Progress on the master plan

Between work, weather, and the fact that it's getting dark earlier, I haven't been taking many pictures lately. I have been picking tomatoes every few days, but I can't seem to get myself organized enough to make a Harvest Monday post. But, I will accept my shortcomings and just post what I have been able to capture.

The morning glory I planted by my mailbox has become a beast. It's a sure miracle that three tiny seeds can turn into the mass that is this morning glory. It's also a miracle that the post office hasn't stopped delivering our mail. I've trimmed it a couple times already, and Saturday it was time for another trimming. Sadly, I didn't actually take a picture of the morning glory that day, but here's a picture from a few weeks ago. It was probably 30% larger than this on Saturday.

Once I trimmed it up, so it looked a lot like the above picture again and the mail could be delivered safely, I decided that I would pull out the landscape fabric lurking under the mulch in this garden bed. I bought 50 daffodil bulbs and wanted to put some in this garden, so the landscape fabric had to go.

Before I knew it, the fabric was gone, and I had started trimming the yuccas.

I absolutely despise yuccas, and this yard was full of them. I dug out about five from the herb garden last fall, and the plants in this garden have been in my crosshairs ever since. Yuccas have their place, but it isn't my flowerbeds.

After considerable effort, I had removed a couple clumps of yucca and a huge root.

Don't ever let anyone tell you it's easy to get rid of yuccas. It takes considerable effort, and I'll be fighting these plants for years. Any piece of root that is left in the ground will sprout. I've been pulling sprouts out of the herb garden all summer, and I know there are some big ones lurking under the zinnias even now.

Speaking of the herb garden, once the yuccas were gone, I dug two clumps of black-eyed Susans out of the herb garden and stuck them where the yuccas used to be.

I had no qualms about digging up the black-eyed Susans. I successfully transplanted several of them this spring, and they grow like weeds in my yard. The next day I planted daffodils and crocuses in the empty area.

I can't wait to see what this garden looks like next spring. Remind me that I don't want to plant morning glories by the mailbox again.

If it ain't one end, it's the other

The good news is, I have been getting quite a few ripe tomatoes the past couple weeks. The not-so-good news is, they are suffering from a condition I haven't encountered before: yellow shoulders. So, this year I don't have blossom end rot, but I have yellow shoulders.

You can see it really well in these pictures:

9/18

9/18

From what I've read, yellow shoulders can be caused by heat and/or soil conditions. Given the weather we've had this year, heat could certainly be the culprit. Since I've never grown tomatoes on this property before, however, it could easily be that the soil has a nutrient imbalance. It apparently affects heirlooms more than hybrids, too, and all of my tomatoes are heirlooms.

I'm not a very scientific gardener, so for now, I'm probably not going to put much effort into figuring out the cause. I am picking enough tomatoes for our use, and the yellow shoulders just mean I have to trim off more than usual. Also, I might be hallucinating, but it seems to me that it isn't happening as bad on the tomatoes I've picked more recently.

9/23

If it happens again next year, I'll have a little more data, and a lot more incentive, to figure out the reason.

I almost forgot

When I was cutting down the Mexico midget the other day, I found a not-so-little friend. I was actually picking up some branches I'd cut off a couple days earlier, and I almost grabbed him. Startled me, that's for sure.

I know these guys are terrible for tomatoes, but I just can't squish creatures, especially creatures that big. Besides, like I said, he was on the branches I'd already cut off, so I just dropped his branch in the yard waste bag with all the rest. He probably got squished when the trash guys picked up the bag today, but at least I didn't squish him.

Ready for fall

If it wasn't for the lack of tomatoes in my cupboards and freezer, I'd definitely be ready for fall. By this time of year, the garden is always showing its age and is far from the bright, beautiful, orderly place I started the season with. This year seems worse than usual, however. Between the rain and the BUGS, there has been a lot of ick in the garden.

I haven't written much about the pests, but there have been a lot of them. I secretly blame the people who lived here before me. They left so many types of pesticides in the garage, I'm surprised anything can live in the backyard. My theory is that the bug population is out of whack because of all their pesticide use. That belief has gotten me through this year, and I'm hoping that next year will be better.

At any rate, one day after work last week, I went out to the garden to see what I could pick, and I ended up deciding that the green beans were done. Some of the plants still looked okay with a few small beans, but some were starting to turn yellow, so I tore them off the trellis and threw them in the composter. There's a big empty spot where they used to be.

That'll make some room for my cabbages to grow. That is, if the bug that's been eating them doesn't kill them all first.

This is one of the better looking cabbages at this point.

Some of them are leafless. I've sprayed with an alcohol, water, and soap mixture, but it didn't seem to help.

Oh well, the radishes don't look too bad, and neither does the cabbage living next to them.

The beets are growing, but are a little scraggly looking.

I felt like doing a little more fall cleanup this afternoon, so I cut down the Mexico midget cherry tomato plant. I've reached the point where I can hardly give away more cherry tomatoes, so I picked what was ripe and cut the plant down. The tomatoes went in the dehydrator.

big hole where Mexico midget used to be

We do have a good forecast for the week ahead, and there are a lot of almost ripe tomatoes on the vines. Maybe canning and freezing are in my future.

Harvest Monday 9.12.16

Linking up with Harvest Monday at Our Happy Acres again. It really is fun to see what others are harvesting.

This was a week of more for me. I've been getting some tomatoes, but this week, I was picking quite a few more each time. I also got one more zucchini.

Sept. 5th

Sept. 6th

This one weighed in over a pound.

At this point, I had enough to can seven pints.

I almost tore the bean plants out last weekend. I'm glad I didn't because when I finally started paying attention to them, I realized they were covered with beans.

Over a pound at one picking.

Sept. 7th

And more a few days later.

Sept. 10th

I pulled my pressure canner out of storage, but I haven't gotten up the nerve to try canning them yet. I haven't mastered the whole pressure canning thing, but I think I have enough beans to justify another attempt.

On Sunday afternoon I picked a few more tomatoes. I forgot to take their picture, however, because I was in too much of a hurry to turn them into garden-fresh tomato juice for some homemade bloody Mary mix. My bloody Mary recipe needs some perfecting, but the tomato juice was delicious.

More hope for fall

Even though the Mexican Sour Gherkins were still growing, I decided to pull the plant and use the space. I haven't developed a taste for them yet, and the ones falling off the plant now seem to be more sour than the first few.

before

after

In the space, I put two rows of red radishes and one row of white icicle radishes. I've read about roasting radishes, and I'd really like to try it.

While I was working, I saw this guy.

He ran away pretty fast, but not before I got a picture. I saw another, bigger one, but he got away from me. I have seen mantises of all sizes this year, from barely an inch long to the six inch giants. I love them all.

In other fall garden news, the beets are growing.

Harvest Monday 9.5.16

I don't have much to show this week, but what I do have is a first.

I picked my first butternut squash on Wednesday.

It was a little under two pounds, and I'm not completely sure it was ripe. The stem is turning brown and I couldn't puncture the skin with my fingernail, both of which I understand are signs of ripeness. I should've cooked it to see for sure, because there are several more at about the same point, but it's too hot to eat squash so I diced it and froze it. Yes, I said it's too hot to eat squash. While we've been having some cooler temperatures, it's 90 degrees again today, and squash is fall food to me, so tasting will have to wait.

Swing on over to Harvest Monday at Our Happy Acres to see the wonderful variety of things other gardeners are harvesting.