Today when I went outside it was with the intention of clearing out my vegetable garden beds. I usually do that this time of year, but they were not ready for it this time. The bell peppers are still growing as shown in the first picture top left. The next picture shows that these pepper plants are still getting blooms. I had picked every pepper on them when we had our frost warning. Now besides this pepper that is about ready to pick there are several babies of various sizes on these plants.
Next, I checked on the tomatoes and, as you can see, there are more tomatoes since I picked them last. The one in the picture is the largest that I could see, but there were several of them. We are just having an extended growing season with beautiful weather. Same thing with my red lettuce. I left just one to go to seed for next year. Today it finally bloomed, which means it will go to seed soon. Usually I would have had my seeds and cleared this bed.
Last but not least, my peppermint garden. I started pulling up all the old stems a couple weeks ago, finishing the end of last week. I have Irises growing in the back, which bloom before the mint gets very tall in the spring. The blooms are lavender and have beautiful large blooms. One of my cousins donated them when we first moved here. They have spread all down the side of the house and I have thinned and shared bulbs with several people since then. This time of year, after the mint is thinned out, new growth starts and is perfect for harvesting and drying for tea in the winter. Since I don’t have to clear my garden beds yet, I may start on that this week.