August 5, 2024
It is raining, and much cooler today...thankfully. It has been a longish haul through some hot, sticky, sweltering days. I had to uncoil the hoses and do some serious watering, earlier in the week. Hopefully Mother Nature will now take over the watering, at least for a while.
Several big heads of broccoli have been harvested, processed and are in the freezer. I have never grown such big ones before! I am so glad I staggered the planting. Well, the deer helped with that! There are more heads to come and lots of side shoots forming already. Cucumbers are coming in droves, and with 3 batches of pickles in jars so far, and just a batch of dills left to fill my quota....cucumbers anyone?
Everything is thriving, except for some blight in the potatoes, but they are well past time when that is really an issue. Yesterday I did discover some potato bugs....Yikes! We have never had them before, so will be re-thinking next year's potato rotation, or even if there will be one.
There are lots of pumpkins and squash growing larger in this mess of vines, and the poor beans that were supposed to climb the teepee in the foreground, are just barely getting their shoots above the mass of squash leaves.
We are really enjoying the new bed in front of the verandah.
We recently made a trip south to procure another 1000 litre IBC tote for setting up a watering system for other garden beds down by the barn, and the new hot frame.
We had thought of trying to collect rainwater off of the barn roof, but winter's snow load perpetually sliding off precluded that idea. The eaves are too high to safely reinstall the equipment each spring. Hubby is planning the raised platform to mount the tank, and we'll pump it full in spring, from the pond, like we do our existing one.
This week's trail cameras gave us a few shots. There seem to be more deer showing up in daylight hours,
I wish I knew the secret to really big broccoli and cauliflower heads. I can grow it but do not excel at it as some do. You may have the right idea on potato bugs. Sometimes the best thing is to skip a year and take away their food source. We have toyed with the idea of an IBC tote. We have a huge garage roof that we no longer collect rain from because we loaned the water tank to the next door neighbor to use for his garden. I have a nice stand of Milkweed started but so far few Monarchs have found it. I do see some eggs. A nearby neighbor used to raise nearly a hundred each year but since she stopped we only see one or two a year.
ReplyDeleteI think the 'secret' this year, was all the rain! Yes, probably won't be growing spuds next year, or very, very few, just for a taste of fresh, new ones, but not for storage. There are certainly fewer Monarchs this year. They appeared here later than usual as well.
DeleteYou have certainly embraced the rural life. /AC
ReplyDeleteIt's in the blood.....!
DeleteOur garden is producing madly these days!
ReplyDeletePS I don't actually know who 'McGinty' was.
ReplyDelete