Left the soaker hose on for 24 hours at least. The nights are still pretty cool, but the thunderstorms are waiting until I decide to go fishing.

Last week I planted a lot of beans anywhere there was empty space and light between the tomatoes and I saw them poking their heads up already. Even if I don't get much of a harvest, they should protect and improve the soil. Actually, except for last year, I get first frost around Thanksgiving so there is hope for more beans yet. Also planted beets, lettuce and some winter radishes.

Everything is flowering, but I don't see any squash or cukes yet, so I will have to find the watercolor brush and make like a bee. There are some pollinators out there, but not as many as last year.

Harvested enough beans for 3 families, plus some tomatoes and a few mini-belle peppers. Also those little round egg plants. I am losing my little helper for a week, as someone helped out with plane tickets so he and his siblings could join their parents at a bar mitzvah in Israel. I promised him the garden would be here when he got back.

Eating a few cukes, tomatos are fianly starting to color, Paprika is actually farther along than tomatoes, this year is likely to be a no-show for eggplant. I could be eating corn but without feedback from some of the foster growers I expect I will have to save 100% of Hopi pink for seed :-(.

All I have left to do for exhibition bonsai is to finish the dead wood onna larch by tomorrow.

My tomatoes look so sad. 60+ days of rain in the last 90 has not been kind. Seed yeild will be reduced.

Last rain was on 1/2" 9 days ago...but we should at least have a shower today and hopefully a nice thunderstorm. If not...I'm gonna be hooking up the hoses again I fear.

But, given how many gloomy afternoons we've had this summer it was nice to get a week of clear and sunny weather. I'm at 2.6" rain for August, which is 1" low with a week to go...so we're right on track.

Picked 10# of squash and zukes yesterday, 3# of cherry tomatoes today, 3# of regular maters today, plus my first Silver Queen corn of the year

Squash seems to be petering out, but I should be harvesting a few into early September, which is very good for me after all the problems I've had in the past with squash bugs sucking the life out of them. I'm hoping a good rain today will give them a good goosing.

Tomatoes are coming along nicely now.

Tom C , my Hopi corn is pitiful. I am the weakest link in the grower's chain. Weather got very cool right after the corn came up. My first batch is shorter than my 3rd batch which was sown a month later. I hope some of you others get something. I have a few small ears coming on, but the plants are only 3 feet tall.

OH2FLY, we'll talk about where we are after Columbus day. My corn is better but the amount I can plant is just too few.

Be of good cheer, if people of good will can save a plant from oblivion this is one of the web site that'll make it happen.

We've been fighting off groundhogs and stinkbugs and cucumber beetles, etc, etc, etc. The stinkbugs stick their needle like mouth part into the fruit (peppers, too!) and then the fruit becomes progressively more damaged. We have been spraying with Safers and are going to try the Safers Neem tomorrow.

Our cukes are pretty much gone, harvested four tomatoes (don't know how many we had to compost, but it's been running about three to one (bad fruit to good)

The groundhogs are laughing at our methods and have eaten all the geen bean foliage and after wiping out most of the watermelons, they have switched to the French cantaloupes...GRRRR!!

We still are getting lots of eggplant, new zealand and red malabar spinach (good when sauteed with garlic) and some peppers that haven't been damaged.

Plan to consult Elliot Coleman's book to decide when to plant our winter garden as well as the fall stuff...I'm lusting for some fresh green lettuce and radishes, etc.

We have not had any rain since June. I am ready for a good soaking...it amazes me how water thrifty most of our trees and shrubs are. The "lawn" looks like golden stubble left after hay is baled.

Thank goodness for drip irrigation...everything that hasn't been killed off looks great!

Peace

Gail

Spent the weekend waiting for a tropical storm that turned out to be a 'non event' (Thank God) until this morning, that is. Raining like "You need to build an ark, OB!" Roads flooded and who knows where the beet seed I planted Thursday ended up! Guess I'll be replanting those. Good news is the 45mph wind tomato tying job held during all of this morning's brouhaha.

The planted cole crops loved the rain (and probably the absence of our hot August sun) and are growing quite nicely. Cutworms took care of some of the basil surplus. Still waiting on the red gold potatoes to show their stuff. Tomato plants look healthy and have blooms on them. The seed I saved from my father's cantaloupe have been planted and are growing gangbusters. Maybe cantaloupe for Thanksgiving, lol?

The baby possum showed up on the back porch again this morning. He doesn't seem to be very afraid of me though, Lord knows, I've tried. He's there to eat cat food (that I forgot to take up last night) and the funny thing is, the cats don't try to run him off. I don't know whether to be irritated with him or feel sorry for him. He's a baby and his habitat/home is being destroyed by the developer who's intent on clearing all of the woods surrounding us.

Happy gardening!

OB (off to look for beet seed )

Harvested half of our russet taters tonight. It was an experiment with lasagna gardening on top of pure clay. Out of a 3 by 6 foot area, I got 2 gallons of small round white potatoes. No big ones for baking, just a bunch of golf ball sized ones. I think my problem was using leaves as two of my layers. All the taters were just above the starter layer of grass clippings. None up 6" higher where the compost/soil mix was. The leaves were in the middle. I doubt they stayed wet enough for the plant stalks to produce. Oh well, we loved steamed new taters.

Here's this week's harvest pic, less some tomatoes and corn already eaten

Combination of pickings on Saturday and Sunday (stored in the fridge till tonite) and tonite. Have to try and be up near Boston at a client site tomorrow at 8am, so I loaded up the truck tonite to drop this batch off at the food pantry:



I think the tomatoes are coming in, even if the quality on a lot of the big ones is still marginal. Good enough for salads, though, once cut up. The Cherry Tomatoes however are heavenly...sometimes I just sit between the cages in the garden picking and eating 'em.

Main problem now...no rain last night. No rain in the forecast, I suspect it may be delaying some of the squash (they're not growing as fast as I'd expect). And I'm working a couple long days up in Waltham the next few, so it's gonna be Friday or this weekend till I can water...I don't like letting it run when I'm not here or overnight.

Nice haul Matt! How does that crookneck compare to yellow zucchini? I never tried it. Is the skin thin and edible when the fruit are small? We like to grill ours.