Friday, August 15, 2008

Mid-August Updates

It seems like the beans are sort of a one-shot-deal. I got one really good crop a couple weeks ago, and now I'm getting smaller and smaller crops. The plants are starting to look pretty sad, too. Could be the excessive rain has been too much for them, too.

The potatoes are great this year - good sized! Dug up a couple plants the other night, and pulled a handful of onions as well. Mmmm...yummy! Bought a potato ricer today, too, since I hear that is the best way to "mash" potatoes. We shall see.

Teeny tiny ears are starting to form on some of the corn! Hurray! I have at least eight pumpkins on the vines, but the squash are not doing an awful lot. I still have just one cuke about an inch long. Concerns are starting to appear: we could have frost any day now. So I'm hoping for a few days of sunshine and warmth to get things ripening!!! Like the hundreds of green tomatoes (all of significant size) that are hanging on the vines!

And (she writes with a heavy sigh), I hacked down the Indian Cup Plant, dug up one of the barberries, and yanked out all the blooming teasels the other night. Today I bought a bottle of RoundUp (concentrate) and a paint brush. I will paint the Cup Plant stalks and when I get the honeysuckles cut down, I will paint them, too.

Today I also had some allergy tests done, and it turns out I am allergic to a lot of stuff outside. The experts say that I should avoid being outside. Yeah. Tell a gardener she can't garden. Tell a naturalist she can't wander about the woods. Not gonna happen.

My folks sent me a disc of photos they took of my gardens in June, but for some reason the computer here rejects them - so I am still sans images for all you fine folks who read this. I shall persevere, though - I know there is some way to do this!

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