New England, September 2015

Molly, lovely harvest!

John, I have such a hard time picturing RI as hot. Maybe it's the humidity that makes it miserable?

We just had 3 days in the 90s and humidity here in NH, and our conditions are very dry also. Unusual for September!

That sounds awful.

mollyhespra wrote: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:

That is a gorgeous bowl! I would put that bowl in a calendar and then eat the calendar.

Yup we just had a heat wave in ri and are in the negative for rain fall. Unless you are good about watering and don't have a water ban, gardens suffer. I was sick recently and lost my cucumber and bean plants from lack of watering. I'm lucky, we have a well so I can water when needed. 

But hopefully the thunderstorm that woke my little kids this morning signals a change in the heat.

Sdugas my son did call several days ago and said the same thing. He got his tomatoes but lost the rest of his garden. Noticed the rain this morning as they are leaving for Nantucket for the weekend. At least it is not so hot.

It's been awful as far as the heat, humidity and lack of rain this summer.  Summer drought yr #3 for the Cape.  Lawns & lands without wells are toast.  I think I'll switch to crabgrass - its growing in leaps and bounds.  The poor hydrangeas and such are all droopy and the trees looks crispy.


What a beautiful harvest, Molly!!!  It DOES look like a culinary calendar photo! You like peppers, huh?  

Here's my little morning harvest, less half the ground cherries, all the cherry toms, all the raspberries and all the beans I ate while picking:
The pink thing is a daikon. I thought it was a turnip or something that got mixed into the seed packet until I ate some of it. WOW! Woulda knocked my socks off if I'd been wearing any.  Maybe it's a daikon-radish cross.  I'll have to wait to harvest another.  This one was a freak and grew VERY quickly but the others are still barely there.

Marc Iverson wrote:

mollyhespra wrote: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:

That is a gorgeous bowl! I would put that bowl in a calendar and then eat the calendar.

Now, that's a compliment!

CapeCoddess, What do you mean by your location as "elbow of the Cape, MA?" TrolleyDriver posted a virtual flyover for you and we are discussing what the name of the topic should be.

Nice haul, Molly! Wish my 2 measely pepper plants did something this year. I have had 2 peppers, one from each plant....

You guys are getting the heat/dry wave we just got out of....it was terrible! And pollen sufferers have been a wreck! Didn't have to mow for almost 3 weeks, and finally did because the weeds/crabgrass was making the whole thing look bad!

Now it is more seasonable.

CC, is that leafy blueish stuff kale? I just planted some yesterday, my first.

sanderson wrote:CapeCoddess,  What do you mean by your location as "elbow of the Cape, MA?"  TrolleyDriver posted a virtual flyover for you and we are discussing what the name of the topic should be.

Really?  I'd love to see it! Where is the link? Cape Cod looks like an arm making a fist to show its muscle. I live where the elbow would be.

Well, the dreaded Late Blight has paid me a visit so tomorrow, it's going to be mayhem in the garden when I take down all the toms and cut off all the potato stems at ground level.  Of course, this happens *just* as my nightshades were starting to ripen.



I just don't have the time to do battle properly, and I could have a frost any day now, so I might as well take them all down and salvage what I can of the fruits.  The spuds will stay buried another few weeks to give their skins a chance to toughen up and to hopefully prevent infection when I dig them up as by then, the nasty spores should have whithered and died.

Aw, so sorry about the blight, Molly.  Do you water with baby aspirin?  I did it when I thought I saw blight about a month ago.  It's gone now so maybe they were just dead and dying leaves as NHG calls hers.

Some of this weeks harvests:



= pickled peppers:



Basil needs picking:


At the beginning of the season I didn't think I would grow Sweeties again, but now I will due to their sweet flavor, prolific growth and rarely any cracking:

Beautiful as always, CC!

I have now opened my garden to the chickens, in hopes they will clean up in there and scare some of those voles/moles away.

Darn the blight, Molly!

CC, what about the aspirin water? Beautiful harvest--yum!

The hummers left here around Sept 4th.  They were feeding on the 3rd a lot and then nothing from that day forward.  I've kept out the feeders and refilled until today so if any passing from the north, they could feed on their journey.
Finished roasting the rest of my tomatoes and have a few on the table ripening for eating fresh.  The Mountain Gold are fantastic for flavor, not many seeds and delish and good size.
My veggie garden consists now of only Brussels sprouts, kale, and herbs.  Everything else is past with only a few tomatoes hanging on with the blight hitting.  I had mostly determinates this year so they've passed for the season.
CapeC....Your garden is lovely as usual.  You do good every year and I love seeing your photos.  Enjoy.
Temperatures here are divine, in the 70s and low 80s days, low humidity, and nites cool off mostly in the low 50s with windows open and a sheet over me.  My kind of weather.

CC, Lovely

Scorpio Rising wrote: 

CC, what about the aspirin water?  

In Mel's Q&A book he mentions that watering with baby aspirin mixed in water (at planting?) helps stave off early blight. I've been putting a baby aspirin in the planting hole at planting, and also watering with the blended water when I hear that late blight is on the way. Not sure it works with late blight but I don't have blight and all my neighbors plants are about dead from it now. I use 3 or so aspirin to a blender of water. You can also use it as a foliar spray. Camp posted a link about that somewhere.

CC ... Your garden and harvest are looking good.

Fall is blowing in as I type. Temp change from this morning is amazing!  I think I actually need to close the windows...

or put some long pants and shirt on.

Today's harvest - green beans, kale, chives, Striped Roman, basil, (not shown) oregano and cherry tomatoes:

Onions, garlic and shallot added so I can build a pizza pile atop of my fave frozen pizza:

ta daa!

Beautiful CC!

I closed my windows today too. I felt the wind changing this morning and thought - uh oh. Here it comes.

I'm growing a lot of goldenrod and asters for the bees right now. Goldenrod is starting to turn brown, so asters will be it, and then when asters are gone, it's night night till spring for the bees. 

Temps are forecasted to run 60s/40s this week pretty much. I wonder when the first frost will hit?

Definitely feels more Fall like here in Ottawa today. From being in the mid 80s F yesterday we are now in the mid 60s today.

CC ... yummy pizza!!!

NHG ... are you anywhere near Walpole, NH ... we have friends in that area?

td, that's about 100 miles from me, I'm east. But it's in camprn's neck of the woods.

Delish pizza! 102*F tomorrow.

Wow, Sanderson! How much do you have to water in that kind of heat?