What a difference two weeks makes in our garden! Two weeks without any measurable rain, hot temperatures and produce ripening every day keeps us busy! Bert waters everything every day, but it’s hard to keep all the plants happy without a good soaking rain. When it’s dry like this, plants must think fall is coming and everything ripens faster. Of course, that means my focus is on the produce that needs to be processed.
We’ve cooked and canned the first round of tomatoes…about 42 tomatoes made 13 pints of cooked tomatoes:
The zucchini plants are still producing so I’m trying to catch them when they are still small (obviously I missed one!). I’ve made a batch or two of my zucchini chocolate chip cookies (see the recipe at https://marykisner.com/marys-zucchini-chocolate-chip-cookies/) and I’ve found a good zucchini bread recipe. I’ll post about that soon.
Now, for a tour of the garden. The onions are definitely ready to harvest. So far, we’re digging them up as we use them. They’ll probably keep better for a few weeks right there in the dirt!
The next batch of lettuce is ready to eat and the radishes are doing fine!
The “Raindrop” tomatoes have done very well, but the plants are not looking very healthy. We’re not sure if they are just stressed from the hot, dry weather or if they have a fungus. Either way, the tomatoes are still ripening just fine!
The pumpkins are doing well…EXCEPT they were being eaten by something!
Check out this pumpkin…almost half-munched away!
The one pumpkin Bert put up on a stand seemed to be safe!
Bert set up a trap with a small pumpkin as bait and within a day he caught a HUGE groundhog! The groundhog must have thought we planted those pumpkins just for his own salad bar! After that groundhog was dispatched, Bert set the trap again. So far, no other groundhogs have been caught!
Up in the garden, the lavender still looks pretty stressed.
The tomatoes are doing well. I can see I’ll have my work cut out for me when they all ripen!
The carrots are quietly doing their thing. We’re always surprised when we finally dig them up in the fall!
The zucchini keeps producing…we’ll see how long that will continue!
Finally, the echinacea has given up and gone to seed. Oh well, hopefully next year they’ll last a little longer!
That’s what’s happening around here. While Bert is watering and keeping up with the garden outside, I seem to be doing a lot of dishes! That’s OK. Harvest season doesn’t last very long and if I need something we don’t grow, someone at the Farmer’s Market probably has it! Enjoy!
If you have comments or questions, please email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.