Labor Day Harvest

It's only fitting that I should celebrate this Labor day weekend by doing absolutely no gardening work. It 's not by choice of course. The mosquitoes are merciless right now, attacking in threes and fours and even during the mid-day hours. I'm already looking forward to the second fall frost (which takes care of the mosquitoes that aren't killed by the first fall frost).

I don't know what I'm gonna do with all of this opo. There are about a foot long and weigh around three pounds each. If I had Asian neighbors, I'd gladly share as opo does not have a very long shelf life.


The slicing tomatoes have slowed down but the paste tomatoes are still going strong. We've met our tomato needs for the year so I'll have to find a home for these.


I picked the last two acorn squash and two more watermelons this week.


The Yellow Sunshine watermelon was picked about a week too early. I have one left in the garden. Hopefully I can get it perfect with the last one.


The last Blacktail Mountain watermelon was the best. If I had waited any longer, it would been overripe.


Our small patch of fall raspberries are producing well in the second year despite the fact that half of the canes had succumb to the raspberry cane borer. We are getting a little bowl full each day.


Finally, we also harvested a few fun things this week including some sunflower seeds...


...and some decorative Indian corn. I wonder if they can pop them.

Mid-August Bounty

This post is a bit late, but here is what we harvested in the past week. The tomatoes are finally starting to ripen in large numbers. This year I grew half as many plants as we did last year (forty), which in some ways is good since last summer at this time, it was quite stressful trying to keep up with the tomato harvest. However, this year I'm a bit worried that we may not have grown enough to get us by in sauce and salsa for the next twelve months. I may have to increase the number of plants for next year.


Speaking of tomatoes, my Gold Medal and Brandywine (Sudduth's Strain) vines are producing enormous fruit. It's not uncommon for a tomato plant to produce a couple of whoppers but in this case, most of them are pretty hefty. I'm a sucker for big ugly tomatoes.

As you can see, I have a few green paste tomatoes here as well. They were salvaged when the branch holding the cluster snapped.


I picked all of my Tongue of Fire beans this week. I've never cooked with fresh shell beans before. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!


The last of our sweet corn. :(


Two delicious Athena cantaloupes. (On a side note, I bought two amazing Canary and Piel de Sapo melons from the market the other week. I saved some seeds to hopefully grow them next year.)


I must be growing a different variety of purple tomatilloes this year because these are almost jet black. I'm excited to make a batch of purple tomatillo salsa. The watermelon you see here was picked because a section of the stem attaching it to the vine had died off. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite ripe yet.


The last of the Spring-sown carrots and possibly the last of this year's artichokes. They will surely be missed.


Finally, the last of the spring-sown beets. It will be at least another month before the fall beets are ready to harvest.

Corn Bandit - Caught!

The other day, I noticed that something had been eating my corn. The cobs left strewn on the lawn were expertly stripped of their kernels. I had a feeling it was the work of a raccoon. I guess my suspicions were correct. I found this little guy in my Havahart cage when I came home from work today. I was surprised by how smelly he was and if you look closely, you can see the flies buzzing about him.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get our thief before he did this to the corn patch. Based on the crime scene, I think he pilfered about a dozen ears during the past few days - not completely devastating but a big blow nonetheless. I guess I should just be grateful that he didn't help himself to any of my tomatoes or melons.


After I relocated him to the woods far away from our home, I picked the last dozen or so ears and pulled up the plants. All and all, I think our corn crop this year was a success. We were able to enjoy several meals during which Marc and I devoured up to three ears of sweet corn each and despite this setback still have enough for a couple more.

Lastly, I think I may just bait the trap again just in case Mr. Raccoon had hungry family members.

An Early August Harvest

I won't say too much about this week's harvest. The tomatoes are still coming in slowly (annoying) and the corn harvest has been fantastic this year, despite our minor raccoon setback.

Homegrown corn, when picked at the absolute right moment and cooked soon after, is a completely different vegetable from what you get at the supermarket and even at the farmer's market in my opinion. For this reason, I will do battle with every insect and rodent to grow it each year.


We picked our first years of Ruby Queen corn this week. This is my first time growing this variety and I'm happy to report it is incredibly sweet and tender - definitely one I will grow again.

And here is some of the other things we picked this week:








I can't wait to see what all of you are harvesting this week!

Corn Eating Thief!

This morning, I noticed that one of our neighborhood wild life had climbed up the side of my garden fence and ate at least four ears of corn. I suspect that it was a raccoon. Whatever it was, it had amazing reach as a couple of the ears hung at least a foot taller than the fence.

My neighbor told me that around midnight last night, they heard an awful scream (almost like a startled horse) coming from the rear of our yard where the garden is located. My guess is, either the animals were fighting over the corn or squealing with delight as they ate it. Either way, I baited my huge Havahart cage and placed it next to the fence. Hopefully, I don't wake up to find that it was in fact a skunk!

End of July Harvest

I can't believe that July has come to close, which means that we only have one full month of reliable warm weather left this year. I'm really hoping for a hot August as most of our slicing and paste tomatoes are still green on the vine. We're down to about five jars of tomato sauce from last year and it would be a shame if we weren't able to preserve as much this time around. Then again, I did cut down the amount of tomato plants this year to 20. We'll see if that was a wise decision.

In no particular order, here are a few things we harvested this week:


We picked and ate our first ears of Argent corn today. Out of all of the veggies we grow, I think we look forward to the first corn harvest the most. It tasted just as I'd remembered from last year. Unlike the bland, tough and overly sugary corn you find at the market these days, Argent has an old-fashioned sweetness and a very tender kernel that explodes in your mouth. I plan on growing this variety year after year.


Another good week for artichokes, I also picked a ton of basil to make pesto.


The string beans have peaked this week. It took me quite a long time to pick them all. The bulk of this will be blanched and then frozen for future use. I've never eaten frozen string beans before. Hopefully they retain at least some of their crispness.


Aside from the usual suspects, I picked our first long beans. I have a feeling they will continue to produce for us long after our bush beans have given up.


I'm still waiting for the BIG one. Hopefully it'll come soon.


I keep forgetting that I have scallions in the garden. These grew well while the red onion sets I planted this spring were a complete bust.


I'm very happy with my savoy cabbages. They took much longer to head up than I'd expected but are of a good size now.

Finally, I pulled all of my Paris Market carrots. I love the round shape of these carrots and have a feeling they'll be very tasty roasted.

Today's Tidbit - Flames of Corn Silk

I'm growing a variety of sweet corn called 'Ruby Queen' this year. As the silks grow, they produce this extraordinary color. Hopefully the kernels will look just as interesting.


I've been shaking the stalks to promote pollination. In the morning light, you can see millions of grains of pollen descend upon the silks as you do this. All the while the bees are buzzing above. It's quite a sight.

The Turning Point for Our Corn

I always look forward to this point in the process of growing corn, when the plants stretch their necks to the sky and begin to display their tassels. I started my seeds in early May. And while two months may seem like an eternity when growing other veggies, when it comes to my corn, it doesn't feel like a long time at all. I'm sure this has something to do with the fact that a corn seedling resembles nothing more than a tiny blade of grass in its infancy and then goes on to becoming a plant that measures over 7 feet tall two months later. In this way, I consider corn to be a fast growing vegetable.

In addition, a few of the stalks are beginning to display their silks as well. This means that we should be harvesting our first ears approximately 20 days from now. I can't think of a better way to celebrate the arrival of August.

Corn Down!

This afternoon, I went into the back garden to find that half of my corn had been toppled. It was windy yesterday evening but never would I have imagined that something like this could happen. I'd started my corn indoors this year. I wonder if transplanted corn is more susceptible to this sort of thing.


Not really knowing what to do, I hammered some stakes into the ground at the end of each row and tied the corn stalks to a double length of string.


Getting the stalks upright again was not easy. And it didn't help that it was incredibly hot and humid this afternoon. I tried my best not to snap the large fragile leaves in the process. Hopefully, the roots weren't too badly damaged by the toppling either. Whether this support system will be sufficient, only time will tell I guess.

Scenes from the Garden - Part II

Things are starting to fill up in the back garden, despite the work of Mr. Groundhog. Oh, apparently we have not one but two juvenile groundhogs. Marc chased after one with a shovel yesterday only to spot a second one in the garden. We've decided to get a .22. In the town we live in, we have to get permission from our neighbors who live within 500 ft of our home in order to discharge a firarm. I'm sure our two next door neighbors won't mind but I'm not certain about the two since we've never met them.

Anyway, here's what's going on in the back garden:

My artichokes are looking good this year. No signs of disease yet. My cantaloupe and french melons on the other hand show major signs of fungal disease.


The worst of it looks like this. I sprayed with a copper fungicide solution the other day. However, I've read that copper-based fungicides are more affective as a preventative. For those of you who've used it, do you find this to be the case? I'm debating whether to turn to a non-organic "cure" before the vines start to fruit. In some ways, I don't mind utilizing a non-organic alternative as long as it's the solution of last resort. Any advice?


The corn is about 3-4 ft tall now. And by the looks of things, we should have a good amount of beans this year.

Tomato vines reaching for the sky.


The first Hungarian Wax peppers are almost ready.


San Marzano tomatoes.


Cherokee Purple tomatoes.

Summer Veggies Update

I thought I'd do a quick post on how things are growing in the back garden.


My five Athena cantaloupe plants are growing happily among the Imperial Star artichokes.


Among my melons, Athena (F1) seems to be the most vigorous in its growth.


I'm also growing an heirloom French melon variety this year - Petit Gris de Rennes. Hopefully it's as fragrant, but sweeter, than the Charentais I grew last year.


I'm growing several types of peppers this year including Poblano, Sweet Banana, Hungarian Wax, Jalapeno and Italian Pepperoncini. I staked the Poblanos but left the others to grow supported.


The Hungarian Wax seems to be the earliest of the bunch.


My cucumbers are growing well. This year, I'm growing two varieties - Tasty Jade (an early thin Japanese type) and Diamant (a pickling cuke). Both are parthenocarpic, meaning fruits can set without pollination. I hand-pollinated my cukes and zucchini last year and while I didn't mind it at the time, I won't miss having to do so this year (at least for the cukes).


My tomatoes are just starting to set fruit, which seems a bit late this year. I should have gotten them into the ground sooner. I got my first ripe Sungold cherry tomato on June 11th last year. (Admittedly, the first ones didn't taste all to great.) While chances are my tomatoes won't start ripening until sometime in July this year, it looks as though Sungold will again be the first.


Finally, my corn is looking good. It seems like such a touch-and-go veggie to me. I had one patch last year that produced amazing ears and another in a shadier spot that produced nothing. I'm growing two varieties this year - Argent (a tender white variety I grew last year) and Ruby Queen (a sugar-enhanced variety that has ruby red kernels). I would highly recommend Argent.

Though not pictured here, I'm also growing two types of watermelon - Blacktail Mountain and Sunshine (a yellow-fleshed variety), purple tomatoes, acorn squash, Black Beauty zucchini and Titan sunflowers. These pretty much round out my hot weather crops.