And So It Begins

 We have several large London Plane trees that we planted in 2012, and they are now 30 feet tall.  They have a quirk that around the second week of August, half of their leaves from the inside out, yellow and drop almost over night.  Then they are done for awhile until cold temperatures begin turning all of the leaves.  They did not do this the past two years, but this year the middle one did.  It was very quick.  We noticed the color change one day, and then about two days later, overnight, all of the yellowed leaves dropped all at once.

That's eight leaf sucker bags full of leaves.  In the fall we will blow leaves into the woods, but there is still too much tall grass blocking that route, so sucking them up was the only way to go.  We put a ring of wire fencing in the corner of the compost deck to keep them.  They make great compost.

It will still be a few weeks before other trees begin to drop their leaves in any serious volume and smaller quantities can still be mulched into the lawn with the lawn mower.  Our weather is now changing to unseasonably cool so maybe we will have another bright, colorful fall full of blue skies, yellow leaves and afternoon camp fires.  

Another thing I am looking forward to this fall is decorating with my pumpkins.  I have two more good sized ones for a total of five and another working on it.

Sweet Pickle Relish

 My Bell Peppers finally started to color up so yesterday I canned Sweet Pickle Relish.  I followed This Recipe and added one large bell pepper for a little color variation.  I would have preferred to use a red one, but I only had yellow so I threw in one orange Havasu hot pepper because it was ready to use.   My total poundage for Cucumbers, Peppers and Onions (pre dicing) was 4 pounds and that yielded three pints plus a little leftover to use right away.  Three pints will easily get us through one year.

This didn't really make a dent in the backlog of pickling cucumbers that I have harvested but I have found that I am enjoying eating the picklers just as much as the big, burpless slicers.  They are very crisp, especially if you take the time to cut out the seeds.

Now I have only to wait for my Havasu Peppers to ripen so I can make pickled peppers and then my preserving will be done for the summer.  I have frozen two gallons of Beans and we are working through the second bed of Sweet Corn, freezing a little at a time.  The Gotta Have It Sweet Corn has been just as excellent as the Solstice was.

Carbon Tomatoes

Not the first tomatoes of the year... but I've been waiting for this gorgeous clump of tomatoes to turn for weeks now.

  These all came off of the same Carbon tomato plant.  

Carbon is such a nice, consistent producer that the plant's habit reminds me very much of Celebrity.

Mmm... they're just gorgeous!  A couple for me and then more to share.  I'll let them ripen a bit more on the counter, but I had to get them out of that tangle of a plant before they got too soft.

Bees and Annuals

 My little Leaf Cutter Bees are working on their second generation.  They filled all of the bamboo tubes and I had to add new ones.  The second generation is just beginning to emerge as the last of the first generation fill the newer tubes.

Once they have laid their eggs, they cap the end of the tube with pieces of leaves that they have cut.  I am seeing little holes here and there around the garden.  They like the pole beans and other soft leaves.  I would love to catch one flying with one of these chunks.

I am enjoying some of the annuals I started from seed just to have something different from the usual offerings at the local greenhouses.

Tangerine Vinca

Kosmo Celosia

The reblooming Daylily varieties that I cut back first are blooming a little.  This is about all a reblooming variety will muster.  But it looks much fresher that a tired, yellowing plant.

Self seeded Celosia

The large, Creamy White Marigolds that I cut back hard to size control are beginning to bloom.  Some of them are quite nice, but they are very inconsistent in both color and bloom form from plant to plant.  Not a stable hybrid.

The Foxtrot Pennisetum that I divided back in March has gotten quite large and is starting to put out seed heads.  All of the divided grasses in this area are thriving.

Foxtrot

Picking and Poking

Today I picked enough beans to freeze a gallon.

Then I caught up on picking pickling Cucumbers.  A few got too big.

And I planted the spare Clarimore Zucchini plant where the slicing Cucumbers were taken out.  Back in the high humidity of July, after a rainstorm, the original plant exhibited one very wilty leaf.  Concerned that it was the beginning of wilt disease or an indicaton of Squash Vine Borer damage, I immediately cut that leaf off and sowed a potential replacement.  It has been hanging out in a gallon pot where it has recently decided it can't make it through the day on its allotment of water.  It will be easier to keep watered in the ground and it can go ahead and crank out too many squash.

A morning Sunflower....

 

First Tomato and August Update

 I picked the first slicing Tomato today.  It is my PaPaw's Tomato.  Not a surprise.  It is often the first to ripen.  All of the Tomato plants are covered in fruit so soon I will be giving them away.  But tomorrow, this will be my lunch!

Right now it is all about Corn and Beans!  We are finishing up the early Solstice Corn which has been awesome, and by next weekend we will be starting on the larger Gotta Have It variety.

Gotta Have It

Seychelles

I am having to make water choices now.  I am half way through my water tank and just a 50/50 chance of a thunderstorm mid-week.  The late Corn and the Beans get as much water as they need, and after that it gets rationed to the containers with Sweet Potatoes, Peppers and Eggplants.  The Tomatoes are fine without and the Cucumbers are wrapping up.

I fully expected to pull the Pickling Cucumber vines first.

But today the Gateway slicer vines went over the hill so those came out.  They were showing the first hint of wilt, and since they had no babies coming along, rather than let the wilt get worse I just pulled them out.

Zucchini with Dahlias in the background

Dahlias and English Cucumbers

I have Chelsea Prize English Cucumbers blooming now.  They are obviously not bred for disease resistance because they are a greenhouse Cucumber and usually greenhouses are much more protected environment.

Chelsea Prize English Cucumbers

Last year I did not water the Compost Volunteer Cantaloupes even once, so I am taking the same route this year.  The Pumpkins don't get water because they are just for fun, but the Pumpkins are gaining size anyway.

Cantaloupe and Pumpkins

Last year I religiously watered the Belstar Broccoli and got an exceptional second crop.  But then I did not have Sweet Corn hogging the water.  This year I am watering sparingly and they are still putting out new branches.  You can see the fresh, bluish foliage below.

The Tomatoes and Bell Peppers are disease free and producing.  I would say that the plants are not as thick as they were last year and that is probably due to them stalling out in early June from the weather.  But I also have one less Tomato plant in the row than I did last year.  So far I think that the fruit production is going to be comparable.

Wall-O Tomat-O

The Sweet Potatoes and Carrots in containers are growing well.  The Carrot greens are beginning to get weary.  I haven't pulled a Carrot recently but I am sure they have reached the bottoms of the containers by now.  I also have a row of YaYa Carrots fending for themselves behind the Strawberry cages.  I pulled one yesterday for a snack and they are doing well.  I will leave those in the ground past frost to use for autumn cooking.

Sweet Potatoes and Carrots

Beans!  We have lots of Beans.  I have picked many meals from them a handful at a time and then made my Dilly Beans and tomorrow I will start picking to freeze.  We go through two gallons of frozen beans a year.  I water them well at least every other day.  They have Marigolds at their feet to keep the roots cool and shaded and I haven't had much trouble with them wilting in the hot afternoons.  We are pushing 90F now and they are very happy.  You have to be more careful when maintaining Bush Beans because if they wilt they stub the Beans against the ground and you get a lot of curly Beans.  Pole Beans are comparatively easy.  These look even better than last year.  Last year the yellow Monte Gusto variety had quite pale vines and I never got them to green up and look nice.  These are very happy.

Monte Gusto on the left and Seychelles to the right

The Dwarf Tomatoes and Onions are doing fine. but the Kookaburra Cackle and Summertime Gold varieties are showing quite a bit of disease.  It is not really passing to the Adelaide Festival plant at the head of the row.  Last year that one was very disease resistant.  

The Kookaburra Cackle Tomato will be the first Dwarf to ripen.  It is a brown Tomato descending from Cherokee Purple. We'll see if it is a keeper or not. 

I am down to just a handful of container plants.  A backup Zucchini plant, some Strawberry babies and ornamental purple Peppers.  

Once again I am fighting a losing battle against flea beetles on the Eggplant, but Little Prince does not seem to mind and is producing "an abundance" of fruit just as advertised.

Just look at all of those lousy beetles

The landscape is looking nice and not presenting any problems.  

I just have to keep my eyes open for the occasional weed! 

Turn your back just for a minute!

Viney Things

 Below is an excellent example of the Cucumber support trellis letting the fruit hang down so they are perfectly straight and easy to find.  Those three are all on the same vine.  I always buy my Cucumber seed from Johnny's Seeds because they seem to have the best disease resistant hybrid varieties.  These are Gateway.

Two years ago I saved seeds from a Pumpkin I bought at the store in October.  I didn't get around to planting them last year, but this year I found a spot.  The largest has gone past basketball size and is starting to turn orange.

The next two are approaching basketball size.  Oddly enough, because the Ppumpkin I bought was undoubtedly a hybrid, some of the Pumpkins are coming out yellow.  There have been more yellows at the base of the blooms, but this one is the only one that has set and stayed.

My second generation "Compost Queen Cantaloupes" have produced a dozen fruit.  

They are looking more smooth than segmented.  We'll see....

The first blush of color on the slicing tomatoes.  It may be hard to see, but I am looking closely every day and I see it.

Today was a colorful harvest.  Cherry Tomatoes, an Eggplant and some orange Bell Peppers.

The Candy Onions are beginning to fall over showing that they are done growing and ready to cure.  I put them in the shade every day until the green leaves dry and turn brown.

Dahlia of the Day:  Happy Single Date 

One petal has dropped off, but the Bumble Bees still love it.