Well I thought in September I'd be writing about taking down my garden, but that is not the case! Not only is my garden still producing, I've even attempted to start some new carrot, spinach, iceberg, and romaine lettuce plants. Squirrels dug up some of the spinach, but everything else seems to be doing quite well! As for the rest of the garden...- My gourds are out of control, now going around and in front of the box, up the fence, and even into the neighbors yard! They say they don't mind, but I'm guessing I may need to go over and do some pruning soon...
- there is a green pepper growing on my pepper plants that didn't do too well this summer, as well as a bunch of buds, so I may just have a late green pepper harvest,
- I just got another giant zucchini for yet another round of zucchini bread (the kids and I never tire of it!),
- there are two summer squash in the making, even with a plant fighting against powdery mildew (all the squash, gourd, and cucumber plants have it - cukes are about done)
- the Roma grape tomatoes are never-ending (I must pick 5-7 of them a day),
- all of the other tomato varieties (there are three other plants are still producing except the grapes - I didn't care for them and the plant seemed to be dead anyway so I pulled it
- there is a whole new crop of jalapenos - at least 30 of them between the two plants, and the same with the cayenne peppers,
- the hyacinth bean vine looks beautiful even if I don't care for the taste of the pods (but Cameron eats them right off the plant),
- basil is full and tastes great,
- rosemary is beyond hardy and has grown right through the prolific squash/gourd vines that are taking over box #1,
- popcorn has been harvested and is drying in the kitchen (along with about 20 cayenne peppers)
- I'm leaving the corn stalks in the ground to dry and to protect my new little seedlings from the hot end-of-summer sun
- and dill pickles are ready to eat!
It wasn't all a beautiful harvest, though. We did have some problems. We had (have) the powdery mildew that I mentioned earlier. I've been treating it with an organic copper spray which hasn't cleared it up, but must be doing something because there is still a ton of growth on the plants that are affected by it (besides the cucumbers).
There were a LOT of bugs in the corn - little black ones that got in the top, worms that were eating like crazy from the inside, and even a grasshopper that I caught to show the kids, but he escaped. Unfortunately we weren't able to enjoy the corn this year, but hopefully next year I'll be more proactive. We actually got about 8 really good ears of corn before the bugs got to it, but it had a terrible texture. It must have cross pollinated with the popcorn, which I guess is easy to do. Next time I'll remember to keep some distance between the two!
The squash type plants also are infested with some type of worm - I've seen the evidence in the stalks, but haven't caught the little bugger(s) in action. However, it seems that maybe because the plants were so strong by the time they were invaded that the worms haven't killed them. I'm probably not getting as many veggies because of them, but we're still getting some, so I'm ok with it.
On a side note, I found a peanut plant in one of my boxes - planted by a squirrel no doubt! I'm going to look into what it would take to grow them next year - another gardening adventure :)
No comments:
Post a Comment