soggy garden

All right, already with the rain! My garden has had plenty of water. Turn off the faucet.

My rain gauge says I got 2.5 inches of water in the past 2 days. This has been going on for at least a week now. We get these incredible thunderstorms about 3 or 4 times a days. Today I was lucky to squeeze in a dry 1.5 hour visit to the plot to work. I ran into the house as the next downpour started. (Fortunately, I checked interactive radar weather site before I went out!)

It is unusual summer weather for this area. How can one plan for this? I am glad I have a wide variety of vegetable crops in my garden. Some are doing well, some are not... The tomatoes and cukes are not appreciating the constant moisture. Sad because tomatoes are mine (and everyone's) favorite crop. The lower leaves just are so soggy, they turn yellow and then brown ...

However many vegetables are doing great. My beets are great - Chiogga and Lutz. Yummy. Also squash is doing too good (I give bags of it to anyone who visits me - lookout). Carrots, beans, radish are good. Broccoli is great too. And fava beans. I have a super potato crop starting now it seems - though its still underground.

My flat of fall seedlings are outside on my stone pathway, "getting some sun". Not. But they're out there just in case the sun comes out.

For sure, a dry clear blue day would be appreciated.....

Skippy

It was pointed out to me that I haven't been adding many photos of Skippy. And after all - its HIS blog! Well, here he is. He posed for a few shots at the community gardens, and a few shots caught him in action.

The last two shots show Skippy at the swimming hole. This brook runs near the community gardens and is full to the brim with all the rain we have had this week. Skippy had a great swim!

more pictures of skip
posts about Skippy

harvest

Here's yesterday's harvest. Skippy and I went out to our community plot with a big empty bag and came home with it full!

At the very far left is a little bit of spring broccoli that is still producing florets. Then come some tricolored radish that I just started pulling. They are very pretty and perfectly spherical. The cukes, a pickling variety and a slicing variety called Rocky, and are coming in fast now, though they are still small. I try to pick the summer squash small before it gets out of hand. This harvest has two patty pan (Starship and Sunburst). They are nice and sweet. I'm starting to pull lots of carrots now (I had a bunch more that I didn't wash for this picture). This variety is Mokum, my early carrots. My two other varieties are still growing. There are two varieties of beets here: Lutz (dark purple) and Chiogga (pale reddish). I cooked them tonight with their greens and the Chiogga are especially tender and sweet. At the far right are onions that are starting to bulb nicely. And last of all, a nice bunch of basil.

Its actually been several months now since I've been in a grocery store. That's one of my favorite parts of growing a vegetable garden. I buy meat at the local farmer's market or fish monger, and our milkman (Crescent Ridge Dairy) delivers dairy products. We make an occasional trip to Cost Co and that's all. We just eat lots of fresh summer vegetables.

I haven't photographed my lettuce in a while, but I've been supplying our salad bowl since May 31 without any purchased lettuce. My challenge is to make it through the summer heat. Last year I couldn't do this and had to buy it mid summer. Right now all of my spring sowings of lettuce have bolted and this week we'll eat the last of it. I'm hoping my Summer Crisp Batavian lettuce will be ready to harvest next week. This is a heat resistant crop recommended by Gretta, my local CSA farmer.

Daucus carota beets (Beta vulgaris)

Capucijner pea harvest

Pisum sativum
harvests from my vegetable gardens

grilled favas

We have been eating the young beans whole and shelling the older ones. Marinate in oil, garlic and herbs. Then grill. Delicious!

one of my favorite gardens

Not my garden, but I wish it was.

I'm taking pointers from watching this gardener. Well spaced plants. Lots of soil covers. Beautiful varieties - great big dill, big purple eggplants.... And I LOVE the blue door. I'm always thinking of what to do with may garden next year, and here are definitely some ideas.

Belmont Victory Garden

melons and winter squashes setting fruit

I am having fun watching for baby melons. These are now setting fruit. I have heard that I should remove all but two fruits of the larger varieties.

The fruits above are large watermelon, Delicata squash, a large-fruited bottle gourd, Baby Pam pumpkin, Lakota squash and finally a Big Rock pumpkin.

The male flowers below are watermelon, a Big Rock pumpkin flower and a couple of bottle gourd flowers. The white gourds blossoms seem to open in the evening and the yellow melon and orange squashes in the morning. I suspect the white flowers are pollinated by moths at night and I know the bees frequent the melons and squashes.

FYI: I looked up some information tonight on the fruit set process. Of course, squash and melon flowers are either male or female. Female flowers have a baby fruit below the blossom and males don't. Pollination is needed for fruit set. Fruit set also requires a certain temperature range (not too hot) and a healthy vine. Fruit set occurs if the fruit continues to grow several days after the flower has shriveled and fallen off. If the female blossom was not pollinated, the fruit will not set.

Now that I have lots of baby fruits, I'm hoping for at least a few to set. Maybe I'll get a great big watermelon or pumpkin this year!




Here's a photo my dad sent me of a Delicata squash that has set and is growing nicely in his garden. Its supposed to be a very tasty heirloom winter squash. My neighbor gave me the seeds and my parents and I are looking forward to trying them.



Cucurbita pepo (squash)
Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum & Nakai, family Cucurbitaceae)
Pumpkin -- Cucurbita spp.

grape arbor

My grape vines have lots of fruit now. Unfortunately, I don't prune these, so we don't get edible grapes. I think, because too many clusters form, none of them fully ripen before falling off. (Does this make sense?)

I don't tend them because don't like the taste of them. The variety is Catawba.

However, the birds love them, especially the cardinals. And the vines make a nice shaded area above the grill on my patio.

From Johnson Nursery:
The Catawba grape dates back to the early 1800's being found along the Catawba River in NC. The red grapes have a crisp flesh that is very sweet, and juicy. Great for fresh eating, juice and a pretty pink wine. The vine is vigorous and productive. Zones 5-8

From Wikipedia:
Catawba grapes were introduced to wine-growers in the 1800s by Major John Adlum of Georgetown, D.C.. Grown predominantly on the East Coast of the United States, this purplish-red grape has a rather sweet flavor. It is typically in season from September to November and can be used in wines, juice, jams and jellies. Although usually classified as Vitis labrusca, Catawba is widely believed to have at least some Vitis vinifera in its background. The grape can have a pronounced musky or "foxy" flavor, which some aficionados consider inferior to the flavor of V. vinifera, though others find it distinctive and pleasant.

harvest

This is what I brought home from the garden yesterday. Needless to say, we are eating a lot of squash these days....

Cucurbita pepo (squash)

honey bee in flight

Cucumis sativus

tomato supports

While I was searching the community gardens for ripe tomatoes, I took pictures of all the different methods of supporting tomato vines that are in use in the plots. We have 100+ active lots now and its a great source of gardening information.

I think the best are the top photo. A traditional Italian design. (Its Gino's garden.) Simple. The wood posts hold the metal pipe and strings wrap around the vines. This is what I would like to try next year.

I always like the tepee structures too. The second large photo shows these. Someone has some very tall tepees. They look good. (They also have the white residue I assume is from spraying a fungicide.)

I can't quite figure out that the structure is in the third large photo. But the tomatoes seem happy.

Yes, those are my tomatoes in the last large photo. A rustic, make shift design. That's what happens when you start with tepees and then shift mid season to an upright design to let in more air and sun. Too much construction work. I'm looking forward to improving on this next year.


Belmont Victory Garden
tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum)

tomato check

These are photos of tomatoes today in other garden plots at the Rock Meadow Victory Garden.

I have no red tomatoes yet, but I'm really looking forward to one soon. I took a walk around the community gardens today to see if anyone has ripe tomatoes yet. I found lots of green ones and one garden that has one beautiful big red that looks very close to ripe.

Here are photos of my green tomatoes:





Looks to me like there are all sorts of issues with my community garden tomato plants: white spots and black spots and brown spots, shriveled leaves and fewer tomatoes than I expected. My home tomatoes look healthy, but the plants are smaller.

My dad was telling me that one of my problems may be rust or leaf spot, common tomato fungal diseases. Here's what he wrote:

About the yellowing of the tomato leaves (talking now about the yellowing that starts with the lowest leaves in spite of having sufficient sunlight and nutrients)– I thought that some of that might also be due to rust or leaf spot. Questions 28 and 34 of this link tells you a bit more about it: Texas A&M. I was considering using agricultural poly film next year – because the spores are in the ground from growing them in the same place year after year and from composting the leaves and then rototilling them in also year after year. Tom sprays with Manzate 75% several times a season, picks of the infected leaves and has a heavy salt marsh hay mulch to prevent rain splash-up infecting and spreading the problem.

Belmont Victory Garden
Solanum lycopersicum