N&C Midwest August 2023

Well, it is a very busy time in the gardens around here!  It has been a roller coaster ride this year.  I, like many of you, are still waiting on that first mater!  

I hope to get out there and harvest some more veggies and check on everything else (Melons).  For the past couple years, fall has been my busiest time, starting with late summer, August.  I hope to get some fall lettuces in soon, and maybe some turnips, this weekend.

Happy August everyone!

Summer has kept me super busy this year and away from seeing how all of you were doing. Things are going pretty well here. Like many of you, things in my garden seem to be developing more slowly (or I am just too impatient). LOL! Japanese beetles seem to be my enemy #1 this year (as opposed to the earwigs last year). They are wrecking havoc on my pole beans and raspberries. Doing my daily (morning and night) check with my pail of warm soapy water. I may try adding some beneficial nematodes like OG does, but don't have the time right now to look into that right now. 

Finishing up the work on my two cold frames. Dug down and added compost and peat moss to the soil to loosen everything up. I will keep it simple this year and maybe try some beets, carrots and herbs until I get the hang of it.  

Thinking about getting some crops in for a fall garden. Plan on doing that this week!

Can't believe it is August already!  But, I celebrated the arrival of the month by cleaning one of the beds, top it off with compost, and plant the Fall carrots and beets. Need to find a place to start some more lettuce since all of the current plants are starting to bolt to seed.

I've been planting greens for fall garden - lettuce/spinach/mizuna/mache/claytonia will replace the beans soon.

Wow, you guys have been rocking it!  I got a bunch of zucchini and cucumbers harvested last night.  Sneak a Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day is coming early here!  Actually, I am taking it all to work tomorrow to give away.  

Beans looking good.  Potatoes will be ready soon.  So will some onions.  

Highlight:  I did pick my first little bunch of cherry tomatoes!!!!  Sungold, I love you!  Nice salad makings!  

My weekend plans include clean-up, and amending to make way for some carrots, lettuces, and other greens—might try a fall planting of spinach!

Yesterday while I was working on refreshing a bed it sounded like there was a swarm of bees in the next bed. Turned out it was the bees busily pollinating the Zucchini Squash plants. I grabbed the phone to record a short video of the sound and activity of them.  It was so neat to watch all the bees. There were honey bees, mason bees, and squash bees all working together.

Had to water my beds tonight…very very dry, despite periodic downpours.  Picked 2 cucumbers, 2 were overdone, left them out there.  Will get ‘em tomorrow.  

I will need to get some pattypans tomorrow night…just ran out of daylight!  

Saw a bunny in my bed where I had the carrots germinating (which they had done, and I had thinned several times).  Scared him/her off….doesn’t matter I suppose.

Busy morning refreshing a couple beds and planting seeds for the fall vegetables -- Radish, Lettuce, Spinach, Bok Choy, Chinese Cabbage, Carrots, Beets, and Green Onions.

Can't wait for the tomatoes and eggplant to ripen. They are developing nicely, but it is taking them forever. 

I like seeing how different Regional gardens grow. You guys are coming into harvesting season while I am starting to pull out dead or dying plants
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Yes, sanderson,  it is interesting how each area has a different timetable.  

I did water my south annex this morning (peppers, one tomato, one eggplant).  Coming along nicely, except the tomato got really damaged by whiteflies.  I have been using the Dr. Bronners mixture but need to avoid sun….not easy out there.  

Trying to get it (the Amana Orange) tomato better….I have never grown this—got it at a Master Gardener’s sale.  Its fruits have also suffered from blossom end rot, so added some bone meal when I watered it this morning.  

Harvested a few more cherry tomatoes, smaller patty pans which I plan to sauté, and one cucumber.

Had to prune the suckers out of the cucumbers on the arbor in order them up to air flow. Harvested 16 cucumbers during the process of pruning them.

Meanwhile, the Red Kuri Squash died after getting attacked by the Squash Vine Borer. Was looking forward to another great harvest of the Red Kuri this fall, but that is not going to happen now since it is too late to start another plant.

I hate that when I lose a plant to pests…that is the battle I m fighting with my Amana Orange tomato….but I get it, OG.  The SVBs are a terrible scourge.

I plan to harvest some more peppers tomorrow.  I have jalapeños, purple sweets, poblanos, and sweet bananas ready to come in! 

Enjoyed some of the garlic from this years harvest in a marinade for my chicken tenders!  It was the Spanish Roja—new to me this year.  Tasty!  Also had my first 3 taters—YUM!  Also had some Sungold cherries for snack after lunch.  Super-yum! 

Still waiting on big tomatoes!

Yesterday was another day of rain, with another 2" of water. In the past 3 days we have received 4.25" of rain, and the gardens are beginning to look like the rain forest. All of the greens are loving it, and growing much faster than we can consume them. The green beans need to be picked, but they can't be picked when the plants are wet.

The Dinosaur Kale is beginning to look more like a tree.  But, the leaves are so sweet and tender right now.


With the sun shining this morning, the bees were loving the blooms on the Zucchini. There was 2 Squash bees, 2 Bumble bees, and 1 Honey bee in that male bloom.  Hopefully they went to a female bloom afterwards.

Wow! That's a a lot of rain! We continue to be rather dry and cool here. Today it's warmed up but still no rain. Weird.

I have been busy finishing up my cold frames. They are finally done! I have 6 squares to play with. When do you guys start seeds in your cold frames? I was going to try beets, carrots and some herbs. Maybe lettuce, spinach, mache and arugula. Should I be starting the beets and carrots? I have about 8 weeks until my first expected frost date.

Thanks!

Had to stake the Eggplants. The fruit has gotten so big that it was pulling the plants over, and would break them off if they weren't staked.

The Merlot lettuce started bolting to seed, so cut them all off at soil level and refreshed the soil with compost to get ready to plant something new in its place.

One of the most productive Zucchini plants got attacked by SVB, so took that out as well. Still have two plants producing, so there won't be a shortage of Zucchini for a while yet.

Still no ripe tomatoes.

The bush beans are nearing the end of their production, and need to be taken out.  I had seen a post one time about others have cut off the beans and let them grow again to restart producing. I have never done that, but try it this year.  Not sure how far down to cut the plants, though.

Lettuce Not Forget to Replant for Fall!

This small eggplant is the casualty of too much rain after a too hot and dry period. Too much water too soon caused it to crack open.  This happened with some tomatoes, too.

I just came in from picking purple, sweet banana, poblano, and jalapeño peppers, 4 eggplant (Ping Tung), 2 small not ripe Amana Orange tomatoes (Fear I will lose that plant, it’s crunchy.)  They are in the windowsill. 

Had to pitch 3 big tomatoes, all red, but with burr holes in them like maybe slugs, or birds?  Low on the plants.  Dang it.  Also got a mess of Dragon Tongue beans, cucumbers, Sungold cherries.  There was at least one squash ready to come off, will go get that before the heat rolls in.

Potatoes look ready, so do some of the onions.  Not today!

The cucumbers and pole beans are quickly taking over the arbor - the cucumbers are on the left, and the Blue Lake Pole Beans are on the right. The cucumbers were planted on July 1st, and the pole beans were planted on July 15th. The cucumbers are in full bloom, but only harvesting a few cucumbers each day. The pole beans are just starting to set buds, and not blooming yet.

Cucumbers climbing up the left side of the arbor, and pole beans climbing up the right side. On the ground to the left are the Butternut squash



Cucumber blooms with a hidden cucumber

OhioGardener wrote:Meanwhile, the Red Kuri Squash died after getting attacked by the Squash Vine Borer. Was looking forward to another great harvest of the Red Kuri this fall, but that is not going to happen now since it is too late to start another plant.

I seem to have rescued the Red Kuri Squash plant from the SVB.  I put a shovelful of soil on top of each branch of the plant about 2' from the root of the plant, with the soil being over a leaf joint where the suckers sprout out.  Since that soil was placed there, the vine sent roots down into the ground and the plant has greened up past each pile of soil.  So, the plant is growing faster than ever now.  The only concern is whether the plant still has time to set and ripen the fruit before the fall frost. But, it is good knowing that a winter squash can be saved from the SVB.

A closeup of one of the piles of soil over the vine

The arrows highlight where some of the soil was placed over the vine branches

That happened to one of mine in 2021, OG!  It literally was dead.  I got so frustrated that I chopped the vine up, thinking it was a goner.  Well, unbeknownst to me, the chunks took root and thrived!  I got like 7 squash that year from that one “dead” vine!!!

Finally got around to cleaning out the bush beans today. Cut them off just above the first leaf joint to see if they will re-grow and have a second crop of beans. Have never done that before, so it will be interesting to see what happens.  Meanwhile, the new pole beans have just started setting fruit, and the new beans are about an inch long. If the bush beans re-grow and start producing, they should be ready about the time the pole beans are done.

The cucumbers are really suffering from the heat dome we are under. Cucumbers need a lot of water to fill their fruit, and this heat dome is evaporating the water faster than the plants can use it. Hopefully they will survive until more normal temps arrive over the weekend.

I agree, the heat is really interfering with the plant’s ability to do anything but survive!  I picked 2 zucchini’s, and 3 cucumbers on Sunday.  I need to pick some peppers and eggplants too.  There were some ripe cherry tomatoes, and a couple big ones that ended up on my first BLT of the season!  I read a great article on BLTs, saying it is basically a tomato sandwich with other stuff too.  True!  

Tonight I will try to water and pick some things from the south annex (peppers, eggplant) and check on my lone tomato over there that has been decimated by the tiny whiteflies.

The heat has arrived in Northern Illinois and I am watering daily until the weekend. Geez, it's just brutal.