Journal of a Gardener

August 20-25, 2008

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:33:24 -0400

August 20-25, 2008:

August 25

Still no rain, and yet we got a bumper harvest today from purple hull peas, limas, green beans and okra. I cut two more butternut squashes. Patty spent much of the afternoon processing Christmas pickles and shelling and freezing peas and limas. I cut our first butternut squash. It had been penetrated by a grub. I was able to cut out damaged part and use the other 90%. Patty micro-waved the two halves for a few minutes – until the flesh was soft to probe. It was sweet. All we added was some butter.

August 24

No visit to the garden today

August 23

We went to the garden in the middle of the afternoon and saw everything looking very wilted in the hot sun. The okra and peas were surprising in their yield. This evening Jeff, my nephew helped me to put some pictures into this journal.

August 22

We had a strong harvest, but still have not had rain since July 31. I made some pictures of the sunflowers and pan shots of the veggies. Then we went to David’s garden and got some big orange cucumbers to use in making Christmas pickles.

August 21

No visit to the garden today

August 20

It was cloudy and cool this morning. We picked okra, tomatoes, peppers, lima beans and green beans. I cut the whole crop of acorn squashes (three hills for a total of 18). Grubs had begun to eat on two of them. I pulled up the vines and hauled them away in the wheelbarrow to the burn pile. Sunflowers and zinnias look great. The Shasta daisies did not germinate and we only got one cosmos plant. I chopped out what was planted as peppermint, but what must have been a weed or catnip. It certainly wasn’t mint as the seed package stated. The stems were square and the leaves looked like mint, but the aroma and taste weren’t right.

Arugula - lettuce with a bite! Good stuff! The grasshopper...

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:53:00 -0400

Arugula - lettuce with a bite! Good stuff! The grasshopper likes it too! - July 30

Looking for D. J.’s monster pumpkins - July 30

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:52:16 -0400

Looking for D. J.’s monster pumpkins - July 30

Granddad getting purple hull peas. See how they stand up on...

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:45:10 -0400

Granddad getting purple hull peas. See how they stand up on stems and turn purple begging to be picked. July 30

Grandkids, D. J. and Patty with another good harvest. July 30

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:21:50 -0400

Grandkids, D. J. and Patty with another good harvest. July 30

We found the zucchinis! July 30

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:19:50 -0400

We found the zucchinis! July 30

These zucchinis are too hard to find. July 30

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:17:53 -0400

These zucchinis are too hard to find. July 30

William getting a cucumber - July 30

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:15:25 -0400

William getting a cucumber - July 30

William, John (clowning), Patty and Hannah with harvest on July...

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:13:00 -0400

William, John (clowning), Patty and Hannah with harvest on July 30

William and Hannah bringing home the harvest July 28

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:10:38 -0400

William and Hannah bringing home the harvest July 28

See the tomatoes we got! - July 28

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:09:28 -0400

See the tomatoes we got! - July 28

Harvest time with grandkids - July 28

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:08:44 -0400

Harvest time with grandkids - July 28

Hannah picking peas and Patty getting green beans - July 28

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:06:53 -0400

Hannah picking peas and Patty getting green beans - July 28

Bumble bee on yellow squash blossom - July 3

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:01:18 -0400

Bumble bee on yellow squash blossom - July 3

Mixed greens, Swiss chard, arugula, summer squash - July 3

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:57:00 -0400

Mixed greens, Swiss chard, arugula, summer squash - July 3

Slow start in June

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:52:36 -0400

Slow start in June

Kentucky Blue pole beans and purple hull peas in early July

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:49:00 -0400

Kentucky Blue pole beans and purple hull peas in early July

Mixed greens at rinsing table - end of June

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:44:00 -0400

Mixed greens at rinsing table - end of June

August 13-18, 2008

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:40:43 -0400

August 13-18, 2008:

August 18

We got the first lima beans today. Patty cooked some for supper and froze a pint. She also canned seven pints of okra and tomatoes. We got okra, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. At our amazement, there was a very good harvest of beans. I cut the first 9 butternut squashes, choosing those that were darker, larger and had stems showing color change to brown instead of green. I also pruned the ends of some of the vines. I am assuming that these two actions will allow the plants to better feed the remaining squashes. There are 35 or 40 more to harvest. The nine that I cut weighed 25 pounds averaging 2 ¾ pounds.

August 17

Day off from garden

August 16

In the afternoon we got okra, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.

August 15

We had a good harvest this morning. I pulled all of the remaining onions (about 50). We brought some home and placed them in a net bag to dry. The greener ones I hung on an improvised rack in the barn. I pulled up the zucchini, yellow and spaghetti squash vines and moved them by wheel barrow to a burn pile fifty yards away in the hopes that I took most of the squash bugs with the vines. The afternoon was cool and dry with a high cloud cover, and so I went back and chopped out some weeds, used the tiller where there was open space and sowed about 100-150 square feet in turnip greens. Now I wait for rain to bring germination. Patty canned seven pints of tomatoes while I was back at the garden.

August 14

No visit to garden today

August 13

We brought home the first three cantaloupes today. The last rain was two weeks ago tonight. The garden is showing the stress, but clay holds moisture well and the foliage is full, so the ground is fully shaded. Somehow the okra, tomatoes, peppers, beans and winter squash keep on producing.

August 6-12, 2008

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 01:32:29 -0400

August 6-12, 2008:

August 12

No visit to the garden today. Everything is slowed down by the lack of water. We have had no rain since July 30-31.

August 11

We had one more cutting of arugula and I dropped some off at Denise’s with some tomatoes and cucumbers. I stopped at Culpepper Place and found lots of tomatoes in heavy foliage. There I saw three cucumbers and took some pictures.

August 10

We did not visit the garden today, but ate lunch at Culpepper Place where a resident had sliced some tomatoes and cucumbers from the raised beds and was sharing them with the tables around her.

August 9

We had a good harvest this morning and Patty canned 10 pints of tomatoes in the afternoon. Patty micro-waved a small spaghetti squash. She cut it in half, removed the seeds, placed the halves open face down in a small amount of water and heated for several minutes. A probe with a fork indicated readiness. We added a little butter. The texture was crisp and the taste was sweet. We took an evening walk in our new neighborhood and found a good gardener a quarter mile away who had an honors veggie stand. We got a small watermelon and a cantaloupe for a dollar each and had a good visit with the grower of this vacant lot garden.

August 8

No visit to the garden today.

August 7

Because the squash bugs are taking out the spaghetti squash vines, I cut the whole crop this morning. Some of the squashes are small and immature. I left as much stem as I could. We got a total of about 25 fruits from the three hills with 8 or 9 plants. I pulled up the vines and pilled them in the middle to avoid scattering the bugs.

August 6

No visit to the garden today.