2012 Veg Garden October Magic

There are two dozen or so fruits on the full size plants and dozens more on the cherry size plants left ripening after today's harvest and we are scheduled to get one inch of rain over several days this week so it looks like this season's tomatoes will give us at least one more magical basket of goodness. The hose water is just no match to our rain water and with this drought I am surprised they have done so well and think the rain will be just what they need to finish out the season with a mid October harvest!

2012 Veg Garden Winding Down

There may be one more basket like this one before the 2012 Veg Garden offers up it's last morsel. This fall has proven a little too busy to try for a late planting not to mention too dry, the driest since they started keeping track. A fairly wet spring and early summer means we are technically still a few inches above average on the year but since it's been 70+ days without more than .03 of an inch of rain that's little consolation.

2012 Veg Garden Naughty By Nature

Two tomatoes, one stem! These tiny jewels (title reference pun intended) are even sweeter than the slightly larger but still small gold nuggets, I didn't think that was possible! We're nearly at the end of the season here in our little pacific northwest microclimate, with no real rainfall for well over 60 days now it's a textbook indian summer. A stroll to the garden today sent dozens of crickets jumping in a wave in front of me like I haven't seen since I was a kid in Connecticut. The rain and humidity usually keep their numbers very low in these parts but not this year. Friday, the bizarrely large orange morris the cat doppelganger, couldn't be happier. He brings several a day to the patio for playtime, holding a giant paw on them with just enough pressure not to squish, letting them go and chasing them down again. Until another kitty shows up that is, then it's gobbled up.

2012 Veg Garden Ghostly Visitation

I've never seen a white furry caterpillar before so was very surprised to see this one in a very wet predicament on a rock in the fountain. It was fairly large, and still probably due to the cold and wet location. Since we don't see many except gypsy moth caterpillars here my first thought was to destroy it in case it turned into something that would eat my veggies next spring. Then I thought it was so pretty perhaps it was a butterfly? So, you know what happened next. Drop in aerial rescue and relocation to a safe and hopefully food filled blackberry bramble in the sun. I have to wonder if this odd sighting is an indication of things to come. We are over 50 days without rain here in the pacific northwest, a record for us, leading many to speculate on the insect implications. My home is surrounded by maple and fir trees and I noticed what seemed to be many more monarch (? Large, pale yellow and black?) butterflies flitting through the leaves this summer.

2012 Veg Garden Great Pumpkin Disaster

The lone pumpkin this year has come under attack. From the looks of the wound, and the two squirrels the cats have brought into the house in varying stages of death, I'd say the culprit is no mystery.  Bummer.

2012 Veg Garden Tomato Bounty

From one tomato last week to glorious bounty this week. We're going to break out the dehydrator and see how well it works for making sun dried tomatoes. In the meantime those sweet gold nuggets are addictive and don't last long once they ripen.

2012 Veg Garden Perfection

This red jewel is the first of the heirlooms to ripen. Finally the carrots are big enough to harvest. I'm not sure what happened but it's taken from the spring planting until now. This little guy is a mini and is so very sweet! Despite what turned out to be a devastating case of powdery mildew the on the winter squash side of the garden the summer squashes are still coming.

2012 Veg Garden Late Summer Harvest

Purple broccoli, yellow and zucchini squash, green beans, cherry and early girl tomatoes make up this basket. The purple broccoli has a smaller, looser crown than typical green varieties and the green bean bush is performing very well considering it was planted in July. Despite the numerous flowers in the winter squash patch there is only one pumpkin and no sign at all of a butternut. Better luck next year I guess.

2012 Veg Garden Hiatus

County fair time again. These little piggies were taken off early this week to strut their stuff. One of them has already won champion market hog and another's FFA handler won champion fitting and showing. All are at the fair market auction as I type and will be gracing some lucky bidders dinner plate very soon. Bacon, Hammy and Barbecue would be their names if I had my way. I love fair, a spell seems cast so that strangers all nod and say hello, lost items are found and returned and worries are checked at the gate. Of course the cowboys are always nice... 8-)

2012 Veg Garden Tomayto Tomahto

Either way they're here! These yellow sweeties along with similar sized gold nuggets are the smallest and first to ripen. Both bushes, comprised of 2-3 seedling plants shown in a blog posting in May, are just packed with fruits. The larger early girls, siletz and heirloom plants are also full of green beauties and all are still flowering. These yellow sweeties are very sweet with delicate skins while the gold nuggets are a bit more acidic with a more sturdy skin.

2012 Veg Garden Apple Futures

Visions of apple pie dance in my head. Last year every apple, those still on branches and every one on the ground, disappeared. The neighbor says he saw several deer munching on them. Impressive considering the 6ft chainlink fence. These are pretty tart and on the small side.

2012 Veg Garden Oddities

These two (four?) yellow straight neck squash grew on one plant from some of the first blossoms of the season. They were in fact four separate squashes and joined rather quickly. At first they were all about the same size but as time went by you can see that each pair had it's dominate member. I had intended to let these go to see how they would progress but the smaller of each set began to go soft.

2012 Veg Garden Grilled Summer Squash

We cooked these on the grill using a woklike pan with holes made just for grilling odd shapes. Green zucchini and yellow straightneck squash from the garden were sliced very thick so they had time to get good carmel color without getting mushy. Adding a sweet onion, also a large chop, along with salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil then into the pan over medium high flame got the job done. A dressing to pour over after cooking sounded good so I held out a chunk of onion to dice finely, snipped some thyme and basil from the herb pot and gave that a fine chop, added a quarter cup of pear vinaigrette, a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, a few tablespoons of olive oil, a finely chopped garlic clove, salt and pepper into a bowl and whisked lightly. I let that sit while cooking the veg and dumping it into a bowl, then I just poured the mixture over the still hot veggies and tossed. Skewered
shrimp and grilled top sirloin rounded up the meal, if you don't count the red velvet cake...

2012 Veg Garden Summer Squash

The first real summer squash harvest is in! The mildew was kiboshed on this side of the garden with no real damage. Turns out spraying the leaves with water early in the day is enough to keep the nasties away as unlike most mildew this one spreads in dry conditions. We ended up cutting out the most damaged leaves on the winter squash side and that left one pumpkin plant a bit bare, I hope it makes it.

2012 Veg Garden Powdery Mildew

About a week after laying down straw the winter squash and volunteer crooked necks developed this hideous case of powdery mildew. It has spread across the entire 15x8ft patch. The soaker hose runs under the plants and straw. I suspect this, combined with the sheer mass of leaves from the volunteers that blocks the light, has created the perfect moist condition for the nasty mildew. We of course went straight to the garden store to pick up an organic solution. However it turns out even organic products have precautionary labels. In this case, don't let it drain into stormwater runoff, don't inhale, wear long sleeves, 72 hours before harvest... So, we'll be searching the books for a more user friendly solution. If you have any wisdom on the subject feel free to let me know.

2012 Veg Garden Native Bees

This little bee and it's friends arrived on the patio several weeks ago and began going into and out of the tiny holes on the underside of each metal crossbeam that makes up the patio cabana. They were few and small and didn't buzz around our heads so we left them to it. A week or so later we noticed they were carrying in bits of green leaves. They looked like about 3/4 of an inch of thick bladed grass. I took a closer look and saw a smallish, silver and gray striped fuzzy bee with no real stinger that I could find (not that I was super close). Now we saw that nearly every crossbar had it's own 'busy bee'. They were bringing leaf after leaf. A quick lookup finds we have native leafcutter bees. They say the cuttings are roundish but these really look leaf bladish. The one shown above looks a little waspish unlike the others and is yellow and black but still fuzzy with small or no stinger. We're glad they're here to help pollinate.

2012 Veg Garden Romaine Update

Left to grow a bit longer, the romaine tightened up a bit. Still not as tender as I'd like, not sure what to do about that. If you have any ideas let me know.

2012 Veg Garden TOMATOES!

These are the earlygirls. All of the varieties have fruits now.
I'm most excited about the heirlooms, their flavor is outstanding.
Just a few weeks now to a garden fresh spinach, basil and tomato salad.

2012 Veg Garden Mid-Season

Just entering the warmest part of the season now so we picked up a bale of straw to spread under the plants and over the soaker hose. You can see the bush beans finally decided to grow, we'll see if they produce. Next pic will be all dressed up.

2012 Veg Garden Live Art

As noted in an earlier post we decided to leave the volunteer broccoli that popped up en mass amongst the seedlings to act as a living mulch. This beatiful graygreen and purple tapestry is the result. And it was effective! Not only are the weeds practically nonexistant, the soil beneath is cool and moist. As a bonus the younger smaller leaves of the volunteers distracted the munchers from the seedlings.