August 30, 2018

Good morning, the rain this year sure seems scattered and hit or miss. It sure would be nice to have a hurricane remnant to dwell over the area for a few days. There still is a chance since hurricane season goes to November. We did get a tenth of an inch yesterday and was very welcome.

This year instead of small seed beds out in the garden, I sowed the fall veggies in the house. Yesterday I started potting on the tray of seedlings. My light table will be quite full with nearly 200 plants. It will be nice to have fully stocked beds. The outdoor sowings of recent years have not done too well for a number of reasons. Probably the biggest is the harvester ants. Brassica seeds seem to be the perfect size for them to excavate and transport back to the nest. It is interesting to watch the ants after I have “chummed” the chickens, there is a lot of the chicken scratch that is the perfect size for them to carry, and you can see caravan lines of ants packing seeds heading back to their nests. Especially in the hen houses. I throw scratch in the bedding so that chickens mix up their bedding. This helps when I clean out the hen houses to make compost. I remember watching the harvester ants packing mulberry seeds from under the mulberry trees. The chickens have so willingly cleaned the seeds from the fruit. Sometimes I am dismayed with the ants that is until I see some of my resident garden hornytoads. Not seeing my bigger guys only 3 or 4 smaller ones. I like having the hornytoads so I suffer the ants and will more than likely keep sowing the seed in the house. It is amazing to see a seed tray expand from 12 inches X 18 inches up to over 16 square feet. A very nice sight.

I am going to give Brussel sprouts a go this year and with luck they will ripen during our coolest time of the year. Root crops and brassicas have their best flavor at that time. My spring planted parsnips are looking the best I have ever grown. The tops are nearly 2 feet tall. I am hoping that they do not get too huge, but they just might. I look forward to tasting them this winter.

The sweet harvest continues. The first bed is complete and 2 more to go. The next two beds should produce some larger spuds. My butternut harvest is going to be much diminished from years past due too the hail storm that pretty well destroyed the first crop. Such is agriculture. For the first time in a couple years it is beginning to look like I will have tomatoes to freezing weather and maybe beyond. Not going to count that “chicken” until it is in storage.

The blooming of the cucumbers and summer squash has nearly ceased. Not sure exactly why maybe it is due to the weird year that we have been having. It has had its challenges. I am looking towards not having to harvest every day.

So needless to say, the transition towards the next season is on the way. Hopefully it will be smooth and the harvest will continue.  

 Follows is a list of what I am growing, please email as to availability and prices. Chard, kale, green onions, carrots, lettuce, okra, tomatoes, chilies (several varieties), eggplant, butternut squash, garlic, beets, bulb onions, cucumbers, summer squash, sweet potatoes, snow peas (October?) and beans (new planting for fall, late September?). Also, there is volunteer basil and dill.

August 23, 2018

Good morning,  I am impressed with the eggplants, by getting the flea beetles off the eggplants , they are beginning to look very nice. In fact, they have really gone to blooming. I do plan to garlic spray them another time. Just for good measure.

Curiosity makes me wonder what else fermented garlic may work on. It is looking like the butternut harvest this year will only be a shadow of what I have grown in the past. The frost and the hail really did a job on setting them back. The second growth spell and blooming never did fully materialize. This was pushed back at least a month and a half and the plants do not have the vegetation to support a second fruiting. It is very interesting that I stumbled onto the right growth cycle by sowing the seed in March, with the first harvest in May and June, then the second crop developing in July and early August. Oh well such is agriculture.

I must say I am very impressed with the new growth on the tomatoes. I feel the added expense of nematode resistant seeds is well worth the expense. The first tomato planting has grown and filled the bed and there appears to be a pretty fine fruit set. The indeterminant tomatoes are just now really making a showing. My thought that they were not worth the trouble has been revised and I am beginning to think having both determinant and indeterminant plants may be the way to insure a continuous supply of toms. Especially since it does appear that the heat of early summer really slows the second growth spurt and blooming of the determinants. Having not grown indeterminants for several years I had forgotten how big they can grow.

The sweet harvest continues. The first bed is nearly complete. It will be interesting to see if the next bed provides some lunkers. The largest spuds so far are maybe a pound and a half. It has been a bazaar growing year and it will be interesting to see what the final sweet potato harvest looks like.

The fall brassica seedlings are looking good. Hope for well stocked beds looks pretty good at this time.     

 Follows is a list of what I am growing, please email as to availability and prices. Chard, kale, green onions, carrots, lettuce, okra, tomatoes, chilies (several varieties), eggplant, butternut squash, garlic, beets, bulb onions, cucumbers, summer squash, sweet potatoes, and beans (new planting for fall, late September?). Also, there is volunteer basil and dill.

August 16, 2018

Good morning,  I had sown some germinated peas, this did not work out as well as last year. I will wait for my normal time to sow. This will be in October. Hopefully the soil will be cooler. I did plant two beds of beans and they all are up and looking very nice. With luck there will be beans starting in late September. Maybe a little sooner. As expected the cukes and summer squash slowed way down. The quantity discount on cucumbers is discontinued unless warmer weather pushes the cucumber production over the top. Three or four pounds a day is manageable. My last planting of tomatoes is doing well. They are blooming and have set fruit.

This has been a real challenging year   what with the freeze, hail, and the intense heat. The butternuts were set back pretty severely with the hail. This is showing with the second bloom and fruit set. Time will tell but it is not looking like we will have near as many for winter storage. Although with my eggplants, they are beginning to look better. They have been infested with a nasty outbreak of flea beetles. Normally I get them when I mulch the ground. This year I never did get them mulched and the flea beetles were over the top. Also, in previous years the beetles have only been cosmetic. Not so this year. I do find it interesting that a couple of my other sprays just did not work but what appears to have chased the beetles off was a spray of fermented garlic cloves. I have found that this potion has worked miracles in the past too.

The fall brassicas have been sown, I did this inside the house this year. This way I hope to foil the harvester ants. With luck I will have well stocked beds.

Powdery mildew hit early this year, like always I can beat it back but it always prevails in the end. I suspect because it started showing in July it is affecting most of my cucurbits. That is except my Yellow squash which is a mildew resistant OP and has no mildew on any of its leaves.

I do find it funny that Heat loving okra does not mind the air cooling as long as the soil is warm. As the other summer veggies have slowed with this past cool down the okra have continued to produce. With luck all the way up to frost.

By this time of year, I am looking forward to the season change and the intensity in the garden slowing too.

All said things are pretty good.

Follows is a list of what I am growing, please email as to availability and prices. Chard, kale, green onions, carrots, lettuce, okra, tomatoes, chilies (several varieties), eggplant, butternut squash, garlic, beets, bulb onions, cucumbers, summer squash, sweet potatoes, snow peas (October?) and beans (new planting for fall, late September?). Also, there is volunteer basil and dill.

August 9, 2018

Good morning, it will be nice if the forecast cool down comes to fruition. I believe I am more than ready for it.

It was amazing to see my first tomato bed coming back to life. It has had a very rough year. What with being hammered by a freeze, then hail, followed by so sever heat which all let the root knot nematodes (RKN) have their way. This them made them real susceptible to spider mites. I managed to beat back the mites and gave the bed a shot of fertilizer, and low and behold it is like a Phoenix from the flame. Bed wide it has started new growth and flowering. Sur would not have given a plug nickel for this bed. But it appears that the RKN resistance of these hybrids is paying off. We just might get a late fall harvest?

The sweet potato harvest has begun. First ones tend to be smaller with a fair number of fingerlings. The lunkers will come with later harvest. There are three beds and I expect to finish the harvest sometime in September.

I attempted to sow some fall peas but what with the recent heat, most of the germinated seeds rotted even though I used my organic fungicide. With luck the next sowing will be a take. It is getting late and I suspect it could be iffy to get a harvest before the first freeze. If not, it is great biomass for the beds.

With the cool down, it is very likely that I can get a decent take on some late summer parsnips. Be nice to compare with my spring planted ones.  This could be interesting. The succession carrots are doing well and I am ready to sow another succession. With luck nice sweet carrots to go through the winter.

The cucumbers are still going crazy with the warm weather. This will more than likely change with this cool down. Time will tell.

What with cool over night lows all of the summer veggies will start to slow. This is to be suspected. The start of fall veggies is at hand. We can always hope for a smooth transition from summer into fall veggies. Time will tell.

Follows is a list of what I am growing, please email as to availability and prices. Chard, kale, green onions, carrots, lettuce, okra, tomatoes, chilies (several varieties), eggplant, butternut squash, garlic, beets, bulb onions, cucumbers, summer squash, sweet potatoes, and beans. Also, there is volunteer basil and dill.

August 2, 2018

Good morning, I had suspected that the late freeze and then the hail storm had set back my cucumbers and summer squash. Once my succession beds came on line, I felt this suspicion was true. My cucumbers are going crazy. I am nearly harvesting 10 pounds a day. I think not only was this bed never put under any kind of weather stress but also  this cucumber crop follows a snow pea crop. None the less there are a lot of cucumbers. Normally cucumbers are $4.00 per pound , but if a minimum of 5 pounds is purchased, I will sell them for $3.00 per pound. As for the summer squash bed, it is not as prolific, but none the less it is out producing the old bed very nicely. It does look like I will be able to pickle okra this year. I have planted 5 beds this year of which 3 are being harvested and the other two are just beginning to have some spears harvested from them. Deb has dried some. Not being a fan of okra, I must say they are pretty tasty. The butternuts continue to ripen and are being harvested. I have noticed that they have begun to sprout new growth and I hope they will ripen for a second harvest later this fall. I also did a spot harvest on the sweet potatoes. The spot I harvested, they had not enlarged enough to be harvested. They were all fingerling sized, a popular size but I do hope to get mostly 1 to 3-pound spuds. I will spot check again in a week or two. They are just about ready. The tomato harvest has slowed, my root knot nematode (RKN)resistant tomatoes have had a real challenge this year. They were intentionally planted in a known infected bed. Here too the late freeze and the hail added another level of stress to them. I have noticed where the heavy concentrations of RKN has really stressed the tomatoes, but it was exciting to see new growth on the tomatoes located in these areas. So, it looks likely there will be a second harvest from this bed. I look forward to pulling these plants to look at what kind of knotting is on the roots.

Garden wide I will be interested in root inspection, I have not seen the decline like I did last year. RKN did ever so slowly take its toll. Last year I only used the thyme oil extract but I also have added a nemacide and an organic fungicide. Ah yes, life after RKN infection, a challenge, but it looks like there is life afterwards.

All said the garden is doing well.

Follows is a list of what I am growing, please email as to availability and prices. Chard, kale, green onions, carrots, lettuce, okra, tomatoes, chilies (several varieties), eggplant, butternut squash, garlic, beets, bulb onions, cucumbers, summer squash, sweet potatoes, and beans. Also, there is volunteer basil and dill.