What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Zeedman]

It is a really busy time of year, so haven't posted many updates. All tomatoes are ripening, and since I am saving seed, a lot of juicing & fermentation. I'll finish seeds for 6 varieties today. Sweet corn has started; was up late last night processing about 1/3, the remaining 2/3 should be ready within a week. Okra & gherkins continue producing heavily, we have to harvest every 2 days... have 20 quarts of pickles for them so far. Dry seed harvest is really picking up; Vignas & hyacinth bean still going strong, and beans, limas, and runner beans have started drying as well.

We are also planning on making jelly this year. The wild plums are a bust this year, apparently the late frost killed most of the flowers; but the crab apple trees around a local business are loaded, and we have permission to pick them. It appears our only canning limitations this year will be canning lids.

 

[Marie2020]

My neighbour kindly informed me a couple of couple months ago that he buried slabs one side of my garden 20 years ago. I wondered why there was a slope.

Yesterday my friend and I got down to digging these slabs out, which took the best part of the day we also found an old carpet.

Some people have absolutely no respect what he had put there made us sick.

So it's all out now and I hope too try and build up this soil, we found a good amount of worms and placed them in a far better environment for them. I'm thinking of growing some veg and a flower mix because it's of being on the front of the property.

 

[Phaedra]

I just started the late summer pruning, and soon we will need to cut back our hedge. In the past I don't like those clean-up works, but now after we made our own compost, those green waste become important materials

 

[flowerbug]

picked tomatoes and then picked beans until i got too tired to do any more. beautiful day outside i hate to have to take a break, but my back and legs say enough is enough.

 

[Zeedman]

picked tomatoes and then picked beans until i got too tired to do any more. beautiful day outside i hate to have to take a break, but my back and legs say enough is enough.

I'm reaching that point too. EVERYTHING is either ripening or drying now. We just finished putting up the last of the sweet corn; the Painted Mountain corn needs to be cut & hung to dry; gherkins & okra need to be pickled; and we need to at least make more crab apple juice before the apples pass their prime. I just harvested the edamame soybeans; DW is cleaning them as I type this, and we will be giving some to our daughters & freezing the rest. Tomatoes and tomatillos are coming on strong, and peppers are starting to ripen.

And apparently "the signal" has gone out, because beans of all species are now drying down at a furious pace, and need to be harvested before the next rain storm. With all that needs to be done, the mosquitoes are so bad that sometimes DW & I feel like we are entering a war zone. But when you pray for success, you have to be prepared to deal with it. The growing season is winding down now, and we want to take full advantage of the time remaining.

Oh, and the weeds have gotten so bad during our "Midwest monsoon" that I will need to mow between rows with the bagging mower, before the crab grass seed can mature.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

I'm reaching that point too. EVERYTHING is either ripening or drying now. We just finished putting up the last of the sweet corn; the Painted Mountain corn needs to be cut & hung to dry; gherkins & okra need to be pickled; and we need to at least make more crab apple juice before the apples pass their prime. I just harvested the edamame soybeans; DW is cleaning them as I type this, and we will be giving some to our daughters & freezing the rest. Tomatoes and tomatillos are coming on strong, and peppers are starting to ripen.

And apparently "the signal" has gone out, because beans of all species are now drying down at a furious pace, and need to be harvested before the next rain storm. With all that needs to be done, the mosquitoes are so bad that sometimes DW & I feel like we are entering a war zone. But when you pray for success, you have to be prepared to deal with it. The growing season is winding down now, and we want to take full advantage of the time remaining.

Oh, and the weeds have gotten so bad during our "Midwest monsoon" that I will need to mow between rows with the bagging mower, before the crab grass seed can mature.

How do they know? One year it starts at a different time than another! I think I would appreciate a graph of whatever it is on my weather app!

 

[seedcorn]

Pulled onions to dry. 5+ gallon bucket. While there pulled crab grass. Man is that stuff prolific.

 

[flowerbug]

I'm reaching that point too. EVERYTHING is either ripening or drying now. We just finished putting up the last of the sweet corn; the Painted Mountain corn needs to be cut & hung to dry; gherkins & okra need to be pickled; and we need to at least make more crab apple juice before the apples pass their prime. I just harvested the edamame soybeans; DW is cleaning them as I type this, and we will be giving some to our daughters & freezing the rest. Tomatoes and tomatillos are coming on strong, and peppers are starting to ripen.

And apparently "the signal" has gone out, because beans of all species are now drying down at a furious pace, and need to be harvested before the next rain storm. With all that needs to be done, the mosquitoes are so bad that sometimes DW & I feel like we are entering a war zone. But when you pray for success, you have to be prepared to deal with it. The growing season is winding down now, and we want to take full advantage of the time remaining.

Oh, and the weeds have gotten so bad during our "Midwest monsoon" that I will need to mow between rows with the bagging mower, before the crab grass seed can mature.

it was a late night last night but we got it done. 25 quarts of chunked tomatoes. i don't like moving the jars when they are hot so i left them sit until i got up this morning and moved them, they're still hot - that's a lot of thermal mass in the oven with the oven door closed. so they are very well processed.

i'll start sorting the bean pods i picked yesterday once i wake up a bit more. then we have to get the grass mowed.

i am not sure at what stage the crab grass seeds become viable, but it sure is one of those hard to get rid of weeds once it gets established and sadly how it goes here Mom manages the grassy areas that we have left and she does it in such a way that if the area does not already have a crab grass infestion going it will soon get one because she likes to scrape the border edges down to the bare dirt which then encourages weeds and especially crab grass to colonise and then spread even more.

i have dreams of smothering what little remains of the grassy areas because they are such a big source of weed seeds in all of the neighboring gardens, but she won' let me do that - so for now it is just a dream... i can always appreciate more bean garden space...

 

[digitS']

One year it starts at a different time than another!

Ripening? Maturity?

In southern climes, with such a long growing season, it must be interesting to experience the weather events that speed or slow plant growth. More room for everything to occur.

With shorter growing seasons, there are "windows," of opportunity for plant growth and gardener intervention. Too often, it is, "uh, oh. We aren't getting enough sunlight. There was none of our usual rain. It didn't warm up. It has to stop raining or those might be lost. Well, those plants won't work here." Just with longer seasons, there would be more variables.

Yes, it's crabgrass season, @seedcorn .

Like @heirloomgal , I was digging some potatoes, yesterday. No hilling back a couple of months ago, HeiloomGal?! Too many of my potatoes would have been exposed to sunlight and have turned green. It is also an opportunity for me to do 2 things: put some fertilizer on and kill young weeds. Unfortunately, there is plenty of weed seed in the garden soil and back the weeds came! Mostly, there was purslane but prickly lettuce and crabgrass, too. However, it looks like a good harvest year for the potatoes.

It's something of a new experience growing them in the distant garden. The opportunity to start Asian greens in July and August just isn't there. So, the potatoes have mostly been left into September. Early and mid-season varieties so, top growth is finished. Frost may be several weeks away -- I really should be out there cutting the vines at the soil surface. It allows the tuber skins to toughen and should put a stop to any sprouting.

Steve

 

[heirloomgal]

Ripening? Maturity?

In southern climes, with such a long growing season, it must be interesting to experience the weather events that speed or slow plant growth. More room for everything to occur.

With shorter growing seasons, there are "windows," of opportunity for plant growth and gardener intervention. Too often, it is, "uh, oh. We aren't getting enough sunlight. There was none of our usual rain. It didn't warm up. It has to stop raining or those might be lost. Well, those plants won't work here." Just with longer seasons, there would be more variables.

Yes, it's crabgrass season, @seedcorn .

Like @heirloomgal , I was digging some potatoes, yesterday. No hilling back a couple of months ago, HeiloomGal?! Too many of my potatoes would have been exposed to sunlight and have turned green. It is also an opportunity for me to do 2 things: put some fertilizer on and kill young weeds. Unfortunately, there is plenty of weed seed in the garden soil and back the weeds came! Mostly, there was purslane but prickly lettuce and crabgrass, too. However, it looks like a good harvest year for the potatoes.

It's something of a new experience growing them in the distant garden. The opportunity to start Asian greens in July and August just isn't there. So, the potatoes have mostly been left into September. Early and mid-season varieties so, top growth is finished. Frost may be several weeks away -- I really should be out there cutting the vines at the soil surface. It allows the tuber skins to toughen and should put a stop to any sprouting.

Steve

The only reason I didn''t hill @digitS' is I planted very deep to begin with in rows I'd already turned into hills. My rows were only 4 seed potatoes long too, so very easy. In the few places I planted with no hills, when I saw any potato showing I just ate them I'm a low maintenance potato gal, no fertilizer, no weeding, no hilling, water only for 1st month, month 1/2. But it looks like a good potato year no matter with the heat & rain, my potato guru in the UK had a record dismal crop because apparently it was an overcast, cool summer there.