New England, September 2015

Well, here we are again in September.  Things are winding down in my garden and I have ONE almost-ripe tomato to speak of.  Busy weekend this last one with cleaning up spent plants, harvesting things that are harvestable, etc. 

How's everyone else's gardens looking?

I miss my garden.

Still going with lots of the spring planted leafy greens! Giving away bags of them. The ground cherries continue to keep me supplied. Maters are still giving but seem to be slowing down. The cukes and peppers just started putting out and the leeks keep getting bigger. The beets are still trying to ball up.

Other than that, my SFG is looking a little sad, with limp leaves during the heat of the days and big gaps where planted lettuce, carrots, beet & pak choi seeds refuse to sprout - could be too old now. Also, I need to sprout lettuce indoors but just don't seem get around to it. I still have some baking potatoes to dig up, maybe this weekend. I don't know what happened to my pole beans but they are kinda gross with some kind of waxy stuff all over them.

The squash is just about none existent. Got one delicata from 5 plants. No tromboncinos yet from 4 plants. BUT, there are 4 butternuts of various sizes and bizarre shapes from 6 plants, AND it looks like ONE hand pollinated zuke (out of 5 plants) is forming, all outside the SFG.

I'll get some photos at lunch today.

My SFG gets watered twice a week, sometimes with bucket water, sometimes with city water.

Sick pole beans, leaves are falling off pretty quickly:

Suggestions welcome.

Black Cherry & Sweetie tomatoes and greens still going:


Cukes on the right side of this bed are finally producing, but nothing from that zuke in the lower left.  The April planted carrots are ready but so small. Orchard in the back ground, old school SFGs along the right:
here are 3 ready for picking:

Speaking of squash, my 1 & only zuke beginning to form:
And the 1 & only delicata who's leaves are quickly dying off:

Pepperoncinos on the right & left ends of this box, chard & bush beans further in.  I did start some sugar snap peas along the trellis that were growing beautifully til slugs or something took all but 2 down:
The bush beans have that same weird mosaic leaves & fruits as the pole beans.

Outside the box
What happened to all my beautiful squash leaves??? It's like they melted:
But the volunteer grape tom in the midst of them is outstanding!
All my cherry toms have been great this year!

Next in line from the butternuts are the parsnips.  I'm concerned about them as the outer leaves are falling over and seem to be melting a bit:
And the asparagus behind them is making red berries but are supposed to be all males.

The tromboncinos are struggling but the Morning Glories are glorious!

It's a weird summer but I sure am loving my once or twice a day fresh green smoothies!

And the seed saving begins:

Good bean problem site:
http://www.harvesttotable.com/2009/05/bean_growing_problems_troubles/

Nothing about waxy cover pods though. What ever it is apparently I'd better clean up the dropped leaves and not continue using them as mulch.

sanderson wrote:   Camp,  please explain.  Life getting in the way?

yup yup. Just wicked busy and not in the garden.

Today's one handed harvest, plus 3 apples in my pockets from a neighborhood walk earlier  :

Nice!  What is that pretty, large tomato?

CC
I love your pictures, worth a thousand words

CC, is that a Delicata squash? Do they need trellises?

The yellow tomato in the photo above is a yellow Brandywine. I found it to be a little tough and rather bland so I won't grow them again. I normally only grow Brandywines for my mother but she hasn't come up yet this summer. So mostly I give them away.

Thanks, Jimmy. I agree, photos tell a good story and they help me out a lot because sometimes I struggle with descriptions.

Yes, SR, that is a delicata squash - the only one I have this year. They don't need trellising. My friend grows them en masse in his raised beds without a trellis.

What a beautiful day today! This is why I live here! Heading out to dig potatoes, fill the water buckets for tomorrow's watering , pick some cukes and top off the tomatoes. And I think I'll go play in the compost pile, too. It looks like the pile from last fall is mostly ready so I need to start a separate new one now.

My tomatoes are ripening, but they're getting a lot of bites out of them. Of course, it would help if I had TRELLISED them... but we won't get into that. This summer I'm still preoccupied with getting the soil in the entire area built up and just right.

I harvested my beautiful onions a month ago, and they've been sitting, and I'm trimming them this morning. But almost all of them are leaking as I trim them. Do you know if that's normal, or what? Maybe I'm trimming them too close? Maybe they aren't as dried out as they need to be?

Leaky onions??? Is that a typo? Sounds kind of gruesome, NHG. I don't trim my onions until I use them so I can't help you there. 

If birds are picking at your tomatoes you could try putting knee highs over the good ones . I found the most disgusting worm inside one of my Roman tomatoes this morning. There were big holes in the side so I knew something was in there.

Finally got my lettuce seeds planted and put in to the window to germinate. Pok Choi, Four Seasons, Freckles, Grand Rapids, Red Velvet.
The pot on the right is the cut back stevia sprouting again.

NHG, just try leaving a bit of extra length on the stem.  See if that helps.  You may be cutting into a bit of fresh onion, that's all (is my guess).

I've been so busy I missed the wild elderberries this year.

NHGardener wrote:My tomatoes are ripening, but they're getting a lot of bites out of them. Of course, it would help if I had TRELLISED them... but we won't get into that. This summer I'm still preoccupied with getting the soil in the entire area built up and just right.

I harvested my beautiful onions a month ago, and they've been sitting, and I'm trimming them this morning. But almost all of them are leaking as I trim them. Do you know if that's normal, or what? Maybe I'm trimming them too close? Maybe they aren't as dried out as they need to be?

don't cut them so close.

sanderson wrote:

camprn wrote:I've been so busy I missed the wild elderberries this year.

 No!!  Not the wild elderberries!

NOOOOOO!!!  Say it isn't so!

(I know the despair, I missed the wild chokecherries here as well)

Goosegirl wrote:

sanderson wrote:

camprn wrote:I've been so busy I missed the wild elderberries this year.

 No!!  Not the wild elderberries!

NOOOOOO!!!  Say it isn't so!

(I know the despair, I missed the wild chokecherries here as well)

what do you use the choke cherries for?

I left about 3/4" stubbies on my onions but I guess that wasn't enough. I hope that doesn't ruin the shelf life to have cut too close to them. This is my first summer with a beautiful onion crop, so it's a learning experience.

I have an amazing elderberry tree. Someone gave it to me as a cutting off their tree. In spring I made 5 cuttings from this tree and gave 4 away and kept one. Next spring I'm going to make a few more cuttings and plant some more.

What do you do with elderberries though? So far mine are going to the birds and the chickens.

Oh, I'm so jealous, NHG!  Elderberry....

Jam, jelly, pie, cough syrup.

Elderberry cordial.

What a weird summer its been... First it was too cold and now its bloody hot!!! But I can't complain, since I got this for a harvest today:

My  son lives in Newport RI and he called 2 night ago and said that it was incredibly hot, lawn is brown and the garden is toast. He got most of the tomatoes but he lost most everything else. He said the humidity was like 80 present. H was hoping the grapes made it through.