On Monday morning I got out and got a huge bowl of echinacea harvested for the dehydrator. Then I started back in the Big garden. It was a week ago I was out there, tearing up the pumpkins. I’d left the mess and never gone back.
I made my way down to the back again and found 4 white pumpkins. The 2 biggest ones had been gnawed on. The 2 smaller ones I cut the vine by mistake.
So I put the good ones on the porch.
My intern comes on Wednesday so I will send these 2 home with her for the chickens.
I’d planted 2 varieties of basil this year. One was Aroma which I like a lot but it is susceptible to downy mildew. The other was a new variety the was DMR (Downy Mildew Resistent). Guess which one I found still in good shape, even with milk spray? Of course, they don’t look as good as they might, having only been rescued from the pumpkins last week. BUT there’s no mildew.
I started weeding at the back of the garden and then worked my way around to the south perimeter. Once I had that done, I decided to take down the pea fences. I tried to keep them away from the poor basil and ended up putting them over the fence. When my intern is here on Wednesday, we can clean them and roll them up.
In the process of taking the fences down, I managed to pull up a lot of nasturtiums. So they came in to be dehydrated. I also found 4 more small artichokes and brought them in for supper.
Once the pea fences were out, I discovered the lima beans had lots of pods on them. I was about to weed the area north of them, but was suddenly very tired. It was only 10:30AM and a lovely day. It didn’t dawn on me until late afternoon why I was so tired so soon. Could it have anything to do with all I did on Sunday??? Duh! So I quit for the day.
Big garden – Jerusalem artichokes
I can’t eat the tubers, so I grow them for the flowers, and to feed woodchucks.
Big garden – kabocha squash on fence on the outside
Big garden – tomatoes gearing up
Small garden – butternut squash
Hibiscus
Big rose – second or third flowering, I lost count
Anne raspberries – second time around
When I was working in the New Herb garden on Suday I kept hearing these thumps. It dawned on me that it was apples dropping. These are the ones the tree rejected. Not bad apples and good size for the time of year. We should have a nice crop this year.
On Tuesday I plan to get out early and finish cleaning up the mess in the Big garden. All the hard stuff is done, it’s just weeding. My helper is due to come for a picnic with his wife and new baby, so I will have to finish early to get cleaned up and food made.