Graden Buzz, Today's Harvest

It is hard to believe my gardening season is coming to an end, since the melons and winter squash won't be producing things should start winding down soon . Time to start thinking about where to put the cold frame, and what to plant in it. I am thinking Chard and carrots. Speaking of carrots, check out the photos below:

This is the potato/carrot bed back in late June. Going from left to right we have some herbs and a few measly carrots coming up; potatoes; sweet potatoes and my son's sunflower from school in the corner.

Wow have the carrots grown in! Anyone remember how frustrated I was by carrots earlier in the season? LOL, no more! (These photos were taken from inside the garden unlike the one above.)

And here is the gargantuan sunflower and the sweet potato vines, which are reaching over into the now foliage free potato bed. I still have some potatoes in the ground, maybe just over half have been harvested to date. What a change compared to the first photo huh? I find it funny to see the formerly full section empty, and the other two full of green.

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The onions are done. Quite a bit smaller than I was expecting, nothing close to those grocery store sweet onions. Better luck next year I hope! (That is if I decide they are worthy of their garden space.)

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I pulled 4 carrots up- here they are below in order. Finally, a winner!!!

I found a few more lovely carrots in the 'carrot jungle', along with lots of tomatoes, a large zuke, a couple cukes, some chili peppers and another super-tasty Carmen sweet pepper, and a handful of beans the beetles didn't beat me to. Oh, and some basil,.........

....and the first Red Cloud potato harvest!

Very exciting stuff here folks!

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On to the garden buzz:

The Orb spiders have taken over my garden. It is getting tricky to pick around their webs.

I always have the urge to rub their cute, fuzzy, bumble buts, however after doing this once as a kid I now resist said urge.

My little man's sunflower is in full bloom, it's gorgeous!

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Lastly, some pictures of what Late Blight looks like on a tomato plant:

These are two affected leaves from the top.

The tell-tale powdery underside of the water stained looking lesions:

I ultimately decided not to spray for blight since removing affected leaves by hand seems to be keeping it in check. It is of coarse continuing to spread, but at a controllable rate. Eventually this will change and the whole lot will require immediate disposal.

The SVB are slowly destroying my precious squash. The fruit is shriveling and rotting right off the vine. Very sad. I took some pictures but find it too depressing to look at. Also very sad is the fact that my female muskmelon flowers continue to rot instead of forming fruit. The bumble bee pictured above was on a blossom, so lack of pollination shouldn't be the culprit. Maybe there is some disease that causes this that I am unaware of??

I ripped out most of the cucumber plants and bolting lettuce today. The beets I sowed along with the carrots many weeks back have failed to germinate. That or I pulled them thinking they were weeds. Anything is possible. 8) I am very curious to see what comes home with me from the CSA today, last week was pathetic once again. I brought only a plastic grocery bag with me, and it wasn't even full when I left. I will greatly miss the blueberries though, I am figuring last week was their finale.

Edit: The Farmer's Almanac is showing 27 days until Autumn. (Me frowning.) Also,Today in History:
The Nineteenth Amendment was adopted, granting women the right to vote. It was nicknamed the "Anthony" amendment in recognition of the lobbying efforts of suffragette Susan B. Anthony, 1920.

Thanks to Susan B. Anthony and all others in securing me the right to vote!

The Garden Buzz

This busy bee was keeping me company as I did my garden walk through. It took many tries, but I finally caught a shot of it on the flower.


Some bumblebee fun facts: Did you know that male bumblebees have a tell tale fuzzy yellow mustache? (I didn't until now) The sex of this one will remain a mystery along with it's ability to sting. It is true that male bumblebees can not sting, they have 'boy bits' instead! The females however have the ability to sting repeatedly (no barbs) so take caution when looking for that mustache!

Bees go out foraging and mark the flowers they have visited with a scent. It seems as though bumbles will continually visit the same flowers, and at the same time avoid those that have been recently visited by other bees. The one I photographed had 'a full pollen basket', so it must have been nearing the end of it's foraging trip. Gotta love bees!

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That's the cucurbit bed. My little guy was gushing over how "soft and adorable" the flowers were, LOL. It turns out my cukes are a cold tolerant variety which explains their happiness compared with all others in the same family. I have also been very happy with the minimal vine length and spread. These are the Northern Pickling variety from Johnny's:

"A high-yielding, early variety for salads and pickling.
Medium green fruits bear early, and set heavily on short, space-saving vines. Fertilize well and pick frequently at a small size to maintain good color and fruit shape.Developed in Maine."

I had read somewhere to put foil at the base of your winter squash to deter the Squash Vine Borers. Anybody else ever tried this?

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Outie:

Innie:

(A result of the cold I believe.)

Pickles It Is!

I was surprised to find another handful of cukes ready for picking over the weekend so I whipped up a batch of refrigerator pickles tweaking the recipe just a bit to suit my tastes. SO EASY! And it turns out you just scrub away those nasty spines. I started out with a potato brush but that wasn't cutting it, so next I tried a popsicle stick (just happened to be there) and it turned out to be the perfect tool, go figure. I can't wait to try these bad boys, but I should probably leave them to soak for a few days first.

Well, leaving them to sit before tasting is no longer an option since after taking this photograph I grabbed a fork and had a warm pickle. I am a little embarrassed to show my lack of patience, but no regrets. Even when warm it was a tasty pickle. Very sweet with a bit of tang.

On a side note I planted more pole beans and carrots this weekend. The beans went in a raised bed and on a straw bale. The straw bale was originally planted with melons but critters took care of those for me. I am beginning to wonder if I will get one darned melon out of all those seedlings I planted.

Tomato Disease Identification, Garden Update

Upon venturing out to the garden today I found more bad news in what looks to be Early Blight on my Yellow Pear Tomatoes.

I will have to do a bit more research, but upon quick inspection on this site, (which is one of my favorites for tomatoes), I appear to have a match. It would make sense with all this wet weather, I think disease is really starting to set in in many Northeast gardens. I am contemplating a weekly spray to try and combat already existing and future diseases with Serenade Garden Spray. Next year I will be sure to have a copper solution ready as well.

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My strawberries are all over the place. The $30 spent at Johnny's for 2 bunches of plants (Honeoye and Cabot) for the hanging bags is turning out to be a bust. They have been producing lots of fruit, but with all the rain most of them have gotten moldy before they ripen. This problem started later for me than most folks in my area since they are off the ground, but because of the plants immaturity they also set fruit later than established plants. I chose to not pinch off flowers their first year as you typically would since they are hanging; the plants are unable to send off runners therefore the theory is they have a bit more energy to send to the roots and developing fruit.

The plants are not as bushy as those that were planted in the ground in the beginning of June as ground cover (click here), however that batch was picked up locally and were already quite large. They have been sending off runners like crazy and I am having a hard time keeping up with the flower pinching. Even the runners are sending up bunches of pink flowers which I spent quite a bit of time removing this morning. There are a handful of berries that snuck by me and they are starting to turn, I am actually looking forward to trying one these mystery variety berries if the birds don't get to them first.

Lanky Strawberry plants in hanging bags

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I did a bit of harvesting today as well. I desperately need to cut more lettuce but the CSA has been keeping our crisper drawer well stocked with greens, so my garden waits. I had one tomato ready for picking on three different plants, one Big Beef, one Juliet, and one Sungold. What gives? The size of the fruits is noticeably smaller than earlier in the season, another side effect of our weather no doubt (I think I have a case of The Incredible Shrinking Tomatoes!).

Maybe the cool night temperatures are to blame? Mid fifties is a common occurrence lately. Along with the singleton tomatoes is a very lonely strawberry and a trio of cukes. I certainly don't have enough to make pickles so it looks as though they will be destined for the salad plate. Johnny's Seeds does recommend picking these 'Northern Pickling' cukes "frequently at a small size". Hmm, maybe these are already to big?

How My Garden Grows, June 2009

(Click photo to enlarge) Bush beans, squash blossom, dwarf snap peas, fuzzy baby plum tomatoes, cuke blossom, strawberries in hanging bags, straw bales for planting, seedlings in whiskey barrel, bean sprout emerging.