It's September, people. September!
August in my garden sure did not disappoint! Oh, there have been problems, sure, but these were minor compared to the war I had to wage on Japanese beetles last month, or the over abundance of cucumbers that were impossible to reach for harvest. I got a break from canning stuff for a couple weeks, the weather has been quite nice, and I've been producing all the vegetables, herbs, and a few fruits that I could possibly eat for a good month now.
Planting for a Fall Harvest
I put a second planting of beets, carrots, daikon, and arugula where the cucumbers had been. What a pleasure ripping those things out was. No more pickles!!! No more scratched up forearms or pokes in the eyes! Good riddance, I say!
I successfully grew daikon last fall, but my spring planting this year produced woody and inedible roots. Maybe planting daikon in the fall is the trick. We'll see.
Nightshades Galore!
Last year, my garden did not produce a single pepper, nor a single eggplant. This year, I switched out the soil in my raised beds, spaced the plants much farther apart, and made sure they got plenty of sun, pruning the eggplants pretty heavily to get sun onto the blossoms. Even so, I'd begun to despair that this would be another barren year for those two fruits, when I spied these!
Spuds, a first for me
I don't eat a lot of potatoes, because I haven't really liked them enough to prepare them. Until I grew my own, that is. It could just be that I LOVE to eat food I grew myself, but these babies are delicious, tossed with plenty of olive oil, salt and herbs, then roasted close together in the oven so they don't brown or dry out. I didn't get a whole lot out of the first bag I harvested, only seven pounds, and am hoping my second bag will produce more.
Zucchini Summer Stew
Zucchini has been going strong for a very long time now, and is only just starting to peter out. I've made some fabulous zucchini dishes. Below is one that was made from veggies and herbs that were 100% from my garden. That was a very good day.
Here's a little haiku I think most gardeners would appreciate:
that invisibility
is a thing
Petunias
Last fall, my petunias got leggier and leggier until I finally threw them out in early September. A couple of weeks later, I went to visit a friend's garden, and she had the most incredible petunias, in full and glorious bloom. Her secret? Heavy pruning during late August. I tried her technique this year.
Hopefully I'll have a shot of a glorious petunia to show you in next month's Garden Hive challenge.
As usual, there is a ton of stuff I haven't shown you. My rutabagas, a fall planting of onions and shallots, my fabulous black brandywine tomatoes, okra, raspberries and lettuce. More on those for next month's challenge.
Thanks so much for reading this one!!
This is my entry to Hive Garden Community's monthly garden challenge for September 2023. Please join us!!!
I hope your plants will grow and give you egg plant and other vegetables. It's good that you have spaced them and sunlight will catch their leaves more effectively. Now remain hopeful for the second bag.
Second bag will be bagfull
Thank you for the well wishes!
Well done you! There's nothing quite so satisfying as eating out of your own garden, particularly these days when you can trust nothing. It makes all the effort worth it.
I think eating food you have grown yourself, or someone who loves you has grown for you, is far more nutritious, call it magic if you will, than anything else you can eat. If your food has spent any time in a factory, it has been diminished in nutritional (power) value. You already know this, I know.
You definitely have a green thumb! It's so hard to believe the season is drawing to a close. This is the first year I can ever remember not being sad to see summer come to a close. It's just been so extremely hot and humid here in the upper midwest.
I didn't know you were having such a hot summer. I'll bet the relief from that is great. I much prefer cold and dry to hot and humid.
I'm definitely not ready for summer to end! Fall is coming on way too quickly for me. Leaves are already starting to turn and fall here. I like winter though, when there is no gardening to do and I can leave the house for a few days without fretting over whether my plants are well or not.
We've had a multiple bouts of pretty intense heat this summer. A few weeks ago it was the hottest/most humid I've felt anywhere in my life (even FL in July), it was 112 with heat index and high humidity. I usually prefer hot weather to cold but this was too much. We have four more days close to 100 and then it looks like we get back to normal temperatures.
Winter does have its advantages. I don't mind it much until the end of January or so and then I'm ready to escape it.
Fabulous! I have to say, I love homegrown potatoes. Like cucumbers, the supermarket versions are lack lustre - but home grown - wowsers.
I'm so happy your eggplant are growing.. I get rather upset when mine don't fruit, and too excited when they do!! I love your approach - if it doesn't work, you just figure out a way to fix it.
It's a bit frustrating to have to wait a whole year to try again, but exciting, yes. I love growing my own food! I sure miss it when I've been away, as I have been for a lot of this month. I go for four or five days, then come back to plenty to eat. Love it.
Also, what is going on here?
I'm pretty sure you know that answer!!! I must have taken 20 shots with my stupid phone to get one with definition like that.
Wow you have a lot in your garden and they are growing good. Hmm this time for sure you will harvest some from your eggplant.
Your petunias grows well and they love growing more and giving those beautiful flowers, wow!
One is ready for harvest! So exciting. Thanks for stopping by!
Your cucumbers look like they were out of control and it sounds like you got more than you wanted. It's funny how things work out. We are relatively close in location and yet we didn't have a very good year with them, go figure.
That zucchini dish looks scrumptious. Yesterday while Robin and I were picking some tomatoes and a few cucumbers we noticed that a zucchini had finally set, our first of the year. Usually, we get so many we have enough to make lots of zucchini bread, but not this year.
Veggies always taste better when harvested from one's own garden. Roasted spuds are the best!
Great first picture even if it's X-rated.😃
this garden is actually a good 150 miles from you. My lakehouse is in Auburn, and I have planted nothing there at all. It was a homestead 100 years ago, so we have some stuff: apples, elderberry, asparagus and grapes and raspberries gone wild, but most of the other perennial foods I remember from my childhood are dead and gone. I gotta get cracking on replenishing them.
Auburn NY, isn't that near the Finger Lakes?
Some of the stuff you have growing there must be well-established by now and produce loads of goodies.
Auburn is at the north end of Owasco Lake. My lake house is on the west shore of that lake. The place has been untended for a very long time because so many of us owned it (land has been in family since 1790), and so few of us were willing to put money into it. One of my sisters and I bought out our other siblings, reducing ownership to two of us who care, and two others who have taken she and I to court to force a sale. We're fighting that.
So much is overgrown and really needs tending, including the house. I do what I can, but we seriously need a lot of grounds work done. Our land management plan has been very simple for the past 30 years - don't cut down any black walnuts, and let everything else go wild. Barns are falling down, woods are littered with dead appliances, motorized vehicles and boats. Lots to do!!
It would be a shame if you had to sell the property that has been in the family for over 230 years. Keeping up with two places is tough. Before we moved to the farm we also owned another home in NJ. Trying to keep up with both places was a real chore.
If you and your sister bought out your other two siblings hopefully the court will dismiss this issue before it costs you any money. Lawyers, always a good thing to avoid them at any cost.
The place sounds like it needs a lot of work, but what a great location, especially if it is lakefront. Great idea not to cut down any black walnuts unless it's totally necessary.
We have a black walnut plantation that we planted 12 years ago, about 120 trees. One day they will be worth a boatload of money. This will not be in my lifetime, but our children or grandchildren should reap the benefits which is exactly the plan since we planted them.
Depending on the size and quality of the walnut trees on your property, they may be extremely valuable. If they are old-growth trees, even one of them could be worth a few thousand dollars. If you ever decide to look into harvesting them the first step would be to contact a professional forester. Here is a link explaining why this would be the first step and how one should go about it. You can contact a state or private forester.
Good luck with this ordeal, my friend.
Thanks for the tips, and I believe you forgot to provide the link. I'll have someone come look at the walnuts. We have a lot of black locusts too. Buckthorn threatens it all, and has already killed quite a few cherry trees. This is something that I think needs immediate control.
https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g5051
Here's the link that I meant to send.
black Locust is another valuable tree.
Always love "visiting" your garden! Glad so many things have done so well, though I can appreciate the challenge of having those one or two hyper-producers. (I'm looking at you zucchini)
I am a bit envious of the eggplant! None of my seedlings grew more than an inch tall this year. Perhaps I need to try different potting soil next year. Always something new to learn and try!
I hope your petunias bounce back beautifully!
Those petunias already look pretty good! I tried it with two other pots too.
I have quite a few eggplants now. I was away for five days, and came back to one large one ready to harvest! Lots of poblanos too. Thanks for visiting, it's always a pleasure to have you here! xo
Steam the potatoes and cook sauce separately. The sauce I like is: milk butter chicken bullion or stock, pepper, salt (to taste depending on the bullion), and onions (I usually use dried). Heat them until slightly thickened, I sometimes add Alfredo sauce...when I want it extra rich, LOL!
Rough mash the potatoes (I like some lumps) and add the sauce. The best potato soup ever! Steaming keeps the potatoes soft but not soggy, as they cook faster. Cook down the sauce and you have mashed potatoes that people will fight over too!
I'm proud of you on this garden...you did a great job!!!
👍🤠😁💗🐾🐶🐾🥳👌🎉
Thank you!! I've learned an awful lot, and can't wait for next year to try again.
Love the potato soup recipe, definitely will try it. I've also been wondering about dehydrating onions. I'll give that a go too. I've done garlic, so easy to use!!! Thanks for all your support over the years, you are one of the gems of Hive.
Thanks, I'm trying to get back to posting; but being attacked here by a whale just reminded me too much of steemit. Made it less fun, but I'm hoping to get over that some time.
Dry the onions outside if you have a protected porch, they can get a little intense. But you've done garlic, so you know. I'll be drying and canning some peaches today. My punishment for buying a case...LOL!
👍🤠💙🙏📖🙏💗
I'm canning tomatoes today, my own. And apples if I find the time and energy. I loathe canning, so I get your punishment quip. But I do love having those canned foods in the deep winter, food I grew myself, and I must think ahead to the joy I will experience then, instead of focusing on how unpleasant putting the food up will be today. Have fun!
So colourful. Looks very attractive the prepared item. Sorry to see the petunias after getting a snip.
And now they look fabulous!! It's a great trick.
Wholey Smokes do you drive a lot of business over here!
Great Work!
Kind Regards!
(bacon)
um, I am very surprised to see you here. And, um, thanks?
I like this place despite some of the destructive forces at play, and am not one to throw babies out with bathwaters. People actually read my stuff! I have found quite a lot of the bloggers here are quietly of like mind regarding the destructive forces at play in the world-at-large, whatever that is. This is the perfect place for us to learn how to build parallel realities, rather than to support adversities by opposing them. Something like that. Hey, thanks for stopping by!!!
hive is fine but broken...
I'm happy you've got traction here. I do too but out of professionalism I refuse using it regularly.
stay bright!
That your Zucchini dish you prepared looks so tantalizing 😂😂😂. I wish am there to have a taste of it.
Also, just like you, I prefer eating from my produce rather than purchasing from market or buying already made food from someone somewhere lolz
!HUG
I sent 1.0 HUG on behalf of @marajah.
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I love this snap, I have been looking for something like to take a photo on my garden but still couldn't find one most of the time all I see are worms and insects.