Canning Season is Almost Over

I have started putting away the canning gear. Most of the garden has been ripped out, save eleven hardy Roma tomato plants that are doing their best to ripen the last of the harvest. I've been covering them every night for about 10 days now, although we are having warmer night-time temperatures this week, so I'm not bothering. I don't know know many more tomatoes I'll get that are worth doing anything with. The Celebrity tomato I bought did fabulously, but I ripped it out Saturday because it looked "done." I'm going to plant more Romas and another Celebrity next year for sure. They've both been great producers in my garden.

It's been a good harvest. Every surface that can hold a bottle in my basement has stuff crammed onto it. I have lost track of totals, but I know I've done a fair amount of this and that. I did 7 quarts and 8 pints of applesauce last week. That was so fun. Sticky, juicy, perhaps, but the kitchen smelled so good. The applesauce has a distinctly rosy complexion. I wonder if the bits of Jonathan apple peel that got in there have anything to do with that.

I'm going to try cooking and pureeing a bit of pumpkin to freeze next. Everything I read online said to not even try to can it because getting the right amount of acid per batch is very unpredictable. So I'll just freeze some for ready use. My deep freezer had just better not go out on me!

Things I will do differently next year:
1. I will put the creeping vine things in a different place so I can keep the vines out of my gravel pathways.
2. I will not cram 12 tomato plants into a four-foot square spot. At least, not unless I get taller, more sturdy tomato cages!
3. I will not plant yellow zucchini/summer squash. At least, maybe only 1 seed instead of the two hills I planted. Talk about squash overkill.
4. I will figure out an easier watering system than all by hand.
5. I will not bother putting vegetable plants in a wooden garden box. They don't stay moist enough and they don't thrive like the ones in the ground do. And I don't think I'll bother with trying upside-down tomato plants either. The ice cream buckets worked much better than the milk jug, but they were too far from my other vegetables to get regular watering and they just didn't thrive.
6. I will start my pepper seeds earlier.
7. I would like to try doing a cold frame on a box or two to get the summer plants going sooner. And I really will try using my wall-o-waters.
8. I am GOING to reclaim my raspberry patch. I am just going to.

The mental gears are already turning to figure out things for next year. I love my garden!