Kilgore's Hippie Adventures: July 2014

Things have continued to be busy lately. I barely have time to clean my house, let alone address any of my projects; it's been more than a month since I have made soap, my quilt has gone a few months without action, and I can barely get to the garden. Preserving the bounty takes more time.

As for the garden, I think mine has peaked for the season. I am a little disappointed at my hot plants. Many other folks in the garden have bounteous tomato plants, so I can't blame the cold summer. It could be that they stunted from the cold just after I set them outside; I will take more care next year.

The zucchini and cucumbers have powdery mildew. The zucchini is yellowing and dying. I never foiled the stem, so coild be squash bugs. The cukes just seem a little weak.

Black beans are drying on their vines. There are a ton of fat little pods. I can't wait to see what happens.

Green beans are done. I left a few to dry on the vine for seed.

Shelling pea vines are all dried. I pulled the dry pods left on the vine, then uprooted the dead vines. Still waiting on sugar snap peas to dry.

Broccoli is alive, but no heads yet.

I cut several stems of the borage after they yellowed, to let sun get to the plants below. I planted too much this year. Now that I know how big they get, I can plan better for next year.

Peppers are alive, but not producing. Same for eggplant.

My carrots grew big and beautiful this year! I pulled a couple and they are long and fat and a lovely orange. Can't wait to see the parsnips.

I pretty much ignored my bowl of greens. A few of the lettuces died, and a few grew big. The chard is really starting to pick up, and so is the purslane.

I've harvested quite a bit of calendula and several chamomile flowers. I cut off the flower and the plant sends up more.

The mint likes a lot of water, so it droops a little when I ignore it, but perks up again with a little water.

I am considering overwintering some things--onions, carrots--in my windowbox, but I think it is too exposed to offer much protection against a brutal midwest winter.

Otherwise, things are pretty much winding down. This is the time when the preserving begins....

I have been so busy getting my show through tech and opening that I have failed to update on my garden progress.

The weather has been unseasonably cold--in the seventies most days, instead of the eighties or nineties. We have also had a ton of rain. I have been stopping by the garden for maintenance rather than watering, and so have been going less frequently than last year. My cold-weather plants are loving it, while my hot-weather plants look a little small this year.

The radishes finished producing and went to flower. I pulled most of the them out, but lazily left a few to re-seed. They share their square with the parnsips, but few parsnips are actually growing there (and I may have stupidly pulled out some plants when pulling the radishes).

I harvested my shelling and snow peas. The snow peas matured first, with the shelling peas a week or two behind. They've mostly stopped producing, and I left a few on the plants to dry for next year's planting. The snow peas were huge producers--a ton of pods on each plant, and each pod was giant. The shelling peas just didn't produce as many pods per plant, and it seems like a lot less once you shell out the peas. I also decided to shell any snow peas with giant peas inside. I blanched and froze most of these.

Oregon II, Sugar Snap Peas (more like snow)

Green Arrow Shelling Peas

I'm picking tons of green beans. The plants stayed so small for so long, I wasn't sure what to expect. Then they shot up, developed little purple flowers, put out a small pod from each flower, and now I have more green beans than I ever expected. I have blanched and frozen most of these.

Black beans are fattening up in their pods. My plan is to leave them on the plant until they turn yellow or papery or something other than green and firm. Then I will have dried black beans, according to the internet.

The eggplant is a little sad; it's been covered up by the borage and black beans and cucumbers and isn't really getting much light. I hasn't died, but it hasn't produced more leaves either. I might give up on this, and that's okay.

I just picked two tiny zucchini today. This is a welcome change from last year's 0 squash. I am seeing male and female flowers, and the bees are taking some time away from the borage to visit and pollinate. As the weather starts to get warmer, I think this will pick up. I have to be on the watch for squash bugs, however.

I have one tiny cucumber on the vine so far. One plant (competing with borage) got huge, while the other one remains a little smaller. I am excited to see how these do. The bush plants in my window box never grew, so I am counting on the ones in my plot. Last year, these died fairly early on, so I am putting these in the success column for still being alive and producing a tiny cucumber.

Some peppers are flowering, and some are not. I haven't gotten any fruit yet, but I blame the lack of hot weather. Peppers love the heat. Last year's peppers were planted late, so I don't think I got the full experience of growing the Italian Sweet and the Healthy peppers. Both of those plants have grown somewhat tall so far and look healthy. The mini pepper plants look smaller than usual this year. I am hoping we get some heat to perk these up.

Unfortunately, it's the same with tomatoes. My plants are barely two feet tall. My Gold Nuggets are normally my "workhorse" tomatoes--those things produce early and often and just keep going. This year, they are small plants with just a few fruits on them. I have a fruit or two on the heirloom and Silvery Fir Tree plants, and a few Roma tomatoes on the vine. I think tomatoes are the thing I look forward to the most, so it's a little sad to see them underperforming this year, especially after last year's aphids, blight, blossom end rot, and everything else. Again, maybe the heat will perk them up? I've been staying on top of blighted leaves too, and they are staying pretty healthy so far. There just aren't that many leaves to blight.

The shoulders of the carrots are starting to pop up. I haven't seen anything from the parsnips yet, but they take longer than carrots, and their leaves are looking lush, so I am not worried.

The borage is insane. The plants are giant and produce so many flowers. The bees couldn't love it more. I've been pinching off the flowers and a few of the young leaves and drying it for tea. I never take all the blooming flowers, though; I leave several on each stem for the bees. It's still plenty, and I can see there is a ton more waiting to bloom. I'll have more tea than I can drink if I dry all those suckers.

Borage also doesn't like to be touched; its prickles caused a little irritation where I had to push it around to get to my green beans and other plants. And a little goes a long way; I don't think I'll grow so much next year. But certainly a +1 in the gardening column!

Calendula is blooming wonderfully. Another surprise for me. I grew this from seed as well, and just didn't expect much. Instead, I've harvested probably ten flowers at this point. I plan on using them to infuse oil, which I can use in lotion and body butter this winter. Calendula is supposed to be a very soothing and gentle oil for the skin.

The basil is somewhat producing. Some of the lower leaves look yellow and blighted, but the newer leaves look nice and green. I'd really like to get some pesto made and frozen this year, especially if my tomatoes aren't going to produce enough for sauce.

The lemon balm started to go to flower, so I cut it back. It's now bushing out nicely again. I dried some leaves for tea, and I also made a pretty delicious strawberry and lemon balm flavored water with the fresh leaves.

The oregano went to flower and I left it alone. The sage is plugging along and smells great. I cut back some borage leaves to find my little plot of thyme. It's still going, and I hope the extra sun helps. The dill has just taken over, so I pulled some out and cut back some of the stuff that wanted to flower. I really want it to time out with my cucumbers so that I can pickle with fresh dill. The chives are still growing, as far as I can tell (I don't know that I could find them at this point, they are so buried). The parsley looks lovely.

So, basically, everything is looking great!