August 2012, New England

Aww man, I'm sorry to hear about all the zucchini failure this year. I'm thankful I was able to do surgery on mine to extract the little disgusting grubs, but I know it's only a short while before they die off anyway. Most disappointing to me is my pumpkins. Try just won't set fruit, the girls are falling off before flowering, and they all have SVB problems. I've either already done surgery or need to do it. And the Connecticut field have PM like no ones business, despite neem. My lumina pumpkins have one little baby pumpkin on one vine, but that vine is fading fast. Is it because it's putting it's energy into the pumpkin? I've never grown them before so I have no idea.

Next year I'm going to try covering all the squashes with tule until they flower. I hear that helps. I'm also thinking about finding a place to let my pumpkins sprawl on the ground. I've seen pictures where people say the main root of the pumpkin had died away because of SVB, but then the other sections of the vine make roots and the plant continues to survive. Anyone ave experience with that?

Hello-

I haven't posted in a while because I've been in the garden. Some great harvests of some veggies and still trying to master some others. This years improvements are many from the last two years. Most squares have been "working" all season. Many 2nd crops which is a new achievement.

August 2012

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Yukon Gold potatoes have been good. Working on the 2nd crop now. Several batches of homegrown potato salad. Also in the 2nd planting includes Red Bliss and sweet potatoes.
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An epic year for snap peas has finally ended and they have been removed. The pole beans and bush beans have been decent. Second planting of Kentucky pole beans is between the two rows. There are some transplanted eggplants in the front row along with a marigold. Eggplants and peppers had to be transplanted because the Black Beauty zucchini got SOOO BIG!
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This picture is a few weeks old but the winter squash has just begun producing. Cucumbers should follow (fingers crossed). Leeks, potatoes are in there to!

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Container crops have done very well. Next year ALL my peppers will be grown like this. They are all from seed and seem to like lousy soil quality and the heat. Mel's Mix is too classy for them.
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Some recent harvests
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When the snows begin to fall...I'll still have fresh salads! This is my winter project.
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I've brewed lots of compost tea this season and have just begun to harvest rain for the gardens. White powdery mildew has returned again. A bit later this season which is good because most of the plants are well established (except for the 2nd wave of squash and cukes). My spray bottle for dilute milk has broken. :-(

Wishing you continued good luck in your garden!

@little sapphire, I'll let you know how it turns out. I did exactly that. I left at least 1 root tap with each remaining pumpkin piece. One that has a baby pumpkin (the size of a roma) I even planted the tap which had not taken hold yet. Hopefully it works - we need a fingers crossed emoticon!

I would've thought a very hot summer like ours would have resulted in abundant squash/pumpkin yields, but maybe it works the opposite and it was too hot for them.

Then again, they grow them in Florida, so maybe not.

Hmm.

Wow, BR, nice gardening this year up your way!

I think I'm noticing that my bell peppers may do better in compost than MM. But actually either way, they aren't doing well. They keep falling off, flowers and fruits.

What's that oval striped thing between the zuc & beans? Also, would you please post more photos of your lettuce box, if possibl?. Is it a self watering one?

CC

In our area it's still too early for winter squash and pumpkin. They are still growing if the vines have not died.

I'd be happy with even one marble sized spaghetti squash but I got nada...only male flowers on all 3 plants. Same with my watermelon & cantaloupes.

CC

Hi CapeGoddess,
The striped vegetable is a winter squash My lettuce box is called an aerospring. I slowly built it with some free time here and there. The system is fully automated which is nice. Sixteen hours of light per day. Microsprayers water the root systems many times a day for 30 minutes. The water just falls back into the tupperware tote below. I put about 10 gallons of water in about 3 weeks ago. I am trying to start some mesclun and arugula lettuce. They will take the place of the stubborn spinach. Thaks for writing and enjoy your garden!

2 things: The re-plant that I thought was zucchini has actually turned out, on closer look, to be a cucumber, which is good because I couldn't get my cucumbers to last thru seedling stage and had given up on them, but have really missed fresh cucumbers this summer. There's a baby cucumber that hopefully will keep growing, and lots of blossoms and vine.

And I found several half-eaten green cherry tomatoes, and strained my eyes for probably 45 minutes, and finally found the Mother of All Hornworms. Must've been close to 3" long, and the Hornworm Hen loved it. I hope that's the last of those things, I haven't seen one in several days before this.

NHGardener wrote:I would've thought a very hot summer like ours would have resulted in abundant squash/pumpkin yields, but maybe it works the opposite and it was too hot for them.

Then again, they grow them in Florida, so maybe not.

Hmm.

Mine got hit by SVB repeatedly... think I am going to try to cover them next year.

I am thanking the Gods for the Blessed rain this afternoon.

Does the SVB come up thru the soil?

Today I pulled all the onions and they are in a wire basket to dry out. Added wood shavings to my compost piles that are in my 3 new boxes for next year. Stopped at Agway and got some bags of Coast of Maine compost to put in those boxes too. The store was out of vermiculite for the season, but can order. I'll mix everything together before I put the boxes to bed for the winter. Then I guess I'll cover it with something, like straw, so the MM doesn't get chilly.

NHG, to be clear, and you probably already know this, you do not need more vermiculite to recharge the current bed, only compost.

Yup, but I'm starting 3 new 4x8 beds, and so far all I have in them is my homemade compost, which is really fun adding stuff to it, but I need to balance it with the vermiculite & peat for next spring. I could wait until spring to do it, but I think if I do it now it may just "settle" by spring.

But yes, I'll add just compost to the dryish beds.

Dinner tonight (besides the fried clams ordered out) was (from the garden) sauteed eggplant, green pepper, & onion, steamed green beans, and a salad with salad greens, tomato, bought shredded carrot (still have to pull out my carrots), sunflower seeds (also bought, unfortunately).

ooooooooooooooh fried clams! yum!!

All those beautiful vegetables, and you yum the fried clams?

NHGardener wrote:All those beautiful vegetables, and you yum the fried clams?

Makes me want to take a trip to Brownie's Lobster Pound in Seabrook. Alas, I am headed in the other direction tomorrow, to Burlington Vermont, so no fresh clams for me.

Can't wait to hear about it when you get back - have fun!

I picked my first large tomatoes this morning. We have been munching on sweet 100 cherry tomatoes for some time and had a few roma's, but this morning I hit the JACKPOT! Left to Rt Triple L, Better boy bush, sweet 100, and yellow brandywine! I've never grown tomatoes this big before each one is around a pound.

Now for the question. After mauling my pumpkin vine, it is pretty dead. Do I just leave the ripening pumpkins there and pull the vine? I've never grown them before, so don't know what to do next.
:scratch:
My garden is doing very well, peppers and beans are slow, but producing. The cukes are doing well and I'm going to make refridgerator BB pickles this week. My fall garden is growing great too with radishes, cauliflower, broccoli, pak choi, lettuces, beets, carrots, cabbage, etc. I know I got started too late on some of it, but I just finished rereading the book and made several pages of notes for next year. I also think my root crops got too much nitrogen this year. eg. my red northern potato plants are huge, but can't feel any potatoes 6-8" down. That too will be remedied next year.

Congrats, hruten! Beautiful! Your progress sounds at about the same speed as mine - tomatoes starting to come in, peppers are all forming, my beans are starting to come in more now... Really I need another month of prime grow time so I hope the weather cooperates.

Don't know about the pumpkin vine, but I'm always surprised how those rotted vines still seem functional after I'm sure they're dead. I have many squash blossoms now on what is obviously a vine borer attacked vine with holes in it and everything. But instead of "doctor" it, I'm just going to let it do its thing and hope I get some squash out of it. But I don't know about pumpkins.

And I hear you about notes for next summer! I feel like I'm a scientist doing experiments. Ha. Every year the garden improves...

I've been harvesting cabbage, yellow squash, zucchini, onions, and tomatoes lately and only one Hungarian Hot Wax pepper. I've already been roasting tomatoes to freeze. Yesterday it was the fruit trees. I picked 13 Red Haven peaches off my youngest tree (planted as a whip in 2010) and still have more left to ripen. Also the first Honey Crisp apple of the season. Yippee, its fruit time!

My only peach tree in mid-June.


Here's the fruits I picked 8/13.

I'm also saving tomato seeds. One is Mexico Midget which is a very small red cherry, very juicy and very tasty. I'll grow more of those next year for salads and snacking.

See how small.

So far I've saved tomato seeds from Sausage (great for sauces), Gilbertie (sauce-type), Red Zebra (very tasty slicer), Pasquebot Roma (smaller sauce-type, meaty with few seeds), Nyagous (very dark and not among favorites for taste), Red Velvet (tasty, sweet red cherry), Black Plum (juicy, tasty for salads), and Super Marmande (sauce-type).

Beautiful baby peach tree! And the apples look delicious. I have 2 baby apple trees I made from grafts that are in their temporary grow spot while we ready their permanent home for the spring.

Do you spray your trees? I hear there's pretty much no getting around that...

@NHGardener.....No, I've never sprayed my trees. I've had lots of Japanese Beetles invade my apple trees but I'm out there every day popping them into a jar of soapy water to keep down their numbers.
I put netting over my cherry tree this year but the birds came in UNDER the netting and cleaned me out of cherries this year.
I lost my Granny Smith dwarf to something that killed it in its 3rd year but before I ever got even one apple off it. It just died. All the branches started shedding their leaves last fall much too early and this spring, its a tall leafless set of branches. I never noticed any insects. I was told by a landscaper I might try cutting it back to a couple inches above its graft and maybe it'll come back next year. I'll try it.

Needless to say, I'm thrilled to get these peaches this year....and a few Honey Crisps on the tree.

Nice maters, hruten! What a haul, QB! What water supply do you both use - well water, rain barrel or city water?

I'm beginning to see a pattern forming around my area. It seems that those with wells have veggies sooner than those with city water. Is that possible? Could some of the energy of the plants be going into protecting them from the chlorine or whatever crud is in the water?

CC

Wow CC, that would be an interesting study! I know when I read lately in a composting book the need for minerals such as manganese, I was thinking: my well water is high in manganese. So I wonder if well water has minerals that public water supply doesn't? Don't know.

Altho most of my veggies in the spring are watered by rain I think. And they weren't tremendously early either.

Here is they mystery thing that just might be a weed in my SFG:



Does anyone recognize it as a vegetable plant? Broccoli? Cauliflower? Spinach? Onion? That's pretty much all it could be because I know it is not a carrot, beet, chard or scallion.

And here is the mystery pot that I apparently threw some seeds into and forgot to notate I had done it. If it truly is anything, it's either spinach or lettuce or bush green bean. But I really do not think it's a bush green bean! (and, yes, it would be totally like me to try different things in the same pot and think I was going to transplant the seedlings!)





Thanks for any input!