Mid August Report

Garden Journal, Mid August Report

I’ve given up hope for the Squash & Pumpkins this season...



The solo Iran pumpkin plant has buds, but refuses to flower. The Zucchini has flowers that rot. And the Blue Hubbard Squash barely makes any flowers. This one blossom obviously has a mildew problem. I had big 10 to 20 pound Blue Hubbards picked last season by this time. Not a chance this year – but no matter, I saved hundreds of seeds from those 2007 monsters.



Very disappointing… The main reason is too much rain. This has been an unusually wet summer. June 2008 had double the amount of rain recorded than June of 2007. Here we are only half-way through August, 2008 and it has rained more than double than all of August, 2007!


Tomatoes are doing fairly well, but the plants are dieing-off too early in the sunniest garden out front – not sure why. I must say however, that this was my best year ever for raising tomatoes as far as them being ready so early.

I’ve already selected a few handfuls of ripe Alaska Tomatoes and began saving the first seeds of the season back on August 12th. They’re fermenting a lot better in August then they do in October!

I also picked a couple of Early Wonders, which are really pretty to look at with their rosy red to pink coloring. I picked and 2 or 3 Striped Caverns which have unique yellow & orange stripes.

The big garden has more shade, so all of the tomato plants there are still green and happy. Happiest of them all are the Debaro (Italian Roma) plants which are getting to be over 7 feet tall! At this time, all of the Debaro tomatoes are still green.

I’ve selected one of the Straight-Eight cucumbers to let grow for seed. These two plants are still producing (slowly) which is impressive in the excessively rainy conditions.

Most of the beans did well this season (the ones that weren’t eaten by the %$@*# ground hog!) Here's a photo I got of the little fury bastard from my 2nd level back porch with a zoom lens...

I’m really impressed with the Vermont Cranberry beans. They’re definitely the tallest and most prolific this season. Man, they really get colorful the more they mature! I’m letting these grow to seed for a much larger crop in 2009.

The Sunflowers out front are doing well. Quite a diverse group! I have one giant at the beginning of the row which is about 10 feet tall. In the middle there are multi-flowering smaller sunflowers, and on the other end, there are smaller (six feet tall) sunflowers which are dieing-off and soon ready to save for seed.


Last but not least, my Jerusalem Artichokes are about 6 feet tall and beginning to flower. Not sure what's better, eating the tubers in October or getting photos like this one of the flowers.

:)

08/08/08

For some reason, I’ve decided to post a short blog tonight because of this date: 8/8/08. It’s a rhyme of time and I think it’s great!

Garden notes, all be them brief & are as follows:

First Alaska tomatoes are turning orange/red, as are the Early Wonder tomatoes.
I also have a few orange Striped Caverns.

I picked my 2nd straight 8 cucumber and left one at this time to mature for seed saving.

The Iran Pumpkin plant is starting to blossom – with as many as 8 new flowers budding on a short stem of about a foot in length.

The Dragon’s Tongue beans are almost past but still good to pick.

The Yellow beans are young & ready.

The green Empress beans are big and need to be picked.

The Vermont Cranberry beans are happily growing all the way up the 10 foot deer fence and many beans are there – but I’m not picking them until they are dried.

Same goes for the Charlevoix beans, they’re ready as a green bean, but I want the mature seeds.

Looks like next two weeks might be good to get first squash & zucchini started.

The weather is weird for July & August 2008 because of the almost daily rains & thunderstorms. If this keeps up, New England will be more like a rain forest ten years from now!

:)