today's harvest

my september garden plot

fast growing greens

Lettuce and escarole on September 6
 The same plot, two weeks before - Aug 23


We've had perfect weather for the fall seedlings. It's amazing how fast they're growing. Next week I'll apply another dose of my new fish fertilizer to keep them growing. Since they sent the fertilizer to me free, I am doing a little advertising for them. You can order this fertilizer here: Fish Rich.

today's harvest

Lots of bounty today!

Tons of cukes. I am going to look back at all the great cuke recipes I collected a month ago. Maybe try some cucumber gazpacho and some pickles. A bunch of these cukes are overgrown. The yellow ones are overgrown North Carolina pickling cukes. They are best picked smaller when they are creamy white. They still taste good when they are big and yellow, not at all bitter - just a bit seedy.

I am continually surprised by my broccoli this year. I think I already wrote this, but it seems once a week I am picking more side shoots. This variety is Diplomat.

And, I am a chicken and afraid the squirrels will get at my tomatoes, so I am still picking them as soon as they show a hint of color. I have been watching that giant one, and couldn't resist picking it today even though its not yet coloring up.

The carrots don't look so good because they were sown in seed cells than transplanted. One of my learning experiences this year. I have a crop growing in the garden now that was sown in the garden directly and I am looking forward to some nice long, "unfurcated" roots.

And my celery is terrible, tough and bitter tasting, though it smells wonderful. It's the first year I've grown celery. The stalks are small and the crowns hollow. I found a very nice article (Mother Earth News: Celery Can Be a Cinch) and will book mark it for advice for trying again next year. I think my biggest problem was likely not feeding it and not giving it enough water.

I have 6 little eggplants in the middle of the photo, 3 Tiger and 3 Black King. I have a recipe I'm looking forward to trying with these tonight.

another toad!

I came across another toad in my garden today. A very small one. Big Oracle Toad has company!

planting seeds for winter my cold frame

Today I planted a full tray of seeds. Several varieties of lettuce, as well as escarole, spinach, arugula and broccoli. These are plants that will fill my cold frame during the winter. Since the light level gets too low for plants to grow by about November 10 here, I would like to have these plants pretty much full grown by then. That is about 8 weeks or 50 days from now.

I planted the seeds in seed cells and will grow them indoors under lights for a few weeks. My cold fame is still very full with summer plants - cucumbers, tomatoes, and eggplants. I suspect these summer plants will peter out by the end of September and then by mid Oct I can plant the cold frame with the greens.

Labor Day red sauce

A fitting tribute to a super summer growing season, I made a big pot of red sauce today from my tomatoes! It's the first time in years that I've had enough tomatoes to do this. It included a mix of San Marzano Gigante, New Girl, Brandywine and Purple Calabash tomatoes. I added some of my onions and peppers. Also oregano, thyme and chives.

We had some of the fresh sauce on pasta tonight and it is fantastic!!!

I will freeze the rest.

I have been picking my tomatoes as soon as they turn a bit red and keeping them in a wooden box that I found at a local wine store. Today I used all of the red tomatoes, then washed and replaced the green ones to continue ripening.

freshly dug potatoes

My husband and I dug potatoes today. 20 lbs - a good haul. Mostly Burbank Russets. A few Green Mountains and Adirondack Reds.

I start digging potatoes, as we need them, a couple weeks after they flower (mid July). I plant the early Reds, Fingerlings, and Butterballs at the front of the bed. I start digging here and then gradually move to the back of the bed to where I planted the keeper potatoes, the Russets and Green Mountains.

My Russet tubers are small - as usual. I plant them close together (about 9 inches). With a small space, I like to squeeze in as much as I can. If I spaced the seed potatoes more, I'd have bigger potatoes, but I'm not sure if the total yield (weight) would be more. I figure that this year I got 40 lbs of potatoes from 35 square feet (a 10 x 3.5 foot bed, with six 3.5 ft rows).

I've found that small baked potatoes are really nice. Perfect for a single serving. They bake up fluffy inside and crisp skin outside. Ahhh....

blue moon

The moon is so bright, I could have been out gardening by it all night.

Blue Moon

The roses bloomed twice,
and nobody noticed but
you – who stole my heart.
- by poetrydiary

Mom and Dad's giant sunflower

 


My Dad has a sunflower that has grown to be a giant! We measured it today at 118 inches tall -  nearly 10 ft. He took a picture of me and Skippy next to it.

tomato box

I love a full tomato box! I find that almost all of the green ones will ripen eventually. I keep the reddest ones at the top, greener ones at the bottom. I think I will make a red sauce soon with the ripening Roma tomatoes.

I brought my Mom a few slicers today. She wanted a couple that would be ripe in a few days.

garden work

Today I spent several hours at my community plot. It was such a nice morning to work in the garden. I trimmed the weeds in the path outside and all around my plot. A garden next to me (to the north) is untended, so I cut back their weeds and cleared out the overgrown path between us. Sigh, the weeds are quite abrasive and spiny (Japanese hops, raspberries, horse nettles). My arms are all scratched up. I'm hoping for a more active garden neighbor next year.

I watered well, as we've been quite dry. Removed mildewed squash leaves, took out old sunflowers and an borage plants. I also removed the last of my tomatoes, which had succumbed to late blight. I harvested a nice big boxful of green tomatoes. I'm sure most will ripen nicely. I also harvested a big head of bok choy to stir fry for tonight's dinner. (It was delicious.)

In the space left by the tomatoes, I planted some seeds and seedlings. Seedlings: lettuce, beets, cilantro. Seeds: peas and spinach. I had a package of pea seeds (Strike) that mature for harvest in 49 days, so I planted the whole package. I have often planted fall peas but have never gotten a crop harvested as I've always planted too late. Ever optimistic, I am trying again.....

maturing butternut squashes on my arbor

I've counted about 14 big squashes coming along.

fish fertilizer on fall seedlings

I got some free samples of a liquid fish fertilizer in the mail to try. Two bottles. One is all organic from fish. The other has a bit of nitrogen added. I tried it on my fall seedlings. They've been growing really fast and I'm sure they'll need some extra umpf to keep going at this rate.

I like the convenience of a liquid fertilizer. Just add a few tbs to a watering can and sprinkle.

I have seedlings tucked in all over the place now. Under the squash trellis, under the big bok choy, and in between the old squash vines. Nearly every day I trim off more mildewed squash leaves or harvest some cabbage and the seedlings get more light and space.
The fertilizer is called Fish Rich and is available here: bellaquaculture.com

today's harvest

This is what I picked from the garden today. Lots of tomatoes.

The blight is hitting my tomato plants hard now, so I picked all of the tomatoes that were anywhere near pink. I pulled off all of the blighted leaves from the plants. The stems are nearly bare now with a bunch of green tomatoes hanging, hoping to ripen. I went ahead and sprayed again with Copper fungicide, as I have been doing weekly, even though there wasn't much there to spray.

And I was surprised by finding a bunch of broccoli shoots today. I almost pulled all of my broccoli a few weeks ago, after I picked the first, big heads. They didn't seem like they were producing any side shoots. But now, all of a sudden, I have lots of side shoots.

The two summer squashes in this harvest, a Zephyr and a Starship pattypan, will likely be my last of the season. I can't say I am sorry. I think I've eaten a million summer squashes in the past couple months. They were yummy, but I'm looking forward to moving on to another vegetable.

Two days ago, my sister and I used a giant zucchini and made zucchini bread. The one zucchini made about 8 cups of grated squash. I use 3 cups per my 2 loaf recipe. We made a 1x recipe, and then a 1.5x recipe, ending up with 3 loaves, 1 Bundt cake and two giant muffins. My sister took a loaf to work with her and I froze two loaves. It really came out nice and we have been enjoying it.