The best part about the garden

Sadly my garden is pretty small all things considered so I don't really get a chance to can much since we don't really have extra but we sure have been eating well this summer. And come to think of it I did have a few pictures sitting around of what we've been doing with the harvested delights from the garden so I'll share those.

We had quite a bit of corn come in this year and paired with the tomatoes I made scratch cornbread and chili.


I also harvested all the leeks and taters (which also went into potato salad and a few other dishes) but this was the best of all, Potato Leek Soup!

Technical Difficulties

Oh shoot! I took pictures yesterday but now I can't find my camera cord. I need a maid these days!

Under a rock

Wow - I've really gotten away from this blog haven't I? How'd that happen? Hope everyone's had a great last month of summer.

I did manage to get a few fall crops planted around mid month: red and green cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. Unfortunately it was bad timing as we were headed out to the coast to spend the week in a beach house. I was so nervous about leaving them in the heat that I left the starter cups on the south side of the seedlings full of water to both cast shade and keep them a little damp while we were gone since no one would be around to take care of them. As it turned out, they were fine! (Whew~)


Today I'm going to try to get a few more fall crops in the ground: carrots, kale, lettuce.

And one of the flowers blooming now in the garden.


I'll try to make a big post here and catch you up on everything very soon... life's just been busy lately. I'm still gardening even if I'm not writing about it.

Powdery Mildew

Well my pumpkin plants have succumbed to powdery mildew. I found this advice on how to safely quell the outbreak. I'll give it a try this afternoon.

To control minor infestations, pick off affected plant parts and either compost them in a hot compost pile or bag them tightly and put them in the trash. Research studies in 1999 and 2003 on infected zucchini and winter wheat (respectively) indicated that spraying cow's milk slowed the spread of the disease. To try this at home, mix 1 part milk with 9 parts water and spray the stems and tops of leaves with the solution. Reapply after rain. Spraying leaves with baking soda (1 teaspoon in 1 quart water) raises the pH, creating an inhospitable environment for powdery mildew.

Source:www.organicgardening.com

You can both spray and pour liquid seaweed onto your plant’s leaves. Research has shown that this has a powerful “booster” effect to your plant’s health and it helps fight off the powdery mildew. This is being used in many vineyards now as an organic control because it seems to work particularly well on crops that produce fruit. I mention it as a good alternative.

Sulphur sprays are quite effective at stopping the spread of powdery mildew. Remember that they do knock out beneficial soil fungi as well so do only spray to runoff. You can find sulphur in almost any garden shop.

Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is recommended by many gardeners and when it is mixed at the rate of between 2 and 10 g per litre of water (add a small dash of liquid soap as a wetting agent). (1 teaspoon to a quart of water) I’ve seen research that up to 20g / litre of water has worked well with no burning.

And to just to make your day, it has also been reported (I’ve never used this myself) that urine when diluted at 1 part urine to 4 parts water is an effective powdery mildew control. There’s another reason to take a seventh inning stretch.

Milk is another very effective spray for powdery mildew. Mix the milk at a ratio of one part of milk to nine parts of water and spray weekly. Do NOT go higher than 3 milk to 9 water or you’ll attract other fungus problems that want to feed on the milk. Skim milk works well as it contains no fat to turn rancid (and attract other problems that like the smell of rotting fats.)

There are also products on the garden center shelves featuring jojoba oil and neem oil. I can’t speak to these but some gardeners swear by their effectivness for controlling powdery mildew.

Source: Simple Gifts Farm

A while later...
Okay, I made a spay of milk, baking soda, olive oil and water. I've sprayed. We'll see how it goes. I took before pictures so hopefully I'll have dramatic results to share with you soon. =)

Blossom End Rot

Thanks to EG for setting the record straight. He confirmed that late blight starts at the stem and works its way down, while blossom end rot shows up at the bottom of the tomato. White powdery spores and brown spots on the leaves are common symptoms of late blight. My tomatoes did have some brown crispy leaves making me think it was blight but no powdery spores. I think they might have just been scalded by the sun during our heat-wave... it would also explain why some of the newer toms are rot free. I may get a few tomatoes before the summer's out - fingers crossed.

It's a love, hate thing

Some of my tomatoes love me!
(like this one I bought from the store!* lol)


...and some of them hate me. Like the ones in my garden. ::pouts::

Not sure what this is, I've never had tomatoes do this to me before. Is it late blight? They were just about to ripen too.

*Store bought tomato could've come from someone's garden it was so good! Heirloom variety (brown stripe I believe) locally grown and vine ripened. I'd like to grow this myself next year if I can find seeds (yeah, I should've taken them from the tom itself but I was too busy eating it!)

My favorite garden snack...

A grape tomato with a wee basil leaf. YUM!

Clean up

It was another hot day but I didn't care. I wanted to be in the garden! This time however I really needed to focus my energies on the front yard. It's been the poor neglected stepchild of the garden lately. I think Feb. was the last time I touched some of it. Yoinks. The weeds were horrendous, nothing had been mulched, crab grass and clover had conspired to take over every square inch. I managed to get 3/4 of it weeded and mulched. I even watered a bit and dead-headed the flowers. It felt GOOD. It looks so much better! I could still spend another full day out there but then who would watch my kiddlet? (Daddy was on duty today).

I did notice several more dead (of heat?) bugs: one bumble bee and one wasp. I also uncovered a horde of snails. There must have been three dozen all nestled down between the wide iris leaves and the stone wall, into the city compost they went. Heh.

I'm hoping it make the fall clean up go a lot smoother in a few months.

First of the Month Pictures

July


August


You can see the heat really did a number on the nasturtiums but the marigolds took off so there's still pretty flowers in the garden. All of the onions and garlic have been pulled and the peppers have come up. I completely overwatered my peppers and it shows. I also didn't start them from seed soon enough this year so they never really go a chance to shine. Next year, right? The tomatoes are also continuing to grow... I never did get around to staking them. I should probably do that this weekend sometime.

July


August


This bed doesn't look much different... just bigger marigolds and the pepper and basil plants have come up a bit too. I also harvested about half the potatoes this morning. (Yukon Golds and Russet... the true blue's aren't ready yet and the potatoes planted from true seed never came to fruition). I also snipped out what's most likely the very last of the green beans. There were only a small handful left. I think next year I'd like to try some bush beans. All the cilantro went to seed... the bees sure liked it when it was flowering though.

July


August


Yeah, I wish that was dill but no, it's parsley. I've left it because the pollinators really like it. Otherwise I actually think I lost some of the tender new asparagus I planted this spring. I guess I'll find out by waiting to see what comes back up early next year. I should also go dig out the Walla Walla's I planted there too... the tops have fallen over but I've been ignoring them - I know they didn't do that well. It was a bad spot for them.

July


August


You can see the daliah's have come up and are in bloom now. From the description when I bought them I thought the lighter one's would've had a more saturated color. They're a little "blah" for me. Too bad. Maybe I'll have to dig them out and plant something else there for next year. I adore the ones in the back however, with their lovely dark foliage and sunflower colors. The thyme has also finished blooming and has settled into this spot nicely. That pot in front is the healthy pot of mint. It went bonkers and got about two feet tall, so I hacked it all back last (mid) month and now it's sending out all new and tender fresh leaves. I cut up a bit and sprinkled it into cubed watermelon. A delightful summer treat! Also I *might* have made a mojito or two. Heehee. I'll most likely harvest them all again before the first hard frost and dry them to make tea. I'll might do the same with the thyme too (for seasoning though, not tea - :;g::)

July


August


This has been a fun bed to watch progress - for me at any rate. The corn got hugenormous! It's also tasseled and the silks have started to flop over... should be ready to eat in the next week or two - I've *really* been looking forward to fresh plucked corn. Mmmm. I planted these 4/1 and I'm thinking that might be a hair too close. Some of the inner corn stalks didn't quite mature to where I would've liked to see them. I think a 1/1 spacing might be too roomy however. I'll have to work on a happy medium for next year. Also to those who suggested that my yellow crook neck squash flowers weren't getting pollinated and that's why they were rotting on the vine.... you were right! I cut back some of the larger leaves so the buggies could get where they needed to be and we've been enjoying squash ever since. Yay! You can also see that the cucumber vines also made a nice recovery (back left) and trellised themselves quite nicely. I have been a little disappointed that I haven't been able to get a large enough crop all at once to make either pickles or relish (my whole reason for growing them). We don't really eat cucumbers... so. I did pick some this morning but they're too big to make a classic pickle with... maybe I'll make some relish? My winter squash did really well in the heat and finally took off (after being smothered back there earlier this summer by the peas and radishes I let get huge)... I still have yet to see it set any fruit even with all the flowers it's putting out. (I just ran over there and checked - I have one!) Luckily the other vine is producing like crazy. The pumpkin however has put out at least one very nice gourd that I'm planning on making soup with for Thanksgiving if at all possible. It should be beautiful. Hope I don't screw it up. Heh.

July


August


Ah the blueberry bed. We've been snacking on the blueberries all month. They're still not done which I'm perfectly happy with. We're also getting our second flush of strawberries. Yay!



The sunflowers are starting to bloom. I only wish I'd planted more of them.


I've been watering the spiders too. Is that silly? Well okay, I've been misting them. It's hot and everyone needs a drink. Gotta take care of the bugs that help take care of the pests. ;^)


Here is the picture of the harvest from this morning.


Something I haven't really mentioned before are the crows. They are a menace. They have a nest in the large tree above the garden and they don't like invaders. Earlier this spring we had a lot of bluejay hanging around. I guess the crows didn't like it one bit. We'd see them dive bomb and chase after the jays. A few weeks ago we found a dismembered jay leg in the back yard. How did we know it was a jays? We found the head in the front yard. Bleh. We thankfully never found the rest of the body. Neither have we seen any jays since. Come to think of it the squirrels have been making themselves rather scarce as of late too... Maybe we've had a cat hanging out in our yard lately? Not sure.... Either way the crows are still here. Oh and speaking of dead things... I think the heat took its toll on a few critters in our back yard too. I found a dead mouse that'd made its way on to the hot gravel and flopped over and died. Also found a dead spider on the hot rocks looking very mummified and a bee dead and resting on one of the daliahs in mid pollination. I think I'm not the only one looking forward to the cooler weather...

Death Day

Yeah, I know I was supposed to post this yesterday for Garden Blogger's Death Day but other projects kept me busy. So without further ado... I killed mint. Yes, that invasive weed that most people cannot eradicate, the plant that puts bamboo to shame and gives kudzu a run for its money... mint. Deader n' a door nail. Though a lovely home for spiders apparently.



The good news? I have another whole pot of it that I actually remembered to water so it's doing just fine.