September Begins

As we begin September, an update on what's going on in the garden.

A second dahlia plant finally bloomed!  That's two of the five dahlia plants.  I'm hopeful that the others will bloom before a hard frost hits.

Gazania

The kale (Lacinato), chard (Fordhook), and Italian flat-leaf parsley are still going strong.

Lou enjoying the warmth of one of the water barrels.

Bea joins her, sees the camera, and hams it up.

The Golden Raspberry.  About 8 years ago, a client and I were talking about fruit crops that do well in the north.  He said he'd purchased and planted a type of yellow raspberry that was milder and less thorny than regular raspberries.  He brought me a few tiny canes, which I planted right away.  Only one survived, and that one survived for only one year.  I don't recall it ever bearing fruit. 

Two weeks ago, when we were picking the last batch of raspberries, R, found a small raspberry plant with 3 yellow raspberries!  I don't know if it was a mutant plant, or if somehow a root of the small canes I was given sent up a plant all these years later.  In any case, it was a fun discovery.

The East garden, from different angles.  (Tomato plants line the front.)

Cosmos in the East garden.

A zucchini.  Hallelujah!

The much-neglected flower bed.  Dahliettas starting to bloom, lavender petunias, and woolly thyme.

A pink lily opened and the echinacea are starting to bloom.  Better late than never.

Looking up the driveway.

Curly kale and assorted carrots.  I am behind this year and haven't harvested or started processing carrots yet.

White onions, pulled and drying.  Like the garlic this year, the skins are not fully formed and are thin.  They won't store well like this, so most will have to be dehydrated or chopped and frozen.

Cabbage - Brunswick, I believe.

Brunswick and Red Express cabbage.

Lower Salmon River squash (C. maxima)

This is the first one that set...

...and here is another one coming along.

The sad potato bed.  It ended up quite waterlogged, even though any water that falls can freely drain into the ground below.  We used straw this year to layer with soil on the potatoes and to mulch.  I do not plan on doing this again.  Areas in the garden that were mulched with straw (which was most of the garden and many of the raised beds) ended up with a ton of weeds.  We got so much rain that the layers of straw on the potatoes have become matted and are difficult to shift with a shovel, which is what we normally use to dig up potatoes.  My next attempt will be with a potato fork.

Coastal Pride Orange tomatoes with sunflowers in the background.  I thought the sunflowers were a dwarf variety when I planted the seeds!  Whoops!  I pulled the Romanesco cauliflower, which were huge, gangly, and clearly not going to mature before our hard frosts hit.  I will stick to a hybrid variety of Romanesco cauliflower (e.g., "Veronica") from now on.  I also pulled the Mitla Black dry beans.  This is a very early variety; normally, they would be almost completely dry and ready to harvest by now.  As it was, the pods were just beginning to form.  I also pulled the Kenearly Yellow Eye dry beans (raised bed) and the Vermont Cranberry dry beans (north garden) for the same reason.

The crop of strawberries this year was lackluster, though that might be chalked up to the miserable, cool weather we had.  The ones we got certainly were delicious, though!

The north garden - cabbage, snap beans, and cosmos.  After three pickings of the Red Swan beans, I finally had to pull the plants.  Between the rot caused by too much rain and the slugs, the plants were in rough shape.  I left the Roma bean plants in, though, and hope to get another batch of beans out of them before the season is through.

Sunflower, north garden

I might get some Red Russian garlic bulbils, yet!

The peas are still in the south garden.  Normally by this time of year, the peas have all been picked and the plants have been pulled and composted.  There are still a few pea pods developing and even a few flowers on the plants, so we'll leave them for a while longer.

South garden, a shaggy bit of chaos.  Red Chantenay carrots, Cosmos, a few zinnias, and a sunflower that hasn't bloomed yet.

I have left the Tiger Eye (dry) beans in, as I think they might have a chance of maturing before the end of the season.  Fingers crossed.

A closer look at the Tiger Eye beans.

The apple tree is loaded, but the apples are quite small this year.

I have also left the Brown Beka (dry) bush beans in.  They look like they might be able to mature by the end of the season.

One of the heads of dill has started to develop seeds.  The dill is so pretty!  It barely has a scent.  I can't wait until the scent comes through strongly!

August 30th, I sliced up the red onions and put them in an old dehydrator outdoors.  The red onions didn't fare as well as the white ones and were on the small side.  I made the mistake of dehydrating a small batch of onions inside when I first got my Excalibur dehydrator years ago.  Never again.  The smell in the house was so strong it made me nauseous, and it took several washings and dehydrating sessions of other vegetables to get the smell out.  Uhg.  The dehydrator pictured below belonged to R's grandmother.  It's not fancy or high-powered, but it did the trick nicely for onions last year.  The air is not as dry or as hot as it was this time last year when the onions were dehydrated, but I'm hoping it works out well, anyway.  The dehydrator is set up in the shielded area R has set up outside for painting his models and terrain.

A zucchini plant at the back of the house.  Several flowers, but we're still waiting for a zucchini to appear.

Bea, appreciating the tent formed by the lawn chair and old bedsheets (used to cover the tomatoes at night).

It looks like this dahlia just...might...bloom...soon!

Marigolds (Brocade Mix)

Midnight Sun tomatoes (developed by Karen Olivier of The Northern Gardener).  I started with 5 seeds of this variety and three made it into the garden.  I love the shape of these tomatoes - there is no mistaking they are a heart variety!  Unfortunately, they are underdeveloped due to the poor weather we had this summer.  These tomatoes are a third of the size they are supposed to be at this point in the growing season. 

Two more Midnight Sun tomatoes.

This was my first year growing Brad's Black Heart tomatoes.  I didn't love the gangly, sprawling nature of the plants, but I am happy with the tomatoes they are producing.  Some are quite large, and most look like they will ripen even if I have to pick them in the next week or two.

More Brad's Black Heart tomatoes.

Early Annie has produced well, and the tomatoes are starting to ripen.

Scotia tomatoes

Hmm...it appears I mislabled this tomato when I potted up the transplants, as it is Black Prince, not Hungarian Heart.  It is growing in a row of three that I thought were all Hungarian Heart.

The Black Sea Man plants don't have a lot of tomatoes on them, but the tomatoes are a nice shape, look healthy, and look like they will ripen even if I have to pick them in the next week or two. 

A closer look at the Black Sea Man tomatoes.

Striped German tomatoes

Lou, inspecting the tomato plants.

The other two plants that I thought were Hungarian Heart tomatoes, well...  Most of the look like beefsteak tomatoes rather than oxhearts.  Maybe the seeds, which I obtained in a trade, were mislabeled?  This tomato is the largest.  Definitely not an oxheart.

The Work Release Paste plants are productive and the tomatoes are starting to ripen.  This variety was one of my favourites last year.

More Work Release Paste tomatoes...

...and a few more.  ;-)

I neglected to take pictures, but I was able to harvest 8 Romanesco cauliflower ("Veronica") in the last week or so.  Those have been processed and are in the freezer.  

Despite the poor weather, the cucumber plants have given us 6 or 7 little cukes so far.  They are so sweet and tasty.

The total harvest of raspberries was ~25lbs.  We picked 7 lbs 12.5 oz of peas (shelled) this year.  Much less than we usually get, though this Spring we planted about half the number of peas that we typically do.

I began covering the tomatoes and squash August 30th.  It was forecast to get down to 3 overnight. No point in taking chances; with respect to overnight temperatures, sometimes what is forecast as 3 degrees turns out to be -3.

Three small zucchini are finally growing in the East garden.  Not enough to make relish, but a lunch of zucchini fritters are in my very near future!