Mid August 2019 Garden Update

While August has been cooler than the past few years, it is certainly not the coolest August ever. On the other hand, it is already the wettest.  Thunder clouds and lightning moved in just before the the weekend, then a downpour of rain. Lightning struck near our place on Friday night, August 10, and when the wireless router started smoking, I knew we were in trouble. Even though we use a local Internet provider (based on our region) there are no stores nearby. The two closest stores are both over a four hour drive away... one to the southwest on the coast, and the other to the east, each over 230 miles away; just to pick up a replacement would have meant an 9 hour drive round trip. So, the replacement was sent out Monday afternoon and arrived this afternoon. Thank you, UPS! Then, the tech support needed to reset the FiOS box (I don't know what they called it). While on the phone, I had to find the FiOS box, unplug it from the power, they did something to cause a "reset" and then I plugged it back in. So, let's just say that even when electronics are plugged into surge protectors, that's not always a guarantee that a huge bolt of electricity won't end up frying the electronics.

On the plant front, the cooler temps and rain over the weekend switched over to 80+ temps on Monday with lots of sunshine, which resulted in a lot of plants ripening up right quick.  The corn is on the edge of ripe. Most of the carrots are done, and I planted spinach seeds in that area of the garden. I replanted lettuce for the next round. I harvested the thyme before the rains hit. I picked six nice sized cucumbers and forgot to take a pix before they were all gone. Radishes are mostly done. Beans are still producing like crazy so we are eating fresh green beans every other night. Real sized Tomatoes are finally starting to ripen.  The Sungold cherry tomato plant is so heavy with fruit, it keeps falling over.  We cut a lot of the tops off to help it from being to top heavy.  Threw away about 25 green cherry tomatoes because, in truth, there are just way too many.

Trying to stay ahead of the garden so that we don't end up having to throw away too much.

Purple Cherokee almost ripe	Nice Sized Purple Cherokee
Blurry Purple Cherokee Tomato	Huge German Tomato
Almost the last of the radishes	Almost the last of the carrots and the start of the corn

UPDATE - August 15

The bumble bee in the dill was an nice thing to see this morning.  Also, took some updates on the cucumbers. There is one bee that seems to have adopted the task of pollinating for me on the cucumbers, so that's a nice bee to be thankful for.

Remember the corn tillers (suckers) that I left on. Well, it turns out there are a bit hermaphrodite-ish on the tassels.  Although many of the tillers have tassels now, and several have ears of corn on them, a few of the tassels on the tillers also have two or more kernels on them. None of the main stalks' tassels have kernels of corn (and silk). Just a few of the ones that are are tillers are that way.

A little more reading from corn experts, this is known as Tassel Ears and sometimes a whole ear of corn forms on the tassel which typically occur on the tillers.  They nothing more than "bird food" so to speak and if they occur on the main stalk, it is because of damage to the stalks, or field.

11 weeks after planting, we have ripe corn and we pulled three tonight for dinner. Sweet corn on the cob!

Square garden beans did much better this year, than last.  So I will need to freeze beans to keep from wasting them. Carrots also did much better this year.  Despite the crazy summer weather, the plants seem to be working through it. In about a month, mid September, I should have cilantro and spinach. My favorite fall plants.

BumbleBee in the Dill	BumbleBee different angle
Baby Cuke	Pickle sized Cuke
Salad Cuke	And All Three Sizes Together
Square Garden Growing	Green - String Beans
A handful of ripe Sungolds	Corn Mostly Ready
A few Kernels on Tassels	Tassels, kernels with silk

Phenomenal Growth for a Cool July

We had some amazing growth this week, which I would never have imagined! Let me take you around the garden to look at some of it. First, I noticed right away that the beans had doubled in size in a matter of days. I had pruned/trimmed the basil and dill, right next to the beans, just a day or two ago, and the beans were not this thick/tall as they are today. 

Beans twice as tall as a few days ago.

Baby Beans are Forming

The thyme is starting to pick up, as well. Nothing that spectacular, but it's growing and making an impression with it's dark green color. 

Thyme it filling in.

The corn, I kid you not, grew 10 to 12 inches in less than a week! The tallest corn is now 60" tall when it was about 50" just a few days ago. The "ear" sprouts are showing up too, but I didn't think to get photos of that. 

4-5ft Corn

Nice full tassels

Not that they are "my" crop or anything that I did, but the blackberries are thick as can be this year. We've had, actually, perfect conditions for wild blackberries, with temps in the 70s, humid days and cool nights. We are going to have a bumper crop of berries. And they are not even done flowering yet. So that harvest may last well into August.

Thick crop of wild blackberries	More berries
Some are still flowering

The potatoes took a huge wilt today with the warmer sunshine. Harvest is still planned for the last weekend of July - August 1. 

Wilting Potatoes

Tomato blossoms are finally taking hold and creating some nice tomatoes.  The Purple Cherokee are a bit ugly in shape, but I think they will be a nice size when ripe. The Sungold have a lot of cherry tomatoes on it. The Chocolate Cherry plant is, so, so with tomatoes.  Not a lot, but there's still time. The German finally has its first fruit.  I think I see a few more potential ones, but they could be fakes because of the way the blossoms are on this plant. Sorry for the blur. The wind out of the west was a bit blustery today.

First German Tomato	Some Purple Cherokee Tomatoes
Another Purple Cherokee tomato	Tomato plants lined up in the warm sunshine

I never realized how pretty the Walla Walla Sweet Onion blossoms could be. Enjoying the beauty while waiting for it to die so that I can harvest the seeds for next year.

Walla Walla Sweet Onion Blossom

Our temps finally hit 85 today. That's a decent warm temp for the garden.  I pulled the lettuce out of the sun, into the shade to protect it from burning.

Fertilize the Baby Cukes

On cucumber plants, there are two genders of flowers; male and female.  Normally, in the summer months, there are a lot of bees and bugs that can help to pollinate the flowers. But, unfortunately, some summers we have fewer bugs, pests, bees, etc. This year, is one of those summers. To ensure that we get as many cucumber fruit as possible, I need to help the process along.  With a dry cotton swab/Q-tip in hand, I gather some pollen from the male flower and then place that same swab in the female flower. 

It is super easy to tell the males from the female flowers on cucumbers. The male is merely a flower on the end of a stem, but a female is a flower on the end of a baby cucumber. Dip the swab all the way into the base of the male flower and twirl it once, then do the exact same to the female, and voila, the baby cucumber is now fertilized and should mature on the vine.  If the baby cucumber is not fertilized, it will drop off the vine and never mature. 

Every two to three days, we need to go look over the plants to find new baby cukes with flowers that have opened, and fertilize them. Takes all of about five minutes time and soon there are a bunch of cucumbers growing on the vines. 

Two baby cukes.	Close up of the female flower with baby cucumber
There are three cucumbers on plant in blue bucket.	There are only male flowers on plant in orange bucket.