2008 Garden and Composting Update

Hi fellow gardeners and composters,

You will notice that I have taken down the HCEP posts of the past month. I used this site as a temporary location where Master Composter Volunteers can share among themselves issues concerning the recent changes in the program. The blog has been inactive for weeks now so I will turn it back to its primary purpose which is to document status in my backyard garden. Please email me or comment on this post if you wish to discuss HCEP more. Note that there is a TAC meeting scheduled for July 10. I will attend that meeting and speak as a member of the public. Please comment or email if want to know more or if you would like to participate.

I haven't been updating this blog since late last year due to a very demanding work schedule. While the garden continues, as it has for the past 20 years, the documenting has not. I will give a quick verbal update here. I will try to post some pictures later.

For the most part, the garden has followed the 2007 program as documented last year. We had an awesome brassica this year. I harvested my last white, Fremont, cauliflower this morning ending a continuous production period which started in February. The cauliflower were late this year probably due to an unusually cool winter. But the wait was well worth it. I had several heads over one ft. in diameter. The green and orange cauliflower performed as well. I have one green cauliflower still producing a head. It will be harvested within two weeks.

And the broccoli was simply amazing. Harvest continues as it will until December. We only consumed a fraction of what the plants produced. I gave most away and some made it to the compost pile. Even now, two months after production began, I get more broccoli that we can use. Note that I plant Packman broccoli which will continue to produce for at least a year if it is consistently picked. You can't let it flower or the plant switches to bolting mode and quickly fades away.

I still have some cabbage in the ground and beautiful kale which includes Russian, Palm, and two other varieties which names I don't recall.

Peas also did well this year. Production started out with sugar snap and snow pea types in December followed by english shelling peas. The last batch of shelling peas are still producing.

The onions are finally bulbing nicely and will have to finish within the next three weeks to make way for the last batch of 90 day sweet corn. I have only the July planting of 90 day corn (see last year's blog) left for this year. All the other plantings are proceeding from just having come up (mid June planting) to less than three weeks from harvest (April planting). The April 60 day corn will be ready for harvest next week just as my freezer is emptying from last year's corn. Note that my goal is to have corn on the cob year around. It is fresh from July through early November and frozen through the winter till the following July. I freeze cob, husks, and all.

Bush beans and summer squash are now in full production. Papaya Pear squash is my favorite. It comes in early, is very stem rot resistant, and makes a really nice looking and tasty squash. I also have yellow scallop, zucchini, and a single hill of tromboncino squash. The last guy will take over a yard but can be eaten both as a summer and winter squash.

Winter squash is starting to vine all over and the pole beans are just starting to produce. But the shelling beans are the star of the summer. They are like weeds this year and loaded with pods. These are scarlet emperor runner beans and Cannelloni white beans.

Last year's carrots were awesome. I pulled the last just over a week ago completing a nine month production season. This year the carrots are struggling. I've had poor germination for some reason. I think it was due to the unusually cool winter and spring followed by three record breaking heat waves. But some are coming along now. We will see this fall.

Sweet peppers are just starting their celebration but egg plant continues to struggle which is unusual. And... we have been getting early tomatoes for two weeks now. The Roma tomatoes that I grow are loaded with fruit but none has turned yet. All the plants are close to full grown size and I am starting to prune them. Tomato prunings make for a nice nitrogen rich material for composting at a time when greens are starting to be in short supply.

Wildflower season is almost done. I have been composting the carbon rich drying plants for several weeks now. Sunflowers didn't get the proper attention this year due to my busy schedule and they are pouting as a result. I hope some perk up soon as I cherish an August walk among blooming sunflowers, and so do the humming birds.

Well, that's it for now.

Happy gardening,

danh

Summer Garden Abruptly Comes to a Close

Hi gardeners,

As I wrote in the last post, the miracle of Indian summer will indeed come to an end. That happened last weekend with three nights of heavy frost. The winter squash was hit particularly hard. Almost all plants were badly nipped after the second night of frost. The same is true of the pole beans which had refused to acknowledge the end of summer. I was picking a good sized grocery bag full each week right up to the frost. Now only a few plants remain and these probably won't produce any more.

The shelling beans, however, survived and continue to bloom. The tops of the eggplant were nipped hard but foliage closer to the ground was unharmed. Even though the plants don't look good, they are still loaded with eggplant fruit. Probably no new fruit will set but many of the ones still in development will mature before the eggplant finally give up the ghost around Christmas. The same is mostly true of the peppers. We have harvested all of the super sweet mature red peppers, but the plants are producing large numbers of new peppers. If we don't get any more tough freezes before Christmas, then many of these will mature into nice peppers.

The sauce (romana style) tomatoes were unharmed by the frost. They continue to produce; however, it takes longer for them to turn red. I pick them when there is the first sign of color change and put them in a box with already ripe fruit. This encourages further turning and eliminates the risk of slugs/snails or mold destroying the tomato before it ripens. Note that this is only an issue in the late fall and winter. I hope to still have tomatoes well into January but what actually happens is in the hands of the weather. A few nights of below freezing temperature and the tomatoes will be done.

The winter crops are starting to take center stage. The fall cauliflower which was nestled among pole beans has grown significantly with leaves approaching a ft. long. And now that the pole beans are gone, nothing hides the cauliflower. It is now a star of the winter garden. The leeks look so nice that I have to force myself to pick any of them. See pictures below. But it is time to enjoy leek. The onions are gone and leek has taken their place. My storage tables are covered with winter squashes ready for winter baking and steaming. A few plants in protected areas survived the frost. There are probably a half dozen winter squashes still trying to mature in the garden before the inevitable happens. And the carrot field is a solid green with foilage almost two ft high. There is still a little mildew but most have outgrown it. Carrots gradually replace beans in our steamed vegetable mix. I have a mixture of white, yellow, orange, and purple carrots. The giant white Kuttigers and yellow Yellowstones are the most productive and best for overwintering carrots I grow. We will harvest from that patch well into April of next year. Recall that I plant carrots with the first two plantings of 90 day corn. These carrots were planted in April and May. The corn has long been gone as are the pole beans that grew with the corn. Most of the carrots have also been harvested from the April planting. But we are just now starting to take carrots from the second planting. Sometime I will post a garden plan if I ever do one.

Recall that late 60 day corn which I call Thanksgiving corn? Well it came through. There are probably 30 or so ears out there. They are small but extremely tasty and well pollinated. That is, the cobs are covered with ultra sweet kernels. I just started harvesting last week and pick a couple of ears a day. The plants are only 5 ft. tall with one ear per plant. Recall that I planted this in the third week of September in the same plot where the first batch of 60 day corn was planted in April. I plant a Candy Quick yellow or equivalent corn.

I continue to start six packs with a mixture of cauliflower (Fremont), purple kohlrabi, joi choi, and spinach on a biweekly basis. We are just now starting to enjoy a few leaves from the first batch of spinach and joi choi. Lettuce and mustard are growing throughout the garden; most of it comes up on its own because I allowed a few plants to bolt and produce seed early last summer.

Now is the time to plant favas. I try to do a different section of the garden each week with the goal of having all favas in the ground by the end of the year. Note that I plant a few favas among the cauliflower and kohlrabi. The favas then take over after these brassicas have been harvested.

The peas are finally starting to grow. As usual, they have spent most of the Indan summer trying to decide if they are going to succumb to pests or lead a productive life. Most are picking the productive life route. Recall that I experimented with planting a few shelling pole peas among the last 90 day corn in early July this year. I have never done this before. Well... it's too early to tell if they will yield anything, but I have some beautiful shelling pea plants growing up old corn stalks. See pictures below. These have been sharing the supports with pole beans. The pole beans are fading away and the peas seem to be taking over. Still, I've harvested very few peas. So the jury is still out on this experiment.

Oh yes, we are still digging potatoes and have just started digging Jerusalem artichoke tubers. I keep knocking down the potato plants which try to grow out of potatoes still in the ground awaiting digging. Note that one can plant potatoes now. I do have a small area where I grow winter potatoes. They aren't as productive as the spring ones, but it's nice to have even a few very tasty purple and red potatoes in February.

The main garden activity now is leaf composting. As the street trees lose their leaves, I am there to rescue them from the street cleaner. We have liquid amber and Modesto ash trees on the street along with my giant tulip tree in the front yard. I take a 100 sq ft. area of the garden close to the composting area to build the leaf pile. It is a mixture of Starbucks coffee grounds, green cuttings from the garden, tree prunings, and loads of leaves. Last week I had a ton of green material with all the frosted squash and bean plants coming out of the garden. I will continue to build the leaf pile over the next month with it being completed before New Years. My goal is to compost 30 packed wheelbarrow loads of leaves. Then composting activity will shift back to the open furrow pile where I make compost throughout the year. This area isn't large enough to handle the volume of leaves coming in now.

Now for some pictures:

The leek crop adorns the front of the garden. Notice the old pole bean to the left and right of the picture. These survived the frost but have no new blooms. Pepper and eggplant are on the far right.


Thanksgiving corn. These ears are ready for harvest. But there is no hurry because the cool weather keeps the ears sweet unlike summer ripened corn where an ear can turn to starch in a day.


A Papaya Pear summer squash hides under a mature broccoli bush. We continue to pick small but tasty broccoli three times a week. The broccoli protected the squash from the frost. Notice, however how the squash has been covered with spotted mildew.



Here is the carrot lawn. The picture quality isn't that good due to lighting but is adequate for you to see how the winter carrots look. Notice the old corn stalks with struggling pole beans to the left of the picture. Blackberry bushes are on the right.


Here we have fall cauliflower in celebration. Please ignore the shadow. Photography isn't my best skill. The pepper and eggplant patch is to the left. In the bottom left, are four cauliflower plants which were set out last Sunday.


And finally, a July planted shelling pea is slowly climbing an old corn stalk.


Well, that's it for now. Remember to build that winter leaf compost now. I will try to add a post about how I compost leaves in the next few days. And remember to plant those favas now.

Happy gardening,

danh

The Summer Garden Continues into October

Hi readers,

The summer garden continues. We are very fortunate to reliably have an Indian summer in the fall every year. And this year has been no exception. All of the summer crops, with the exception of the 90 day sweet corn, are actively producing. We are finishing the last batch of 90 day sweet corn. It will be gone within a week. Note that this plot was planted in the first week of July. We have had fresh sweet corn continuously since the third week of June when 60 day corn patch 1 came in. The freezer is also full of corn still on the cob and in the husks. It will provide a continuous supply of corn until next June when the 2008 crop begins. I have a nice looking small plot of August 60 day corn. It is short - 4 to 5 ft. in height - and won't be ready until Thanksgiving if it produces at all. The August corn is extremely dependent on favorable weather. So far so good but one cold snap or several weeks of damp cloudy weather can put an end to it.

All the other crops are in heavy production including winter squash which has provided beautiful ground cover in most of the old corn patches. Pole beans from the later plots are still in heavy production. The eggplants are loaded with fruit as are the peppers. Spring broccoli still puts out silver dollar sized sprouts. And the tomatoes are having another growth spurt which demands weekly pruning. The challenge for tomatoes this time of year is to get them to ripen. The fruit wants to stay green. So heavy pruning of the plants lets the sun into the fruit which encourages it to ripen. Usually, and this year is no exception, there are plenty of green tomatoes on the plants but few ripe ones.

We are now enjoying carrots from corn patch 2. I still have loads of potatoes in the ground.

So... with all of this production, how does one become motivated to put in that fall garden? Well experience tells me no matter how good the summer garden looks in October, it will be mostly over in another six to seven weeks. I have a dozen cauliflower which will be transplanted from the greenhouse into the garden this next weekend. These were planted from seed starting in late August. Note that I usually set a few cauliflower plants into the garden in the first weekend of October. But my early six pack didn't germinate well and I got only one good plant out of it. I start a few cauliflower seeds on a biweekly basis from late August through April. Fortunately, the later batches have fared much better and the continuous parade of cauliflower transplanting will soon begin.

The first row of Daikon radishes are just about ready. These were planted directly in the ground in early September. I set out one new hill of chard a few weeks ago - started in the greenhouse in September. I have Joi Choi and Pac Choi coming up in both six packs and directly in the garden. Wild lettuces and Mustard are sprouting all over the garden. I will thin and keep a few plants for long term production. Note that the seed for these came from a few plants that I let bolt and produce seed last spring.

And finally, the winter snap and sugar peas are up in the garden. I'm just now planting the shelling peas. I have some bunching onions just starting to grow from direct planting in the garden. These will compliment the leek after the first of the year.

Aside from continuous kohlrabi and cauliflower plantings, the next step in the greenhouse is to start a flat of onions for use next spring.

I have just started planting a few fava beans. I plant these seeds 2 inches deep to keep the squirrels from digging them out. They often break off the plant trying to get to the seed. But if they fail to get to the seed, the plant will come back and fortunately the squirrels know not to keep trying. If one broadcasts seed or plants it shallow, the squirrels will soon follow taking all the seeds.

Here are a few pictures which attempt to capture what the fall garden looks like:


This is my leek crop nestled between peppers and beans. We will start using the leeks in another month after the spring onions are done. We use them as an onion substitute in the winter months.


Hiding in the shade at the bottom of the above picture is a row of snow peas about an inch tall. These were planted three weeks ago and have been up just over a week. Shelling beans are in the background. Notice a few old cornstalks with beans still growing on them persist. Peas start producing around the first of the year just after the winter frosts shut down the beans.


Here are some Dusky eggplant with old cornstalks in the background. There are a few peppers mixed in as well.


The small plot of 60 day corn is almost hidden between the broccoli and brussel sprouts in the foreground, and the last plot of 90 day corn in the background. It has just tasseled and is four to five ft. tall. If the weather stays nice, we should get a small ear of super sweet yellow corn from each plant around Thanksgiving time. Best tasting corn of the season when it works.


Here are two KW beans ready to be picked on a vine next to an old corn stalk.


And finally, I present the carrot patch. Notice the mildew in it. Mildew often knocks down the growth this time of year but the carrots come back and continue to grow slowly throughout the winter. We have just started harvesting carrots. They will remain edible in the ground until April when they either succumb to rot and become terribly tough.

That's it for this week. I will keep you posted as to how the late corn does.

danh

Pictures from my late summer garden

I have several pictures from the garden in this post. Each has a brief description. Note that some fall crops are now coming up. Mustard and wild lettuce are coming up where I let some plants bolt last spring. Instead of pulling these out, they were allowed to produce seed which then dropped to the ground and some has now germinated. I also have some peas mixed in with the last plantings of 90 day corn. These have produced a small crop of peas but having peas in the summer is a real treat. I will know in a couple of months if any of these peas last into the fall and winter. It would really be cool for peas to take over old corn stalks in the fall like summer beans do.

Cauliflower, Kohlrabi, and Rutabagas are up in the greenhouse. As I have mentioned before, I do a planting in six packs on a bi-weekly basis throughout the fall and winter.

And now for the pictures.

The picture below is of my Jerusalem Artichoke patch. Note that Jerusalem Artichokes (JA) are not artichokes at all but sunflowers instead. And they have nothing to do with Israel. But unlike other sunflowers, these guys make tubers in the ground which can be harvested in the winter and used much like a potato. The plants make great carbon material for composting. These plants are a good 10ft. tall with small flowers on the top. Squash from the June 90 day corn planting has vined out from the garden and is now growing under the JAs. Mexican sunflowers are in the foreground. Some two year old chard is on the right.



The next picture highlights the September 60 day corn which is now about six inches tall and growing rapidly. Notice the Packman broccoli in the background. It was transplanted in March and is still producing two cuttings a week of silver dollar sized heads. The corn is growing in the same ground as the first planting of 60 day corn in April. The brown corn stocks on the right are from that planting. They continue to support a quickly fading purple pole bean plant which has given its very sweet beans all summer long. A few surviving April bush bean plants are also dispersed between the three rows of this corn. A late planting like this is a bet on warm weather. If the morning fog with cool days pattern of the past week continues, this corn probably won't yield anything except compost material. But quite often we get some of the warmest weather of the season in September and October. No guarantees in this game.


The next picture shows leek in the foreground with pole beans on the right, June 90 day corn in the far background with red sweet peppers nestled in between. We just started picking corn from this corn patch on Monday, Sept. 10. Note that this is the first corn of the season with significant earworm presence, not unusual but certainly not welcome. But the corn is also the sweetest we've had all season. Pick out the one or two worms at the tip of the cob and enjoy a sweet treat. The earworms are mainly a cosmetic problem. I'm sure glad I don't have to sell this corn.


Next we have purple brussel sprout plants with carrots and old corn stocks support pole beans in the background. They are from the first 90 day planting of corn. The sprouts are small but hard and very tasty. Sprouts are the most difficult plant I grow. The plants get large and leafy but the sprouts are often non existent. The purple Rubine variety works best in my yard. These guys were transplanted into the garden in March.



Can you find the Japanese yardlong beans hanging from corn stocks in the next photo? The corn has all been harvested. These stalks are left to support the beans. Yardlong beans aren't my favorite to eat but they sure are fun to grow and look beautiful hanging from a corn plant.



Here is a photo of two clusters of tomatoes with winter squash growing around them. Winter squash plants are taking over the yard including my sidewalks right now. This is their time to shine.



The next and last picture is my favorite of the set because it highlights the random, almost chaotic, beauty that radiates from the late summer garden. Carrots and winter squash are nestled in front of and below my July corn. Some Musica pole beans are hanging from an old corn stalk and a mixture of new and old bean plants have strung themselves throughout the corn. It is a competition for limited space. But the plants all learn how to survive together almost like in a wilderness setting. I let the plants work it out. In any given year, the mixture of produce varies depending on which plant type is strongest.


The late summer garden makes all the work earlier in the season well worth it. I mainly observe the beauty and harvest the bounty with very little additional work required. However, I do prune out dead plants and growth. If mildew gets too bad, then I cut back the foliage most infected, especially squash leaves. I heavily prune tomatoes to force them to spend their energy in producing quality fruit instead of excessive growth.

Note that I am now down to 1 hour and 35 minutes of drip watering per week.

Well that's it for now.

Happy gardening,

danh

Late August Planting

I have been doing some planting over the past week betting on a warm autumn. Yesterday, I transplanted a six pack of patty pan summer squash to the garden which had been started in the greenhouse a couple of weeks ago. Some went to a clearing in the middle of the broccoli patch which by the way still produces a small sack of spears each week. The remainder of the squash starts were transplanted into corn plot four which now has been completely harvested. Hopefully the combination of this summer squash and the winter squash which was companion planted with the corn will take over.

I planted a couple of short rows of Daikon radish from seed in a clearing in front of a shelling bean wall. I also planted a short row of White Lisbon bunching onions directly from seed. The Daikons are just now coming up.

Wild mustard is starting to germinate in the salad green area. These reseed themselves. I just leave plants which have bolted in the garden. Seeds from these plants fall to the ground and germinate in the fall when conditions are right.

Yesterday I started one six pack of fall cauliflower in the greenhouse. Most of the starts are Fremont white 70 day cauliflower with a few orange and light green varieties also 70 day. Note that I put two seeds in each of the six planting sections. If both germinate, the I carefully separate the two tender seedlings when transferring them to gallon pots. Note that I will start a six pick of cauliflower every other week from now until next May. Cauliflower harvest will start in December.

I also started a six pack of purple kohlrabi and Rutabaga yesterday along with a single fall chard cluster in a gallon pot all in the greenhouse. Note that I generally get three to four years of life out of a chard cluster. I plant the rainbow mix which is a combination of white, yellow, and red stemmed chard plants. The yellow and red are best for multi-year performance. Chard naturally wants to bolt (go to seed) in the spring. If the grower carefully prunes it back heavily before mature seed pods emerge, then the plants will often start growing again with brilliant clusters of leaves in a few weeks. After four years or so, the roots and base stem rot away. I used to dig out chard when it bolted in the first year requiring four new starts per year. With the multi year process I use now, I only have to start one cluster per year.

Corn harvest continues. Plot 4 is now completely harvest and corn stalks cleared except where beans are present as I have described in earlier posts. I picked the first two ears from plot 5 this morning. Harvest of plot 5 will be complete within two weeks. We've also had an abundance of pole beans but yields could start to drop because the hated finches have finally shown up. For reasons I don't understand, they love to destroy pole bean leaves by tearing them to shreds and biting off new growth which results in substantial drops in yields. Fortunately, they usually disappear in September. So I am hoping??

I have harvested several winter squash with many more in various stages of maturity. However, the crop is lighter this year than expected. Squash bugs haven't been bad so I can't blame them. There is a lot of root rot in the soil this year which has also plagued my summer squash. I think some of the winter varieties are succumbing to it also. Fortunately, I have plants all over the yard and a few of these are having a good time. We should get enough to see us through the winter. Note that we are still eating from last year's winter squash crop. When a fruit starts to spoil, I cut out the portions which are still good, and give the remainder to the composting worms in the worm bin. They love winter squash.

With so much corn coming out of the garden, I have a lot of raw material for composting. So the compost pile is growing and starting to replenish all I have used throughout the summer. The corn is run through an electric chipper shredder before being mixed with coffee grounds and other green materials. These are then stacked in a pile in the compost area.

Hopefully I will have time to post some pictures later in the week.

danh

Harvest and reconfiguration

I haven't planted anything in the garden since putting in 90 day corn plot 7 in early July. The starting of fall plants in the greenhouse, however, will start in two weeks with the seeding of the first sixpacks of fall cauliflower and Kohlrabi. These will be transplanted into the garden in the third week of September into what is now corn plot 6. I will write more about fall brasica planting later.

Now it's harvest time. I have finished harvesting corn from plot 2 and have reconfigured the plot for the pole beans and carrots which were planted with the corn. All corn stalks which don't have have pole beans growing on them have been removed. Those remaining are stripped of all leaves. They are just poles with tassles on top. The hope is that the beans will take over and produce a second much heavier crop. The first crop of beans started in June three to four weeks before the corn was harvested. The beans stopped producing three weeks ago. But most plants will find new vigor which will cause them to rapidly grow and produce from September through October. Meanwhile, the beans in plot 3 just quit but those in plot 4 are in full production. Plot 5 beans will be in full production in a week or so. The second crop of pole beans is often the best both in terms of quantity and quality. But there are no guarantees. I have had years where the second production just didn't happen. The bean plants slowly lost their leaves and new growth didn't happen. Each year is different. The picture below shows beans climbing on spent corn stalks. Note that some of these stalks will eventually break over if bean growth is too intensive. I will then position bean poles where needed and tie the broken corn stalks to them. As the season progresses, the stalks will form a random and quite beautiful array of twisted figures as they weaken and break over. Meanwhile, the bean plants will continue to thrive by climbing all over these structures while producing their tender and tasty beans. I will post more pictures over the coming months.


The carrots in plot 2 are still adjusting to having full sunlight. Some still look stressed which is common for a month or so after removal of the corn. The yellowstone and white Kuttigar carrots have taken off growing already providing a green carpet of lush growth. The purple and traditional orange carrots are still showing stress. The following pictures show beans and carrots in plot 2. Notice that plot 3 is in the background. Harvest of this corn is in progress. It will be complete in another week. The picture below highlights the Yellowstone carrots in plot 2. Notice the purple beans hanging from a spent corn stalk in the foreground.


Below is a photo of the last corn plot, plot 7. Notice that the corn is now growing up around the yellow Patty Pan squash plant which has been in the ground since early April and still a heavy producer. The dark material along the drippers is compost mulch which I added last weekend from a batch of compost which I made approximately three months ago.


And finally, the picture below is of an early girl tomato plant snuggled against corn plot 4. A Kentucky Wonder pole bean grows above it. Winter squash is in the foreground.


I should mention that corn plot 1, which was harvested in June and is now the property of purple bush beans, is scheduled for a 60 day yellow corn planting at the end of August. This will give us our Thanksgiving fresh corn. Meanwhile, the bush beans in plot 1 are into their second production.

The garden watering schedule is to run the drippers for 1 hour and 40 minutes once a week. As the days begin to shorten, the amount of water time will be reduced accordingly. By the end of August, I hope to be at a watering time of 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Because fresh water is such a precious and rapidly diminishing resource which must be imported into the garden, I continue to explore ways to further reduce watering needs.


danh

Last 90 day corn planted

Hi all,

The summer planting process is now complete with the planting of 90 day corn patch 6 on July 12. This is about a week later than I wanted but personal schedule dictated that date. I was able to remove all the onions. Some of them wanted to be in the ground a couple of weeks longer but they will continue to mature in storage. When I harvest onions, I leave the plant attached until it completely dries. They are stored in this manner under a large avacado tree. The onion bulbs will continue to grow and harden by sucking water and nutrients from the plant itself. This isn't quite as good as letting them dry in the field but cuts off three to four weeks of valuable ground time. The picture below is of patch six one day after planting. Notice the dark rows where the darkness is caused by wetness from the drippers and a thin layer of compost.



Notice the giant patty pan squash on the right. It partially blocks two rows. The plant is incredibly productive. I can't tear it out. So the corn goes around it. This is the largest yellow patty pan squash I have ever grown. I am surprised how happy it is in a year when I have been plagued with summer squash crown rot elsewhere in the yard. The corn at the back of the plot is planting 5 which I wrote about last time. It is about 1ft. tall now and growing rapidly.

I finished harvesting the first batch of corn which was the 60 day first planting in early April. That piece of land is now owned by purple bush beans and a few purple pole beans which were companion planted with it. In the picture below you will notice a few stalks of corn stripped of leaves but wrapped in pole beans. Also notice the bush beans which cover the ground. They look stressed now due to them being physically abused when I took out most of the corn stalks and due to lack of sunshine over the past few weeks. But they will bounce back in a few days and produce a good harvest of beans within a month. To the right, is the corner of plot 2 which is 8 ft. tall candycorn. It will be ready for harvest in about two weeks.



I just picked a five gallon bucket full of pole beans from plots 2 and 3. This is the most pole beans I have ever harvested this early in the season. The reason is that there have no sparrows around this year. Usually they strip at least half of the leaves from the beans. This year the beans are growing freely in the corn and loaded with beans. This is way too many beans for us and our neighbors. I will give most to a food charity.

Just one more note on beans. For the first time this year, I have planted the purple pole bean sold by Pinetree Garden Nursery. It produces a six inch long very sweet bean. The plants are highly productive and physically beautiful to look at. I am impressed. It almost ranks with Musica pole bean which is my favorite of all time. The yellow Goldmare is also a great bean. All are in full production now in the garden.

Aside from still setting out a few leeks in the leek patch and maybe setting out one more hill of summer squash in the brocolli patch, I am now finished with summer planting. However, one could continue to transplant peppers and eggplant through August. But my yard is full. The next planting event for me will be starting the first of the fall cauliflower in August in the greenhouse.

The winter squash is now vining onto the sidewalks and throughout corn patches four and five. I have, however, found a lot of squash bug this year and am somewhat worried that they will spoil much of the crop like they did three years ago. The gray aphid which I was worrying about in the last post has disappeared. The brocolli is now free of them. Let's give a hurrah to beneficials! I continue to harvest a small bag of brocolli a week as I expect to do so through Christmas.

That's it for now. Happy gardening.

danh