What's Goin on in the Garden?

Overall, things seem to be going well in the garden. The nastriums have started to bloom along with the marigolds, and we are starting to harvest squash and zucchini in large amounts. For the squash, I imagine I'm going to bring in about 30 or so this week. Yikes! The second planting of lettuce is being thinned for baby greens, some of the muslin started to bolt, but we just let it go. The flowers are pretty. Two cabbages will be ready to pick soon, and most of the others should be ready in another 3 or so weeks.

Most of the broccoli is done for the season, I wish we had planted more of it this year. Both of us are huge broccoli fans, and are willing to eat it regularly. The onions are starting to form nice bulbs, again, I wish we had planted more of them, but there's always next year. Carrots all seem to be progressing well, I guess. It's hard to tell since what I want is underground! If the tops are any indication, they should be great. The cucumbers are setting fruit nicely, we already harvested two earlier in the week, with many more on the way.

All of the squash is doing really well, and I mean really well! As stated before, we have about 12 crookneck plants, three zucchini, 3 butternuts, and 6 or so acorn plants that Cat planted last month. What was she thinking? In tr

anslation, we gots lots of squash. Which is good, but we need to limit the number of squash plants next year. The peppers are doing their thing. The first one should be ready to pick in another week or so, and all the other plants are starting to bear fruit. Mmmmmm peppers!!!!! Some peppers that we had sown from seed and forgotten about are suddenly putting on some growth. I weeded around them today, and I was shocked to see they had grown/ survived. Hmmm, will they grow enough to put out before it gets chilly? We'll see.

The other day I was turning the compost pile and came across a potato that was putting off growth, we didn't plant any taters since we couldn't find any starters. I decided to cut up and plant the sucker. Not surprisingly, they are putting off lots of green growth, so I have hopes of harvesting a few new potatoes before fall. Some of the tomatoes are really struggling. I think two of them have blight, so measures will be taken to stop it very soon. Despite almost 2" of rain in the past 3-4 days, they began to wilt almost as soon as the sun came out this afternoon. For sure it's something bacterial going on, I haven't noticed any bug infestations, but I know the stresses of our variable temps and dry to wet conditions may have something to do with it. Luckily, four of the plants are doing just fine! Fruit has set on all of them, including the heirloom, and I'm anticipating my first mater in about 10 days. If the blight doesn't kill them all!

Cat's wildflowers are starting to bloom, and most of her herbs are growing rapidly. A few sunflowers are starting to get some height, so we're both looking forward to them blooming. The corn, ah, the corn. My babies are coming along very nicely. Some good height has been established and they are super green. Can I make it grow any faster, I wish. But for now, I'm just happy to have something in that bed! Particularly after the disaster of the first sowing. I had pretty much given up in corn until Cat came with a packet she ran across somewhere at about the latest that I could get a crop in. So, I'm just tickled to have what I have.

As we come into the week of the 4th, harvesting is really getting started. All the hard work and effort is starting to pay off. Plus it's nice to eat something other than lettuce and spinach. Next years plans are still in the works, but I am starting to narrow down options based on budget and time, and the fact that we are only 2 people. Although, this year is a warm up to do some hardcore canning next year. I'll post some harvest pics later, can't pick anything for a few days as we had to do some bug killin this week. (calm down organic peeps, I'll be damned if I'll let all that work get eaten by a beetle!) We try to stay organic, but sometimes that's just not possible.