The title of this post was initially in reference to the gardening season (harvest-wise) but then I realized that it's almost the end of the calender year too. That means that would be another full year of daily blogging. Whoa. It's time to think about the plan for the upcoming year.

I don't think blogging every day is going to be realistic, it's been a heavy struggle for me yet again, but I really regretted not documenting more from the year between the daily ramblings. I may take more of a bi-weekly approach to lessen the burden while still keeping myself accountable. We'll see how I feel when the time comes. :)

The harvest season is coming to a close whether I like it or not because of the high pathetic-levels of the garden this year. I highly doubt I will be nearly as ambitious next year. Especially with the tightening of our budget. Saving what survives during the winter, especially the peppers that I started from fruits from my mom, is going to be next season's priority.

Pulled the pots out of the garden area yesterday while the SO was spraying the house for bugs. Here is the view of the plants since it's been a while. Pre-trimming, of course. It gets worse.

 Tomatoes with fruit that's been sitting on the vine because I haven't had the heart to harvest them. They just look so pretty and we're not using them right now!

 That newer Basil is just as high as Hufflepuff. Ridiculousness.

The empty space is reminiscent of earlier days. Still love rearranging... anything and everything, lol.

Then, I went about trimming off the dead plant matter because it wasn't even protecting the trunk/ stems. Also fed the trees that were going to survive the winter and watered everyone. Found some stubborn surprises along the way too.

 This guy did not want to leave or let go of this tomato branch. I didn't see him until I was about to trim of this particular piece and it was a few inches from my face: Hello there, you!

 Didn't see this little guy for the longest time either. The Basil flowers attract things like flies so I guess it's good hunting here.

  Most uneventful Mortal Kombat event ever. Still funny as heck watching them stay stock-still while upside-down.

Here are the results of trimming and replacing the pots back into the garden area again. Moved Hogwarts to the left again because the tomatoes are nearly done and I'm not as worried about them getting too much sun or blown over anymore.

 Jalapenos are on the left and back, Better Boy tomatoes are towards the middle and back, Serranos are front and left, and Cherry tomatoes on the right.

 Can you tell who the next quail visit is going to be and who has been recently ravaged? Yup. Sigh.

 You can barely see the tomatoes now. Better Boy #1 finally has its first fruit, Better Boy #2 is next to it now with its fruits are weighing branches down, and Cherry tomato is trucking along.

Look at all of these empty pots. I decided that the Basils and Thyme were finally done. The only herbs left are what is left of the Chives and Oregano.

Here's the Strawberry plant after winding, I'm not sure how it's doing. It's lost a lot of decent-sized branches and there are baby leaves, but they seem to have stagnated. Haven't seen any new fruit since the initial batch when I first bought it. :(

 Here are the Jalapenos. Still hardly any leaves, but I'm keeping them in the back row because there's latest batch of fruits are looking like normal peppers.

 Here are the Serranos who keep producing peppers that are weighing down their thin branches.

At the last moment, I half rigged up this cover in a lame attempt to keep out the dang birds. Yeah... I'm still working on it.

UPDATE: 

Day 3: I'm grateful for the my modest potted garden. It's been a super rough year but my plants never gave up. They look as sad as they have ever been, but they hung in there and that's all that matters. I aspire to take on more of their attitude within my own life. The outcome doesn't have to be ideal- it just has to be done.