Rainy Day Notes and Grover Smells Great

(Written Saturday, July 7th.  Couldn't publish until this evening, as we lost our internet connection late yesterday afternoon and didn't get it back until 20 minutes ago)

The weekend has begun with more rain.  It is 3:00pm and 10 degrees right now.  I am drinking hot chocolate.  In July.  All our watering can, rain barrels, and buckets are full and it is still coming down.  I took advantage of the soggy soil to apply some fish fertlizer to the garden and raised beds this morning.

Despite the lack of consistent heat and sunshine this summer, the North Georgia Candy Roaster squash plants are starting to spread and I see the start of a squash blossom on one of them.  I also spotted the beginnings of squash flowers on one of the zucchini plants.  The tomatoes (which would also appreciate more heat and sunshine, no doubt) are coming along fairly well and are putting out flowers. The Scotia tomato plants are very compact; I don't know if they are typically supposed to be that small, or if they just don't relish the soil in which they're growing.  The Auria tomato plant (I had 3 seeds, only 1 made it through to the hardening off stage) seems to be flourishing.  If it continues to do well and produces a lot, I will grow it again next year.  It would be nice to have several paste tomato options that do well here.

Auria tomato plant

The cabbage look amazing (*touch wood*), especially the Cuor di Bue and Red Express cabbage growing in the raised bed.  The Cuor di Bue is going to be neat to see once it is mature, as this variety produces a long, pointy cabbage.

One of the Cuor di Bue cabbage

The Bachelor Buttons are starting to open.  They look so delicate, but strike me as a hardy little flower.   Looking forward to planting more next year!

I removed most of the garlic scapes, chopped, and freezed them. Three were left on, so I can harvest the bulbils in the fall.

The potatoes continue to flourish. I hope the potatoes end up being as impressive as the foliage is now!  R. actually added some boards to the raised bed where we planted some fingerling potatoes because they are growing so tall.  He'll add some dirt and compost once the boards have been secured.

Fingerling potatoes

The beets are enjoying this cool, rainy weather.  Golden beets...

...and Detroit Red.

I got a nice little thyme transplant at the greenhouse last month.  It has already begun to develop little pink flowers, so I harvested a bunch of the thyme to preserve before the whole thing goes to flower.  Drying the leaves is a bit tedious, so we instead freeze fresh thyme in olive oil.  R. came across a funny little ice cube tray last summer with some of the characters from Sesame Street forming the "cubes".  Below are a few of the very aromatic Grovers, Oscar the Grouches, and Elmos now we have in the freezer.


 

Not garden-related, but we had another issue with our sewer pipe/drainouts this morning.  Always on a weekend, holiday, or otherwise after-hours, it seems.  The last time it happened - a mere 2 weeks ago - it cost $400 to get two different plumbers to our home after hours to clear out the pipes with an auger.  This time, R. rented an auger and dealt with it himself.  Several hours later, things are moving and the problem is fixed, at least for the time-being.