A few end of August happenings

The tomatoes are still producing, there are plenty of green ones out there that have plenty of time to ripen. I have lost probably 6 or more tomato plants so far, and probably about 6 healthy ones remain and a few not so healthy ones. The cherry tomatoes all seem to be doing just fine! They are coming out my ears. Can you see them? 

My big green squash patch has turned brown and flat with a few vines still surviving around the outside edge of the patch, but covered in powdery mildew. Hope to keep them surviving long enough to turn the pumpkins orange! There are 5 sugar pumpkins and one Dill's Atlantic Giant. As for other winter squash, nothing. I got one Carnival squash and something happened because it was the worst chemically tasting thing I had EVER tasted! Strait to the garbage!  Blech!

Do you see that? I am getting summer squash!!!!! YaY!!! There are 2 there almost ready! Pumpkin Zucchini bread is in the foreseeable future! Mmmmmm!

Aren't these pretty! Sweet Potato Flowers. Only 2 in the whole patch but they are pretty!

ooohh!

The Dills Atlantic Giant doing good! Trying to keep the squash bugs from eating it!

Do you know what this is? The squirrels went after these after the corn was demolished. Yep, all the sunflowers were beheaded! I was going to try to save seeds, but they got to them first! Ah, oh well. Not as disappointed about this as the corn!

Lettuce seeds. "Peanut" butter crunch. (my daughters name for it)

This is the largest of the sugar pumpkins. One of them is showing a hint of orange! Not too long!

The peas seem to be doing well.

They look healthy.

But, the beans I had planted disappeared!  Not a sign of them insight. Too late to try again! Next year!

Those are just a few things happening around the garden this end of August! Still looking good. Just need to try to keep up with the watering better. It is super dry out there! I've slacked on that the past couple of weeks. Adjusting to a new schedule with the kids catching the bus, well, let's just say I am NOT a morning person!

Happy Gardening!

Harvest Monday 8/29-Don't steal my popcorn!

I am getting way more MWC tomatoes than I can use! The bush is out of control. Time to start pawning them off on friends, neighbors and coworkers! ;)

Decided to make a pizza with mushrooms and chard on it. Yummy! It was good and it is nice when the kids ask for seconds! Also picked the Carnival squash. I had photographed this in an earlier post when it was all white thinking it was the white acorn, but it turned out it was the Carnival. There are no White acorns producing :(   This is the only Carnival.

Do you see what I mean about the MWC's? My first Cantaloupe! Cherokee purples are starting to ripen again! I am getting enough beans to freeze a bag or two here and there! And there are plenty more out there ripening!

Hate to pick the first bell pepper and find this! There are three more of these though! Hopefully no holes. This pepper plant is not doing as well as last year! :(  Isn't that a nice cantaloupe? My first decent sized one in 4 years! There are two more out there!

I came out this morning to find that the squirrels had found my popcorn. I found  a few piles like this and all the ones along the fence gone! The popcorn was doing so well!

Sadly, this is all the squirrels left for me. But we will still enjoy it! It will finish drying in the garage. Some of it is dry and some is not quite there yet.

Head on over to Daphne's Dandelions to see what others are harvesting this week all around the world!

Harvest Monday 8-22

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions for some harvest fun!

I could always use a little more Time...uh, Thyme! ;)  Rosemary sprigs, basil sprig, MWC tomatoes, Black Cherry Tomatoes, Royal Burgundy Beans, Dragon Tongue Beans (young), Yellow Wax, and Providor Bush Green Beans.

Cabernet Onions, MWC tomatoes, Royal Burgundy Beans, Yellow wax, and who knows which tomato this is...

More beans, a few more dried Taylor Dwarf Horticultural (AKA 'Cranberry'), more tomatoes, and two orange sweet peppers. One of them has sun scald because I removed a plant that was keeping it shaded! It happened fast! It was still eaten after I cut the spot off. The kids love these little sweet peppers!

Arkansas Traveler tomatoes, cherry, MWC, Black Cherry, and more beans. I'll be sending some of these purple beans to school with my girl for a snack! She could teach a few kids a thing or two about healthy eating! I'm proud of her!

My one and only tiny zucchini that I got after the SVBS completely severed the plant after eating their way through it! Good grief they are devastating this year along with the squash bugs. I have pulled so many plants without getting a thing out of them! I am gonna do a trap crop this year and burn those squash buggers!  My daughter thought the zucchini was cute so she wanted it. I sauteed it up for her and my son and they gobbled it down. This is the 3rd sweet orange pepper with many more to come! I was slow getting them going this year.

Tomatoes, and beans. The next round of beans is starting to come in good. Hope they don't get destroyed by bean beetles like the first crop did. I didn't get nearly as many as I did last year out of the same amount of plants.

Surpirse!

I tried planting Goldie Husk ground cherries. I did, really! And I was surprised the other day to find that it was not a dream!

Look! They are real! It is a small plant and there are very few, but it is there!

The lonely plant was found amongst the Nasturtium and beans in the Parsnip bed! I had no idea it was there! I have paid little attention to the parsnip bed because I know I will not be looking at them until after the first frost. I'm trying not to baby them! So I was very happy and surprised to see this growing in there! Even if it is small and bug eaten!

I was NOT happy to find this surprise ALL OVER one of my beautiful mums! Every branch is covered. I sprayed with Neem last night and will probably start spraying with a hard spray of water in a couple of days after the Neem has had it's chance to work. Buggers! They better not ruin my mums!

Red Sails Lettuce seedlings. Figure I better get a pic of them now before they get big enough for the bunnies to eat! They are along the borders of the front flower beds! I don't know what I was thinking!

The last chance summer squash and cucumbers planted away from the main garden are doing well for now! I have been keeping a close eye on them for borer eggs and squash bugs and cucumber beetles. Yesterday I got one teeny tiny little zucchini from the main garden, the plant was completely severed by the svb's eating through the main stem! These plants though appear to be getting ready to set some fruits! Come on cucumbers and squash! I can't go a whole season with none!

Planting the Fall Garden

I have almost finished planting the fall garden. I might be a little late, but I think I will still get some things!

Peas and short season beans are planted here. This was one of the corn beds. I pulled the corn, dug, layered it with newspaper and added compost to the top. Ready for some seedlings to pop up!

Another corn bed that was surrounded with beans. Dug it up, amended and put in Broccoli

The other corn bed, dug up, amended and Cauliflower was planted.

I planted stuff all over the yard, wherever I could squeeze it in! Broccoli in the flower bed. I also planted spinach seeds in this bed.

I planted a bunch of lettuce randomly around the yard as well. I put some Red Sails along the borders of the front flower beds thinking it would look pretty. Then my husband reminded me of the bunny problem. He said I'll just be feeding the bunnies! Uhg! I think one already ate one of my broccoli seedlings.

I also had some empty squares in my beds that I planted some Pak Choi/Bak Choi in. So nice to get a fresh start in the garden. I just hope the bugs slow down soon! Think I'll make some more hot pepper spray. It seemed to help the beans!

I am getting some watermelons! I hope they all have time to mature cause there seems to be several setting that appear to have been pollinated! Woo hoo! I have never been successful with watermelons!

 I also killed the one big carving pumpkin out there! The squash bugs were chewing the heck out of it and I tried to turn it a bit to look at it and it broke off. It must have been on it's way down hill anyway. It is however setting another. Since it isn't a pumpkin we will be eating, I think I may put some sevin on just the pumpkin itself (not the vine) just to keep the bugs from eating it! Don't know what else to do. Boogers!

Harvest Monday 8-15

It's harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions! Go check out the harvests! There's always something there to tempt you!

The acorn squash in here is the one that had a little twin. The little twin died and there is only a spot left there on this one next to the stem where it was. Too bad, that would have looked cool. Also got the first yellow pepper, but it appears to have had a little BER. And my little helper tried to take a bite out of it in the garden, you can see the indentation of his mouth! His favorite color is yellow! Yellow pepper! Yum!

Carrots, tomatoes, beans and one lonely radish I gave away. Those green tomatoes were picked by my happy pickin little helper! In my frustration, he says, "I helpin, mommy!"

pile of chard and yes it is riddle with bug holes. Nobody will notice after it is washed and cooked down.

I have only found a couple of these thank goodness, but geesh, I cold really do without borers! They are bad enough in the squash!

Probably the last of the decent sweet corn this week. And, Wednesday was the twins first day of kindergarten, and my sweet dh sent ME flowers!

Slowly addling a few dragon tongue beans to the stash.

Emptied out one of the potato tubs. Not much in it. They didn't do well for me. It was a learning experience. Hopefully I will do better next year, that is the great thing about gardening!

Basil, tomatoes and beans.

Ity bity frogs, tree like plants, and seeds

Out in the garden picking a few things this morning, I noticed a tiny frog here...

And here...

and here....

And here!

little ity bity frog hanging out in the raspberries (riddled with holes from the stinking Japanese Beetles!)

My little one got a kick out of this one. We picked him up and he wanted to hold it but then pulled his hand back and laughed.

I do wonder what these little ity bity frogs are doing for my garden. They are so small!

In the spring I had planted two Matt's Wild Cherry tomato plants here in the end of this bed. One got uprooted by a critter digging around in my beds, and at this point, I am glad because this plant here is crazy! And still growing!

I have started doing a bit of seed saving here and there. So far I have gotten some Black Cherry Tomato seeds, Coriander, and this is just a small bit of it. Providor Bush beans and Taylor Dwarf Horticultural, but I may just use those as dry beans because I still have plenty of seeds left.

Some other things I plan to save seeds for this year are, Cherokee Purple Tomato, Brandywine, Ruby Queen Corn, Sunflowers, the lettuce is just about ready, more beans, a variety of squashes and pumpkins, and we'll see what else! I try to learn how to save something new every year. Especially for stuff I really like! It is easier than I ever thought it was. What kind of seeds are you saving this year?