New England, August 2016

It was a nice weekend, and this morning we are getting a few sprinkles, some cooler temperatures, and a little less humidity. My gardens are in full throttle, with my green beans racing to cover the 8 foot tall trellis I built. August is the payoff month here, that is when just about everything starts to produce the good eats we have been working towards. Though I don't have any color to my tomatoes, (other than on one Sungold cherry tomato, which will not make it into the house, they taste so good!) I know it is just a matter time before I taste the sliced tomatoes on a sandwich.
The sun hasn't shined yet, we will probably get a little more rain, which is OK, I don't need to water and the temperatures will be very pleasant. This is the part of the summer where I don't have to rush for a little while, a time to take those moments to just relax.
Happy Gardening everybody!

Thanks for the new thread, Rock!  

Beautiful perfect Cape Cod day today!  Mid 70's & sunny with a breeze.  We even got 1/4" of rain this morning.

It's so nice out that I felt moved to plant out some lettuce starts and sow some seeds:
May be too early but what the heck, you'll never know if you don't try.

It's that time again....THE GOOD, THE BAD and THE UGLY!

The good...
The sprouting of last weeks sowed beets and spinach mustard was especially encouraging considering how hot it was:

Successfully transplanted cuke starts (a first for me!)

The greens box keeps on truckin' even though I can't seem to get water down into the oh so dry MM:

This box has bolting Buttercrunch lettuce and Chantenay carrots that I'm allowing to go to seed, along with successful experimental Winterbor kale (a hybrid) plants from traded saved seed:  
Whoever sent me the Winterbor seeds, thank you!  It works!

These Sweetie tomatoes are kind of freakish in their robustness.  The stems are the thickest I've ever seen in cherries, and they shoot out suckers that produce before I even realize they are there:

The bad...
These 4 sqs of bush beans, that were supposed to shade the lettuce behind them, were mostly eaten by pill bugs as soon as they sprouted.  The few that made it are producing nicely though:

These are my itsy bitsy pepper plants on the right.  They haven't grown an inch since I put them in 2 mths ago, too early obviously:  

OK, so here we have 12 butternut squash plants, all 1 ft apart.  Not sure if they are going to make it or not.
I just read in another thread that Yolos (I think) got SVB on her butternut.  That's just so wrong.    I'm hoping that's not what happened here but I'll have to check.

The ugly...
Gilberties, every single fruit on 2 plants looks like this:
None of my other tomatoes have BER, even the ones next to the Gilberties.

How on earth these 3 plants are ever going to make brussel sprouts is beyond me:


Poor poor cabbage, sad sad parsley:

Crispy strawberry plants:


And the beautiful!
Oriental lily "Dizzy" in front of the asparagus:
The scent makes me swoon...

I like your theme for your garden. You could now be known as the Clint Eastwood of gardeniing in MA. I can see it now, you look at those garden pests and weeds and say, "Go ahead, make my day." and they disappear.

bigdogrock wrote:I like your theme for your garden. You could now be known as the Clint Eastwood of gardeniing in MA. I can see it now, you look at those garden pests and weeds and say, "Go ahead, make my day." and they disappear.

Iconic whistling in the background....

Interestingly, I had 2 of my lower Cherokee Purple maters with BER, nobody else in the box got it.  Brand new 4x4, new MM.  Hmmmm, makes me think watering is an issue with them, because it also has leaf curl bad, even after watering....but all my maters do....only rain helps that, and we have had none in a month.  

As always love the pics, CC!

We needed this rain, and we got it here yesterday and last night. It has been off and on rain, and the trusty rain gauge says we got an inch of rain since Sunday night. I have got a lot done around the house, but nothing in the garden. I can bet that when I go out to the squash and purple green beans I will have a "pickin' an' grinnin" session.
The sun has finally come out and the humidity is going to spike for a while, then it will hopefully drop down. I took another pic of my green bean and beets raised bed, I added a yard stick on the right for scale, it is growing so fast and flowers are popping up.
My beets are coming along too!

The sound you hear is me sobbing. . . those are lovely. As I told Yolos, no more pics of my embarrassing garden.

sanderson wrote:The sound you hear is me sobbing. . . those are lovely.  As I told Yolos, no more pics of my embarrassing garden.

Same here.

countrynaturals wrote:

sanderson wrote:The sound you hear is me sobbing. . . those are lovely.  As I told Yolos, no more pics of my embarrassing garden.

Same here.

Just remember what awaits us poor creatures in the northern states and provinces. You will still be gardening when we are buried in snow.

trolleydriver wrote:

countrynaturals wrote:

sanderson wrote:The sound you hear is me sobbing. . . those are lovely.  As I told Yolos, no more pics of my embarrassing garden.

Same here.

Just remember what awaits us poor creatures in the northern states and provinces. You will still be gardening when we are buried in snow.

I certainly hope so. This garden project has been very expensive, in terms of $$ and effort. So far the return has been absymal.   I am hoping for a fabulous Sep & Oct to make up for a pitiful June, July, and August.

trolleydriver wrote:

countrynaturals wrote:

sanderson wrote:The sound you hear is me sobbing. . . those are lovely.  As I told Yolos, no more pics of my embarrassing garden.

Same here.

Just remember what awaits us poor creatures in the northern states and provinces. You will still be gardening when we are buried in snow.

No, I assure you, we will all be living vicariously through you guys in Cali, the Southwest, Deep South, and even some of the border lands that can do the leaves and roots!  

We will make plans for a cold frame, or greenhouse....

We will be shoveling snow, praying the car starts, and the power stays on, and waiting on the SEED CATALOGS!!!!!!!

While watching and drooling on your stuff from the gardens...trust me.

Scorpio Rising wrote:

trolleydriver wrote:

countrynaturals wrote:

sanderson wrote:The sound you hear is me sobbing. . . those are lovely.  As I told Yolos, no more pics of my embarrassing garden.

Same here.

Just remember what awaits us poor creatures in the northern states and provinces. You will still be gardening when we are buried in snow.

No, I assure you, we will all be living vicariously through you guys in Cali, the Southwest, Deep South, and even some of the border lands that can do the leaves and roots!  

We will make plans for a cold frame, or greenhouse....

We will be shoveling snow, praying the car starts, and the power stays on, and waiting on the SEED CATALOGS!!!!!!!

While watching and drooling on your stuff from the gardens...trust me.

SO true... 
Save

Thank you Sanderson, but your garden pics rock.

Its lovely to be back to check out the gardens.  I finally have my computer back and running.  It had to be reset, but as long as I can get to my forums, I'm a happy camper.
I've been watching the family of hummers.  There are now 4 of them so I guess the hatchlings are feeding, too.  Even so, they fight off each other at the feeder.
Enjoy your summer of gardening.

quiltbea wrote:I've been watching the family of hummers.  There are now 4 of them so I guess the hatchlings are feeding, too.  Even so, they fight off each other at the feeder.
Enjoy your summer of gardening.

Our hummers rarely come to the feeders, now, since we have so many flowers. When the flowers are gone, I have to replenish the feeders every 2-3 days.

country........Unfortunately my son pulled out most of my Monarda early this year to clear out the flower beds.  I don't have many flowers blossoming as I once did and haven't put in any annuals with the house going up for sale.  My hummers need the feed this year.  He only wanted the perennials.

Quiltbea: We seem to have more hummers in the winter when it's slim pickin's for them. I think our summers are too hot and only a couple of hardy souls hang around. They sure are fun to watch. Here's my favorite hummer story:

Hubby was messing with a sprinkler in the redwood grove. As he was moving it around, a hummer came by and tried to get a drink. It started at the top and tried to follow the water flow down to the ground -- did that a few times. When that didn't work, It figured out that it could hover at the top of the "fountain" and the water would stay available. After having a good, long drink, it decided there was more to it, and started playing in the sprinkler. Hubby watched the show for several minutes, but I was in the house and he couldn't get my attention. If only I could have been out there with the video camera.

Cute story

Still harvesting daily lettuce.  If picked early in the morning there is no bitterness, even from the bolted 3-4 ft tall Rouge d' Hivers.  It's amazing.

Poor remaining baby lettuces are stretching to get out.  I'll plant them this weekend and hope for the best.
The others that were planted last week under the burlap dome are struggling but I do see some life in them now.  Got my fingers crossed.

Beautiful day!

Beautiful pics! Love the flowers. Makes all the hard work worth it. 

Nice' CC!  

I am going to start my lettuces, spinach, and corn salad  (mache) inside this weekend.  Radishes in the SFG.  

It's a comin'!

The new UMass vegetable newsletter is out and tells us when to plant for fall and next spring.
https://ag.umass.edu/vegetable/newsletters

Got the remaining leggy lettuces and some pak choi planted out under the dome today. Hoping for some rain afternoon. Hahahaha
Now I need to up pot the ornamental cabbage seedlings and get them outside.

Problem, I have so many lobster shells and bodies in my new compost pile that the stench is permeating up through everything else and it's stinking up the neighborhood. I actually have to tell my neighbors and coworkers not to give me any more for a while.  I wonder how much is too much?

Oh, and I just ordered this knee bench for my mother's birthday beginning of next month.  She'll have the rest of the year to use it before she goes back to her Florida condo. Then she doesn't back come up until May and I start gardening in March...    
https://www.amazon.com/Goplus-Folding-Kneeler-Gardener-Kneeling/dp/B014KJPXI0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1470509513&sr=8-2&keywords=Gardening+knee+bench

I had that problem once CC, I mowed the lawn and used the grass clippings to put a thin layer over the pile (I watered  the pile down a little BEFORE I put the clippings on) then I very lightly sprayed the grass clippings to moisten them up just a little. I then put a single layer of plastic over most of the pile. The smell was gone and the pile cooked down a bunch. A few days later I took the plastic off, wet it down again, added some grass clippings, moistened them, and covered again with the plastic. No smell after that. I checked it again a couple of weeks later and was happy with the results.
It really wasn't that much work, the hardest part was finding the plastic and the rocks I had to use to weight it down.

The benchy thing is cool!  In my cart....thanks! Sorry, no experience with too much lobster, gosh darn it!