My husband and I have been working hard on our garden. In the front yard we removed a small tree and bushes that were planted in front. I plan to put up a large trellis and plant either a jasmine vine or climbing rose on it. In front of that will be a brick patio with a bench placed there.
In the back I am tweaking my perennial bed. I have moved some plants around and trimmed others. We also removed na odd shape small raised bed and redid the brick around that area. It looks so much better. Still need to work on making a better support for bird netting around the blueberry bushes.
NOW, I am happily swimming in zucchini!!!!
Also, it took until today for my okra to start flowering. I'm pretty sure that in two weeks I'll be swimming in OKRA, too. I heartily recommend starting squash late bc I've seen NO squash bugs or the moths that hatch out as vine borers, either. Why plant early, lose that plants and feed the next generation of bugs?
Yesterday and today DD's and I are cleaning out the weeds and brush from the old "turkey pen" to get my 8 two month birds out of the barn. I like to use my riding mower to pull my big, metal tow wagon, and will filled it 5x yesterday. Because we started on the burdock by chopping in August and mowing them in my pastures, we have fewer every year. They go onto by bonfire pile for my "Salsa Party" on Columbus Day weekend (every year.) By the time October rolls around they will be nice and dry.
STILL, we picked the hottest weather this summer to tackle this job.
Oh, well, DD who just took the Bar last month needs some exercise, so it's all good.
Finished off the corn. Canning corn makes for a long day around here. I plant corn in blocks, one block about a week and a half or two weeks after the last. This year I did four blocks of four rows about 20 feet long. After four cannings over the summer I have 68 pints of canned corn in the pantry and 7 quarts in the freezer for vegetable soup. That doesn’t count the fresh corn we’ve been eating all summer. But today was the end of it. It’s now all gone.
Six more Passport galia melons after getting 7 earlier this week. There are several more. Picked the first green beans from the plants growing where lettuce made its home, earlier in the season.
Aanndd, picked most of the Jacob's Cattle, Soldier, and Tiger Eyes.
Actually, took all of the beans from the Tiger Eyes. @marshallsmyth sent the seed after suggesting them as a very early variety. So true.
The plants weren't as productive as the Soldiers but, I've gotta say, the flavor of those hugely productive Soldiers reminds me of potato. It's fine because I like potatoes but I also like beans. I will enjoy sampling Tiger Eyes at the table.
I have been so busy. I have more cucumbers than I ever had. I have made ice box bread and butter, ice box dill, freezer pickles and yesterday I made 2 more batches of freezer pickles and gave cucumbers away. I am getting more and more tomatoes and made tomato and kale soup. I have been frying squash, but I decided to make some chocolate zucchini bread and chocolate zucchini brownies yesterday and put the bread in the freezer. I picked purple basil and put in vinegar in a jar for flavored vinegar. I dehydrated thyme, oregano, basil and parsley. I have been chopping and freezing peppers. The pole beans seemed to slow down, but I picked enough for supper. I replanted lettuce and spinach on Aug. 16 and it is already coming up. The blackberries are really big and juicy. I might make another pie tomorrow.
I picked butterbeans and put 2 bags in the freezer. Most everything else is done. Lousy gardening summer this year. I have butterbeans and green beans left. A bed of sweet potatoes that will be dug in the fall and 4 tomato plants that are blooming, but not setting fruit.
I stuck 4 cucumber plants into that big flower bed behind the house several weeks back. http://www.theeasygarden.com/threads/finally-getting-around-to-planting-behind-the-house.15261/
Three of them haven't done anything - just little mounds of leaves. One grew a little vine, about 2' long. I figured it was just too shady there for them.
But yesterday I was watering the bed and there was a cucumber on that little vine!!! A big one! First one of the year.
I just finished moving future dirt. I scraped off the top 3 inches of muck from my chicken's run, all 5 big wheelbarrows worth.
Now, they are playing with the 3/4 bale of straw I put out for them.
I have 3 broody hens and 1 egg I collected yesterday was a 5-6 day old chick. Serves my right for stealing an egg from one of my broodies! (My dog, "Rose" enjoyed it.) Now, I have to collect just from the rabbit cage (the kind made from 2 x 4's like it's on stilts) where they lay and nobody stays. We figure to set up another run and move the non-broody birds out to see how many chicks we get.
My 2 1/2 mo baby birds are out, too, in their 12 x 16' area. I tilled it before I put them out and they are starting to explore.
Tomatoes were coming in at a trickle a few days ago, then enough for a salad dinner last night, and now, with 90 degree temperatures for the next week, I'm expecting a good amount. Saw only one more okra flower today, but I see a lot of closed blossoms getting ready to open.
Brussel spouts haven't really sprouted. We've had rain all morning, but I think I'll soak some more seeds overnight and then plant and cover the bed. Got my heart set on those, too.
The other day, all I did in the garden was pull hoses around and run sprinklers. (It is important to wear gloves when doing something like this . Not many things harder on the hands than getting them wet and dirty then making them twist fittings and pull something heavy.)
Yesterday, I was doing the same but there was quite a bit of harvesting.