Garden Update: August

Okay, so it's been almost two months since my last post on the garden; it's time for a garden update.

We went bigger this year, mounding 14 beds and filling the allocated garden space. As with last year's garden, we've had mixed results so far.

Greens
Our plans included 3 beds of greens, including spinach, chard, and a number of different salad greens. But the greens were not to be. We planted late, and the temperature had already gotten pretty hot, so many of the seeds didn't germinate. The ones that did come up were decimated by the deer. We're still procrastinating on putting any permanent protection around the garden (read: fence) since the garden is right in front of the house. Long story short: no greens this year.

Tomatoes
The cherry tomatoes are just starting to ripen en masse, so with any luck pretty soon we'll be inundated with tomatoes. Despite the result last year, I decided to go for some larger heirloom tomatoes as well; they are growing well so far, and hopefully they'll have enough time to ripen before the season ends.

Zucchini
The single bed of zucchini has produced enough fruit to feed a small army, so we've tried to make as many different zucchini recipes as we could find: Zucchini Bread; Chicken & Zucchini Curry; Lasagna with Zucchini; Baked Stuffed Zucchini; Zucchini Chocolate Cake; Zucchini, Corn & Pepper Hash; Beef, Broccoli & Zucchini Stir Fry; Hoisin Zucchini; Potato, Pepper & Zucchini Hash; Zucchini Fritters, ... and yes, we really made all of those. And more.

Other Squash
The other 4 beds of squash are growing, albeit at a less prolific rate than the zucchini. The delicata squash is growing particularly slowly, so I'm guessing we won't get any fruit from it before frost arrives. Pumpkin looks good; we should be able to start using those soon. The "butternut" squash (photo on right) is a bit of a mystery. It sure doesn't look like any butternut we've seen. We bought a start from a local nursery, so I suspect the plant was mislabeled.

Radish, Onion, Carrot
This bed is looking pretty good - the radishes produced well, and the onions seem to be growing nicely. The deer apparently liked the radish tops, so those are gone; thankfully the radishes had already formed, so I don't think the lack of leaves has stunted its growth.

Beans
A whole bed of beans. No fruit yet, but the plants look pretty healthy.

Cucumber
The cucumber are getting big fast; figuring out how to use them all will likely be a problem. Cucumber and tomato salad sure is good, though.

Flowers
The north side of the garden has several rows of sunflowers; and many of the individual beds have marigolds planted on the ends. Both flowers were grown from seeds Corinne saved from last year.

- Mike (& Corinne)