orange trio

I have three nice Pumpkins! Two the disease spread by cucumber beetles had reached the stem before I cut them off, so I won't be trying to eat those. We'll carve them soon.

orange!

The Pumpkins are all turning orange, even the oblong one, so I guess it didn't really cross with a zucchini! There's a fourth small one now, too, but I don't know if that one will mature although they are all growing very quickly.

squarshes

Cut a monster Zucchini today

I'm suspicious this largest Pumpkin adjacent to the zucchinis has crossed with them- it looks too dark green and oblong to me.

The other big pumpkin shows hints of turning orange already

There's a third small pumpkin growing now, too- quickly gaining size.

small harvest

This morning picked fresh a few big Tomatoes, some green Bell Peppers for pizza tonight, and a nice stem of Green Onions. Also my first two Orka! Tossed in the freezer, as Chris advised, until I have more. Still don't know what I'm going to do with it, but maybe I better get used to plants that love hot weather and figure out how to eat them.

Because the rest are succumbing. I had to pull most of my large tomato plants and the two cherries, all sick and nasty. Had to cut down those tall bean poles and trash it all- diseased and bug-ridden. I cut up the broccoli plants into compost as well- what with the weather they just taste bitter. Crawling with harlequin beetles too. Ugh.

Well, the Okra looks lovely and the carrots and beets seem to be holding on, but the garden looks much diminished now. Only the Zucchini and Pumpkins look really lush and stunning, and those Pumpkins are growing sooooo fast! But the cucumber beetles are back; I spend every morning picking them out of blossoms to squish. Don't know if I'll be able to keep ahead of them and keep the plants healthy...

lovely

So a few days ago it was cool enough to put the kids in the wading pool and catch up on some serious weeding in the garden. I made a few happy discoveries.

The Tithonias are starting to bloom!

I have baby Pumpkins! And these are the eating kind, for pie (excited).

The Okra is really starting to grow.

There's a few pods on the plants! But only two or three so far- how long do they keep after you pick 'em? I think I'll have to save some up to have enough for a dish.

spreading

The Pumpkins are quickly taking over their space! and full of large yellow flowers. Unfortunately the weeds are also spreading faster than I can keep up with them (purslane and crabgrass mostly) and the cucumber beetles are starting to sicken the plants. Ugh.

concoctions

I have made use of a few home-remedies (sort of) to treat the plants, and my cat! First, turned some dried Rosemary into powder in the coffee grinder and rubbed it in my cat's fur. It's supposed to deter fleas. (He didn't have hardly any to begin with).

Then this morning I mixed up several five-gallon bucket's worth batches of hot pepper spray to treat the garden plants, which are already getting devastated by cucumber beetles and japanese beetles both. The Pumpkins and Green Beans in particular are starting to look sick. My sprayer bottle conked out and wouldn't spray anymore so I just threw the pepper water over the plants until they were dripping. Mixed three kinds of hot sauce and a dash of dish soap into the water, is all. It was strong enough that the scent of it off the plants when I was done made me cough! I treated the pumpkins, green bean poles, chard (still not sure what's eating that), cherry tomatoes and the sole cantaloupe plant. Nothing's eaten the cantaloupe leaves yet but if the bugs get driven off the bean poles I don't want them to start attacking my cantaloupes.

I've also been simply drowning the offending bugs, but simply can't keep up with them.

two greens

The summer bounty has begun! I picked two nice Zucchini this morning

and a full basket of Green Beans. These beans are a bit different shape from the bush beans I grew before- they have flat sides.

Dismayed that I've been finding a few cucumber beetles here and there, but I don't have the time to come do early morning hunts. Nothing seems too damaged yet. The Pumpkin plants have loads of blossoms and the Cantaloupe is growing bigger too. The only thing still in sad shape is the plot of Okra...

things doing great!

On the flip side of last post, these are the plants doing wonderfully this year.

Chard and Broccoli. I have never had such lovely Broccoli.

I ate another pair of heads the other day

and already the plant I cut them from is making new side shoots.

My daughter currently thinks broccoli is so awful it makes her feel nauseated, and my husband thinks this broccoli tastes like buckwheat (he doesn't like the buckwheat honey) so I have the broccoli all to myself.

I have caught a few harelquin bugs on the plants, but hopefully before they laid eggs- these three were on the same plant and none found elsewhere so I have suspicions they were meeting up to make more bugs! They are beautiful, though. There's also a spider living under one of the plants, I hope he catches and eats lots of pests.

My big Tomato plants are looking lovely. There are lots of tomatoes forming and I can't wait to eat them! I did plant them a bit too close to each other, though...

The Peppers look fantastic. Working among the plants the most lovely pepper scent overtakes you. I don't like hot peppers, except to put the serranos or jalapenos in beans, but I love the scent they make.

and the Pumpkins are growing quickly! I'm eager to see them fruit as it's pie pumpkins this year, which will be a first for us.

The Brussel Sprout plants seem to be doing well (except that little one in the back left corner- not enough sun?) I'm just waiting to see them make sprouts...

pumpkin starts

About two weeks ago I took my daughter to a kid's gardening program at the library. They gave her pumpkin seeds to germinate in a damp paper towel rolled up. We forgot to check the seeds for too long; when she unrolled the towel today every single seed was sprouting roots and leaves!

She planted them all in SIPs

and now they are happy outside in the coldframe until I can clear another garden spot for pumpkins to grow.

pumpkin day

We finally carved the one and only garden pumpkin of the year. My daughter drew the face and I cut it out. (I had to scoop most of the insides too, she's kinda squeamish about gooey hands).

 After the carving part was done, she was eager to help with roasting the seeds. She helped wash off the seeds

 stir them in the pot (this new recipe I tried has you boil them for ten minutes before roasting)

 and then toss with flavors. We did some with just salt, other half with garlic powder. They tasted so good! The best roasted pumpkin seeds I've ever had. From my own home-grown pumpkin yipee.

outside

Fall has definitely struck the garden; I don't know if I got a head enough start on the cole crops to get some broccoli and cauliflower this fall, but have good hopes for the lettuce.

My Bell Peppers are still making lots of small fruits, even though some of the plants have started to fall over.

The Strawberry plants still look fresh and pretty, I'm not sure at what point they'll die back and need mulch.

The Rhubarb is looking peaky, but still growing new leaves in each center. Again, not sure if I should wait until all the stems die before covering it for winter? do they need to save energy from spent foliage like tulips do? Have to look that up.

The pumpkin patch is pretty much a dead mess I need to clean up when I can get to it. That one nice-looking plant in the back left corner is the monster Zucchini, just sporting nice leaves now.

And of course the cold-loving ever-lasting Swiss Chard is doing fantastic. It's the most beautiful plant in the garden right now!

fall cleanup

I've begun my fall cleanup of the garden already. Today I trashed a lot of dead/sick plants: half the Pumpkin patch (really disgusting but now I can look at it without flinching), all the Watermelons- picked the two last ones to put in the fridge; one had rotted on the vine. So each of my five watermelon plants gave me one watermelon, and I only lost one! Took out most of my Green Beans- they were just so pathetic-looking. I'm sure they would have lasted at least until the end of the month, if it weren't for the onslaught of bugs. There are so many stink bugs all over them now, as well as cucumber beetles, and even though I pick them off by hand every day, I never seem to make enough of a difference. So they're all gone. I saved a few of the nicer-looking bean pods just to see if the seeds turn out, but I probably won't plant them, I don't want any more disease. They're hanging in the shed.

So now this side of the garden is mostly empty. Just the double row of Broccolis (which are next on my task list to clean up, I know there are some cabbage moths pupating in there somewhere!) and Marigolds across the back (on the left here). Oh, and now you can see my little Thyme plants again! I'm going to dig a few up soon to have potted inside the house when it gets colder.

I've done that to the Basil, too. Had planned to make basil sauce out of more herbs,  but the plants all started to fall over and look pale. I cut out the worst ones today, chopped up the foliage and turned it under the soil. One stump that was sprouting new leaves I potted for inside.

pumpkin mess

I started cleaning out my Pumpkin patch today, a chore long neglected. Don't believe anyone when they say you can just let pumpkin vines roam over the lawn and they'll shade the grass enough to keep its growth in check. At least mine didn't do that. Under the vines was all choked with grass and weed; the broad leaves covered just enough so I couldn't really see what was going on until I got down on my knees.

What disaster and little bit of joy I found. There are lots of healthy vibrant leaves

alongside those struck with powdery mildew (against which cinnamon seems to have done no good)

and those sickened by the cucumber beetles.

I cut lots and lots of dead/dying leaves out, only to find that some of those same vines were sporting fresh new little leaves.

And even though the two baby pumpkins I had earlier sickened and got disposed of, there are still plenty of buds and flowers

and a few more new little green orbs forming. (Please ignore the awful mess of litter. I'm working on cleaning that up- it only lets the pests hide better!)

But half the plants are in terrible shape. I didn't see this before. Here is a healthy slender vine next to one horribly thickened by disease. It makes me sick just to look at it. I bet tomorrow when I tackle this spot again, I'll find that all the withering leaves come off this sick vine?

But after all that yuck, we do have one very nice Pumpkin! The vine it was on was all withered, so I figured I'd better pick it before something else bad happened. It's the best pumpkin I've grown yet, all smooth and unblemished except for one faded/green spot where it lay on the grass.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was easy to carve, too.

good and not

Some of my baby pumpkins are sickening. Blah.

One of the Green Bean plants I left to dry for seed, the pods are turning pink. It freaks me out. Why are they rosy? is it something from the disease inflicted by cucumber beetles? I won't be saving the seeds from those ones!

We've eaten all the Cantaloupes, the last two I tried to get to ripen rotted instead, and got tossed out. Had to pull my last few Zucchini plants, too- the only one left is that bigger one in the pumpkin patch.

But the good news is the first of my fall Beets are sprouting!