PNW: August Updates

August is upon us! The days have been lovely, but noticeably shorter and they cool off quickly. Many fall crops were best started last month, but plenty more can be started this month too. Here is a planting chart from Mother Earth News for vegetables:

And herbs:

We do still have eighty and ninety degree temps in the forecast. If anybody is wondering how these fall crops keep from bolting, I've read that soil temperature affects the plants life cycle - not the air temperature. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks for the fall planting chart!

Here in Bend, the climate differs from the rest of the PNW, being colder in winter and much drier. However, I'm experimenting with planting cool season vegetables. In just one week, spinach and beet seeds planted in my homemade MM are sprouting! Now, for the carrots, chard, brocolli, dill, and so on.

GWEN thanks for the fall chart

we have broc, cauli, bok choi, brossel sprouts, cabbage and collard greens seedlings going.....



we just planted some more peas in hopes to get a fall harvest....heres
the last of our spring sugar snap peas, blanched and ready to freeze



we have spinach going in pots under our plum tree and they are doing really well.....already have had a harvest from them.....so glad....the ones we planted for spring bolted and we never even had any to eat

first ever harvest of kale....



my son planted some carrots in his selfwater container with MM and they are already up.....he planted some more peas yesterday and his tomato and onions are doing great!

Beans are already producing and we have had our first harvest of horto beans....to eat as a snap bean .....we were able to freeze some too.....going to leave the rest to have as a dry bean.......

this is what the horto beans look like picked for snap type bean



our scarlet runner beans are so pretty in our SFG



a few last strawberries....they are not producing a lot of runners



just pulled up our spring planting of garlic



our first artichokes has a second baby on it



we have lots of baby cucumbers



we have a couple baby acorn squash coming



we are going to have a taste test of celery today



the corn is HUGE and we see tassles trying to come up
this is the veiw from my back door



SFG is growing great....we do have some empty squares and havent decided what to plant there just yet....some of our fall crops seedling we go in ....need to decide if we are going to try and over winter some under plastic hoops



the childrens three sisters wine barrels is doing great!



sunflowers, lilly and other summer flowers are all in bloom ....these are some of my 12 year old daughters flowers....she loves lilly...



hope you all are outside enjoying this wonderful warm spell we are having.......

hugs
rose..... who is off to help water the family gardens

Rose your garden is an inspiration!

Fantastic Rose! Really. Your family has worked so hard - it's nice to see the fruits of your labor. Thanks for sharing the pics.

with our aug warm spell our family gardens are doing well

celery taste test was yummy....better than any celery at the store



2nd harvest of purple beans and first harvest of provider beans



we pulled up our volunteer garlic when the seed flower opened and we could see the tiny black seeds.....now we have to figure out what to do with those tiny black seeds......



lemon cucumbers are going crazy!...had our first taste tonight



pickle cucumbers are starting to produce



our son's pumpkin



our daughters pumpkins ( do you think her pumpkins and our son's look differnt??....we planted the same seeds )



scarlet runner beans are all over the vines :drunken: and we have a humming bird that visits after it cools down and she LOVES the red flowers....so cool to watch her....



our plum tree that was hit hard this winter is FULL of fruit



one of the best parts of living in the PNW wild black berries that dont need a thing...they produce on their own and is a very sweet treat in our summer.....



hugs
rose....who is sweaty and tired....but loving every min of it

Amazing as usual Rose. Wow!

Well, I finally had to admit that I had a nitrogen deficiency in my bed. Pretty much too late to do much for the few summer veggies I have planted, but adding blood meal a week ago seems to have made a difference already. Not much to see much in my pics, since I'm only just now re-seeding for fall. But I'll post a bunch anyway! (Just click on any to see full size.)

Pea Sprouts	Cucumbers	Bell Peppers
Whole SFG	Herb Garden	Froggy Helpers

Story on my cucumbers: Some of you may remember me planting and re-planting and re-planting as my seedlings were continuously destroyed by slugs, then hail, then cutworms, etc. I gave up for a bit, but out of stubborness one day I re-planted, thinking maybe there was still time to harvest one or two. Well because of my nitrogen deficiency they never grew. A couple of weeks ago I gave them a shot of liquid fertilizer and here they are, twice the size and flowering. Imagine if I'd figured that out in June.

Right now I have newly sown radishes, broccoli, green onions and peas. Been keeping the front row watered well to try again with lettuces. Lovely evening out there - maybe I should be doing that now!

gwennifer wrote:... because of my nitrogen deficiency they never grew. A couple of weeks ago I gave them a shot of liquid fertilizer and here they are, twice the size and flowering.

Nice! What liquid fertilizer did you use? My cucumbers, melons, squash pretty much everything is lagging so bad. Want to figure out something to give the a shot in the arm to finish up the season and get it over with!

southern gardener wrote:...what liquid fertilizer did you use?

I had a box of Vigoro All Purpose Plant Food under the sink that I bought years ago for my houseplants - it's this water soluble stuff. I just used that.

The garden is doing well so far in this heat. I have had to be diligent on watering since summer has actually arrived in the PNW.
Beans are doing great we are eating them fresh but I am also canning them.
We had beets from the garden yesterday and all I can say is YUM to home grown beets! Tomatoes are sweet and flavorful also.
I have already planted several things for fall, beets, more chard, parsnips are just starting to grow. I need pull the KohlRabi that never bulbed and try again.
I still have blueberries, strawberries have started again. The fall raspberries are setting fruit and it is blackberry season. I am very excited about the fig tree, I have nursed it from a cutting for a few years and it has figs this year. The purple plum tree is loaded and they are turning while the Italian plums are still green but it is loaded with fruit also.
All of your gardens look wonderful. I am glad summer finally arrived!

Well we are getting down in the mid 40's at night, so I am watching the temps to see if I have to cover.

I have lots (about 4-5 dozen) tomatos, which still haven't started to ripen, I am hoping the warm days are enough to get them started. I have harvested most of my cauliflower, I have one head left that is still small. My peas are doing good, I have gotten one batch and have another ready to pick in the next few days. I have lots of lettuce, that seems to multiply daily. Still nothing on the strawberries, did get about 6 of the clones to root in the box, have a few more to try here in the next few days. The onions are doing good, but they are starting to dwindle, as I have been using them in the cooking. Our mini pumpkins finally bloomed but they were all male blossom, so will probably try those again next year. So all in all I am happy with the progress of our first SFG, we are talking about expanding next year, so we have a project to work on during the winter.

Thanks for the update tananarose! Nice to hear from you.

happycamper, you were talking about keeping up with the heat in your last post and now here we are with near 100 degree temps yesterday, today and tomorrow. Ugh! The kids and I are staying inside with the a/c on, but as I've got these newly sown lettuces and spinach and arugula and broccoli - I'm out there watering them every few hours and hoping that's enough. Found a few new sprouts today so

My bell peppers are loving this though! My one that's been hanging on forever has finally started changing color. At least that's what I think it's doing... It's supposed to mature red and it's turning all chocolate-y brown right now. It's pretty ugly! The other plant finally re-bloomed last month and now has six peppers happily growing on it.

hoping everyone is doing ok in this heat wave

im a little worried about our fall seedlings.....we are away from home for a couple of nights......

hubby has been back to the house at night and did give our peas some water but forgot our cool weather crops out in the back garden area they did get a really good drink tuesday night so im hoping they will be ok in this heat

looking forward to picking more beans they have been giving us a meal or two about every other day!......so happy they are doing well.....last year we didnt get very many....i think we have found good ones that like our PNW weather

scarlett runner beans.....the vines are so pretty and they are loaded with beans.....really large beans that we are going to save as a dry bean....

horto beans ....we picked some to eat like a snap bean and the rest we are letting them develope into a dry bean

purple beans were early and is producing well and the second set of sowing is flowering now

provider bean....giving us LOTs of nice green beans.....they seem to produce a bean faster after flowering then any other bean so far

we also used up some older seeds of bush beans.....cant remember off hand....they are doing well......we just had our first picking of them this week and got enough to freeze in a QT size bag we will see how they do for the next picking.....i think they are blue lake bush beans......?

yellow cucumbers been doing very well.....love the flavor and they seem to be producing more then a reg type of cucumber does here in the PNW

still no sign of our fall planting of spinach and lettuce.....may have to replant because of the heat we are having....our other spinach that we planted in a container bolted after our first harvest.....at least we got some this time

corn.....wow...its growing great and is about 9ft tall :drunken: each stalk has between 1-3 ears growing.....

still no brossel sprouts from our spring seedlings.....is that normal?....the plants look great....nice and green and tall....we can see little things in the arm pits of the plant....but they havent developed into anything yet.....they have been stalled for at least a month now.....

oh....our fava beans we cut back to a stump to allow the nitrogen to go into the MM.....and we planted some fall peas....well....the fava's are growing back

hugs
rose

Ok I am finally back after a long absence...sorry about that you guys.

Anyway things have been bolting like crazy in the heat and the bugs have multiplied like crazy this year.

I am overrun with Japanese beetles in the garden and fleas and ants in the apartment.

I bought some food grade DE for the ants....but I might have to eventually resort to Amdro if the DE does not work....the little buggers are literally crawling in from the electrical outlets.

Welcome back Daniel! Sorry about the invasion...

We survived the heat but some of the bean leaves burned. I have been canning daily for 8 days now and my kitchen is looking a little crowded between jars, canners and fresh picked produce from the garden. We love raspberry/blackberry jam.
It has been a great year for green beans and I still have 32 squares (from staggered planting) that are blooming that should be ready by late September.
For some reason I have more tomatoes this year at this time than last year but I am not complaining, 5 quarts of cherry tomatoes put up so far.
The beets, chard, daikon and parsnips are up and growing well for fall veggies. I still need to plant more lettuce, radish (china rose) and spinach also. I have learned over the past few years that planting every two weeks in the PNW provides fresh veggies into winter and there is nothing like having home grown food for holiday dinners.

Welcome back Daniel! Sorry to hear about your bug problem. I can't help you outdoors, but if you're willing to poison the ones inside I can tell you what works for us. We get the little black ants in our house every year. Someone at hubby's work told us to try the Hot Shot MaxAttrax ant bait. Sure enough, it works every time.

FamilyGardening, I hope your garden has survived while you were away. Couldn't believe having a hundred degree heat wave in the middle of August here. Yuck! I do wish my tomato blossoms wouldn't keep blooming on these few days of over ninety temps. Oh well.

happycamper, I can't even fathom having enough produce to can. I had a very few bean leaves burn in the heat, but my daughter has a miniature japanese maple that really took a hit. Well, the days are very noticeably shorter now so soon they'll be ready to change color and fall off anyhow.

As for me, my radishes are growing this time around, which is a change from the spring when they would sprout and then not grow. However, they reach the age of maturity and pop out of the ground a bit and it's easy to see they are all very small. I've tried waiting to see if they get any bigger but no. Arrggh. Will continue to succession plant and see if I get any better luck as the weather cools. I have lettuce and arugula and spinach sprouting, but have many holes to fill in, thanks to that heat wave I'm sure. Today looks like a nice day for working out there so I better get to it. I need to get a new tomato pic for the Tomato Tuesday thread as well.

Thanks Gwen and cheyannarach.

Will have to try HotShot...I am desperate at this point.

I visited the Oregon State fair this weekend....unfortunately there was not much in the way of garden stuff...but I did see this...

[img][/img]

Apparently some engineering students from Oregon State University have invented a nifty little home essential oil extractor that they were selling.

It seemed expensive at $150 when I saw but I have since searched the web for other home kits and found extracting essential oils normal requires a still....and stills are fairly complicated contraptions that can easily cost hundreds of dollars or more...so it was fairly priced for what it does.

It was also much easier and faster to operate than a standard still as you just placed thing with a bit of ice in the microwave and zapped it a couple of minutes.

I got to see it in action and it definitely does work...I grow a lot of mint and other herbs...extracting my own essential oil might be something to try one time.

Anyway I got their website if you guys wanna check it out some more.

http://www.oilextech.com/

My 14 new beds are well on their way to being filled with compost. I have only one that needs real work, as it just has bunny compost in there so far, and a couple others need another bag or 2 of compost, but we're making progress. They're 10 inches deep, but I'm only filling them halfway, so that I can amend and add things as needed in the next few years.

I have lettuce, kale, spinach, peas, and a few other things planted for a fall crop. The lettuce is popping up really happily, and hopefully the rest will be in a couple days. I've now moved onto planting some berries for next year. Popped a couple raspberries in the ground, and I'm going to order a few more along with some Silvan blackberries. I'm not sure how many Silvans I'll need. We do have wild blackberries here, but I LOVE silvans, and they ripen so much earlier. Tonight I ordered 30 everbearing strawberries, and 16 alpine strawberries from a nursery. It will be nice to get those into the garden.

And I have gotten 2 ripe tomatoes off of one of my clearance tomato plants. I have another with a ton of tomatoes on there, I think I might make a hoop house and see if I can continue to get tomatoes into fall. I was happy to get two though



And finally, I have managed to move 6 rhodies, 10 more to go, and then I'll start on the lilacs (sigh).

Daniel9999....thanks for sharing with us the essential oil extractor from the state fair keep us posted if you give this a try!

spinwind ......sounds like you are keeping busy!......keep us posted on how the beds go for the fall and we love pictures!....congrats on your first tom from the sale rack!!

thought i would share the end of aug update on our familygardens

SFG box #1 is doing well.....scarlett runner beans, provider beans, sucker off of a volunteer tom from last year, kale, a new cabbage seedling, squash and our brossel sprouts that havent given us anything yet!



box #2....bush beans, cucumbers, carrots, fall sugar snap peas



box #3....fall shelling peas & fava beans that are regrowing



the childrens wine barrels three sisters are doing well....not sure if the corn is going to produce corn or not....they seem a bit short...



our son has one pumpkin...saved seed from last year



our daughter has three of these amish pie pumpkins....cant wait to taste these guys



the back garden is doing good too....corn, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, bush beans, celery, beets, onions, leeks and the hoops with fall plantings of caulis, brocs, cabbage, bok choi and still waiting for the spring plantings of brossels sprouts to produce.....

starting to get some squash....



made some pickles



we started to harvest some of our Horto beans also known as Tongues of fire beans......the beans inside are so pretty....they look and feel like a little bird egg.....



we have a few cantalopes.....hoping they will ripen....we have some growing in our small green house and some growing outside...



sunflower with a heart center...wondering if our beas are sending us a message



hugs
rose