I Forgot the Clever Title I Had Here--A Trailer Park Homestead update

I woke up this afternoon (the rain and the kids let me sleep in.  Yay!) and discovered Blogger seems to have eaten today's post!  So here is take two. 

Every week at this point, I'm wondering if it will be my last gardening outside for the year.  I'm already preparing to transition indoors, like these carrots in a container hint at

I'm trying to keep things outside as long as possible though, since veggie plants don't tend to do so well without water and I'm horrible about watering plants.  Things are starting to look pretty sad out there, though and we could have a hard freeze any day now, to take that choice away from me.

Here's what's still growing on at the Trailer Park Homestead:

Wide shot of the front garden area doesn't look so bad...

and it isn't all bad.  The pepper plants are still producing, in addition to the calendula flowers and violet foliage, but...

the tomatoes look horrible, more like the fruits on a string rather than an actual plants.  Leaf spot has taken out most of the leaves, but still they hang on!  I'm going to let these bad boys go as long as I can!  Next tomato season is too far away!

Those obnoxious little green caterpillars really did a number on the rutabaga the other day.  The plants were fine one day, just a few little holes, then the next time we walked by, just a couple days later, this is what we found.  I did a double take as I walked by, then stopped to squish.  The kids and I found close to 100 caterpillars, and there are only about 8 plants there!

While no one plant looks particularly sad in the back raised bed, it is beginning to look rather picked over as we harvest carrots as we need them from this area.