On Monday, after I’d picked the rest of the green beans and helped the carpenter move the cabinets, I set to work on the peppers and tomatoes.
The peppers had long needed tied up and I got that done. I have a lot of nice peppers coming.
It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago I was out here and cleaned up the tomato mess. But they were again in dire need of suckering and tied up higher. I got another 1½ of those big sleds of stuff off them. The comfrey is right behind them, with the hill of dirt from the chuck hole.
This is the tomato I broke the top off the first time I was out there. It’s much farther along than the others.
This is the Matt’s Wild Cherry tomato. It’s a good thing I hacked it back so. It’s much more manageable now.
Near it the Kabocha has 3 ripe squashes. For all the squash bug eggs my helper friend sees, there’s very little damage. The improved soil and the regular foliar feeding must be working.
Next to the hill of Kabochas I had a hill of Sweet Meat squash. This looks like only the second one I’ve ever managed to grow.
Starting at the north end of the garden and working down, first there’s the Jerusalem artichokes in full flower. They’ve braved the woodchuck well. I found his hole under the comfrey when I was doing the tomatoes. Hopefully I will be able to get a melon soon and trap him.
I’d deadheaded the calendula when I was doing the garden last and it’s come back well. I need to harvest it.
Next are the beets. They have gotten HUGE! They will be next to be harvested, once I finish the beans.
On the other side of the mesclun bed, now minus all lettuce, are the poor carrots. I finally get a good year for them, and the woodchuck chews their tops off.
The collards are enormous! I wish Tom would come harvest them…. The green beans are left of them and the 2 hills of cukes are on the right, before the dill.
Next are the remains of the broccoli thanks to the chuck. They had not done well anyways, so no great loss.
Then the lima beans which are flowering now. The nasturtium has done well also, another thing I must harvest. The artichokes are on the left of these.
And then we come to the giant pumpkin mess. There are nearly a dozen brave cleome that have survived the onslaught in the back. In front you can see the parsley struggling.
Another angle of the pumpkins, running back into the squash mess. I did wade into the squash mess and found the original zucchini I’d been waiting for. It was now 6” in diameter. I found a nice small one for zoodles and a summer squash for supper.
The humidity was really high and I only lasted 2½ hours out there.
I came in and cooled down and rested. I worked on the party, locating a tent for that weekend. It turns out the yard is not big enough anywhere for the tent. It will have to go into the middle pasture. I have to ask the hayman if he might mow before Labor Day, weather permitting.
Later in the afternoon I processed the green beans for the freezer, getting 4 more pints. That brings me to 38, far short of the 52 for a year.
On Tuesday I hope to harvest calendula for the dehydrator and work in the big garden taking flowers off the basil and weeding. I’m supposed to be in the New East garden, but have lost incentive. It’s just too hot and humid to be working in the sun like that.