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The garden has yielded so little this summer I have been canning one quart jar of tomatoes at a time. What a hassle.
Same with the dill pickles but I must do it or my adult children will be disappointed. They even drink the pickle juice when all the goodies inside are gone!
My huge watermelon split on the vine - irregular watering and maybe too much on my part - still have 5 more growing though.
Lots of green bean blossoms so hoping for the best.
I will be putting in my fall broccoli this afternoon.
Still and all it has been fun - my flower beds are still producing bounteous lettuces - I share a lot with my chickens. :)
Good Morning. Plenty of zucchini and tomatoes. I cannot seem to catch the zukes before they are giant, but I’ve managed to find homes for them all. I harvested one watermelon, but I haven’t tasted it yet. I also have lots of cucumbers, but after the first bitter one I’m afraid to taste them. They may all be a loss.
Over cuked here! LOL! It’s going to be pickle city here this weekend... More rain last night with more on the way here in northern mid West. The tomato leaves are getting a bit yellow in the lower end rows, but the rest of the garden doing great.
Good morning. Lovely day in eastern Virginia, although we do have air quality warnings out. There is a huge wildfire in the Great Dismal Swamp, which straddles the VA/NC border. Even 150 miles (or so ) north of it, we are aware of the smoke.
Hundreds of green tomatoes FINALLY starting to ripen...wife and I made our first batch of ‘Purple Haze Salsa’ a few days back...NOM-alicious!
Still waiting on tomatoes to color up. Some have, and I’ve made a tiny amount of sauce, but I’d so rather just do a big batch. Some of the plants, all the same variety, are rotting from the blossom end. I think we have four of those plants - 1/3 of our “crop”. Roma-but I’d have to double check that. Lovely plants, loaded with tomatoes - go rotten.
Hubby got lots of basil last night and made his pesto - about a quart. He said his oregano has no flavor. Fennel is still struggling along. Rabbits.
One pumpkin is orange, four or five others are all still green, which is fine. I just wish we had gotten seeds for a larger variety.
Once again our “leeks” appear to have kept the Japanese beetles at bay. I have no idea what variety they are, so we leave some to winter over to make sure we have them again.
I have decided that I do not care for “bush” style green beans, although they are now producing nicely (only three that the rabbits left me) so next year it’s back to the pole beans.
Cucumbers are very good, but about half the volume I had expected and hoped for. Three pints of canned pickles and one quart of refrigerator pickles. Picking more today to make relish.
Six acorn squash. A couple of cantaloupes. Various peppers. One cabbage looks viable. Potatoes. Small row of carrots-about another month or so on those. They take forever here.
I have finally convinced my husband to PLAN the garden next year. He likes to just stick things in the ground haphazardly. He forgets that they GROW bigger. Bless him. It makes weeding a nightmare. I did stake out a small 1/4 of the garden before he got there, and my patch is nice and sensible. And weeded.
I had three watermelons that are getting heavy enough that I had to make little “melon bras” for them this week. My green beans are slowing down, but my cucumbers are picking up, and the raspberries are ripening a few a day, just enough to nibble while I work. Same with the sweet peas.
My tomatoes still seem stunted. Only one has any green tomatoes on it, and those haven’t gotten any bigger since last week. I might try pinching off one of the green ones, that trick worked on the zucchinnis.
So far, produce has been really small this year. I finally picked one ripe tomato and a cantaloupe yesterday. Got a mess of corn a little over a week ago.
Hubby has had some cukes and vine peaches. The late corn looks promising. It doesn't look like we will get any walnuts or butternuts this year. We had plenty last year, so we still have some vacuum packed in the freezer.
Next month, I will start the winter garden of lettuce, onions, spinach, and carrots. Hard to believe the summer is almost over.
Have a great weekend, and God bless.
Happy gardening (or in my case, weeding)!
The wheat & barley have been threshed and winnowed, and seed saved out for next spring; and the potato rows tilled for planting winter wheat next month.
Other than jalapenos, not much in the way of peppers; same for tomatoes, other than ‘yellow pear’.
We do have some nice melons starting to ripen; and got about 8 jars of pickles...so far; more cukes coming. Beans are coming along well, except no Limas yet.
Two days ago, I clipped wings, and put a trio of hens, and a cockerel in the garden; showed them the water, and watched them for a while. When we went out after dinner to get them and take them back to the hen house, they were gone without a trace. late yesterday afternoon, they showed up, to watch me working on the tractor. It was a merry chase that finally ended with all 4 back in the coop.
This morning, we woke up to find cows in the front yard! They had managed to ruin the heavy stirrup of the cyclone-fence gate latch, bending it nearly 90 degrees to get in. Totaled the sunflowers, and smashed down all the iris, and broke 3 of the solar lights along the walk, as well as trampling or eating most of the other flowers. Oh, well; at least they pay the property taxes for us...and it wasn't the garden they wrecked. Most of the plants are perennials, and will come back next year; and the iris were ready to be cut back, as well.
In Oregon, it was deer and a bear that took out the iris a couple of times; and a bear wrecked the chicken yard fence once. Here, it's cows.
Never a dull moment!
Hi, Red!
I am SO SORRY that I haven’t been around all that much! Between my uber-time-consuming job, and my SECOND job and my garden & farm chores & taking care of my Dad & my new Beau *BLUSH* (He’s the ‘boy’ version of me...FINALLY!) I’ve been a LITTLE busy this season!
My garden has literally EXPLODED. We put up 8.5 GALLONS of Sweet Corn last week. Today I’m tackling the green & yellow beans and Mom is coming out to help me this afternoon. Maybe some Bread & Butter pickles today, too, if I can hold up, LOL! Next week it will be processing the tomatoes. And then?
I QUIT! LOL!
Nah. Never say die! Fall crops will be going in; beets, lettuces, spinach and chard to name a few. I’ll be adding a garlic bed this early fall, and I’m going to ask Beau to till up a row somewhere for me that’ll be spring bulbs (tulips & daffs) for bouquets come spring....Hope Springs Eternal!
My peach trees have given me a bounty this season, but I think ‘The Girls’ are on their last legs as they are 10 years old now, and peach trees in the north don’t last forever...
Wonder where I’ll EVER get new ones? *SMIRK*
http://www.jungseed.com (Yes. Shameless plug for my company; keep me employed!)
Work has been steady/slow. Still a tad behind last year, but all things considered in this economy, I think we’ll all be keeping our jobs. Thank You, God! :)
Fall sales will pick up again when it cools off (we’ve had a REALLY hot summer...) We now have Mums & Asters at our garden centers, so Y’all Come! :)
Several plants have just died since January. I have lost 2 Rose of Sharon and a Wisteria. One of my figs yellowed and lost all of it's leaves last month. This morning, I noticed a Japanese Loquat that has dried out. This problem seems to be very selective and destructive. The Rose of Sharon started sprouting new leaves, then they dried out after a watering and died. They broke off when bent, as if they had been dead for quite some time. The wisteria, which was growing strong for the past 5 years was rotted away at the lower trunk. The fig is slowly sprouting new leaves. Neighboring figs are unaffected.
The plants are in a small area, approxiamtely 20' in diameter. I initially thought that lime was leaching from the concrete of the pad of the house, but that wouldn't account for the growth (house was built in 2006. Plants were put in the ground that year). The soil is naturally high pH. Manure was added around the loquat and fig this year, but not around the Rose of Sharon or Wisteria. The same manure was used around the veggie garden without problems. If I didn't know better, I could swear that an herbicide was at work, but I don't use them, and other plants continue to thrive in the same area.
Any idea's? Fungus?