Grim and Grimmer

The garden is officially out of control. I missed last week's update because the rain kept me from being able to take photos. This picture pretty well sums up the state of things this week. Yes, that's a rotting tomato, and yes that's a big ole' slug feasting on it.


The squash plants are pretty well dying. They'll all covered in this white mildew and the leaves are turning brown and shriveling up.


Still some squash growing, though ...


In the back of the garden where the cucumbers were once thriving, things get darker and more depressing. A few cukes are still hanging on for dear life, but they're much to big to be edible at this point, so I think we may leave them on for a while and see if we can harvest seeds to plant next year's crop.


Some of the cukes that grew on the dying plants stayed small and turned yellow. I don't think they'll make very good pickles.


The peppers, much like the tomatoes, are rotting on the plants before they are mature. I touched this guy very gently and he fell from the plant and splattered on the ground.


A few peppers are still hanging on, but they are developing brown spots and never get to a good size. They'd probably taste okay but their walls are really thin when you cut them open.


We couldn't keep up with the basil and it's now all flowered and bitter.


On the bright side, we've still got a ton of chili peppers ... but no idea what to do with them since all the cukes are gone and we can't use them in pickles.


Also on the pickle ingredient topic, the dill has self-sown and there's all sorts of little sprigs of growth.


Not in the Garden Tangent: The other day as I was driving home from work I noticed these familiar looking leaves at the edge of the road, on the very edge of the property.


Upon closer inspection this morning, it appears to be some variety of squash or pumpkin.

Fungus Among Us

All those little guys from last week's squash photo are almost ready to pick. Some of them might get harvested tonight, some tomorrow.


Here's a close-up of the fungus that's spreading over the squash plants. I have no idea what it is and haven't had time to research possible remedies, but it bums me out to see it.


I'm also still bummed out about the cucumber plants going the way of the dodo. They're doing their best to give us a few more cukes, though, before they go completely belly up.


All of the dill plants have passed on (and we're hoping they self-sow for next year), with the exception of this one that looks like it wants to flower soon. I don't think there are any usable bits left on the plant, though, since we've long since picked them all off for use in pickles.


The Beefsteaks are ripening up. We've picked a couple and I used one in a pasta sauce last night. Not as sweet as the Brandywine's, but still good.


Speaking of Brandywine Tomatoes ...


These couple Red Knights are looking good. We lost about 10 of these red peppers because they rotted right on the plant, before they were at an edible stage.


Super Chili #1. And some shamrocks.


Despite the squash plant fungus and the cucumber plant near-extinction, I still managed to pull 7 cukes and 4 squash plants out of the garden this morning.

Getting to the end?

We've finally got usable chili peppers, and we've picked two small bowls worth already for use in pickles and some salsa. As it turns out, hot peppers from the garden are much hotter than what we've been buying in the store, and the oils linger on your hands for much longer.


Super Chili #1 looks good.


The Green Bell peppers are still doing okay. We've been leaving a lot of them on the plant so that they'd get larger with thicker walls, but they've just been rotting, so we'll have to start picking them sooner. This guy above is only about 2" tall, though, and I don't think we need to pick them quite that early.


The Red Knights are pretty red, but they're also rotting on the plants before they seem like they should be ready to be picked.


The Beefsteaks continue to ripen. A lot of them seem to be getting eaten by animals before we get a chance to pick them. Some are having the same problem as the peppers, and are rotting before they're ready to be picked.


The Cherry Tomatoes, on the other hand, seem to mostly be doing well, and we have an abundance. Last night we used a bunch in shishkabobs, which added a nice flavor.


These other tomatoes are ripening as well, but a lot of them are scarring before they're ready, which is diappointing.


The cucumbers are pretty much done. The plants have died back pretty far and only a few straggler cukes are still holding on. Next year we'll definitely stagger the plantings for a longer season. And keep an eye out for cucumber beetles sooner.


The squash plants are still huge, and still producing, even though there seems to be a white fungus spreading over some of the larger leaves (you can see it in the upper left of this photo). We've lost two of the smaller squash plants that live in the shade for a greater portion of the day. I think that the soil stays wet for longer in that section, so they just rotted from too much moisture.


As long as these guys all turn into edible squash, though, I'll be happy. I was never much of a fan of squash, really, but I've liked having them around for all the grilling that we've been doing lately.


The basil plants are taking over. They just keep growing and growing, no matter how much we cut off.


The view from above of the cucumber end. You can see that the back trellis is totally empty, as all of it's plants have died away.


The view from above of the squash end of the garden. The dill has all gone by.


In the other corner of the yard, the blueberries also have pretty well run their course. It was sweet while it lasted.


Flowers in the Yard Tangent: Black Eyed Susans. To add a little life to all the rotting, death, and old age of the rest of the garden.

I think the garden is starting to come to the end of it's lifespan this year. Maybe it's time to start looking into fall planting possibilities ...

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Actually, a hard rain did fall. Last night, for about twenty minutes tops. The dinky little powerful storm managed to fell a pepper plant, shown above, and ...


... totally beat up on the poor squash plants, breaking limbs and hammering the leaves and just generally making puddles and wetness for the leaves to lie in and rot.


In addition, the rain totally tore apart the tomato supports, making the plants into an ever bigger and more tangled mess than they were already becoming.


On the bright side, we've still got a ton of blueberries to pick and eat, and they're on the opposite side of the yard, so we don't have to look at the devastation in the garden proper.


And also on the bright side, even though the cucumber plants are totally kicking the bucket (see last weeks story of doom of gloom), we're still getting good looking cukes.


The Beefsteak Tomatoes are going to be edible soon ...


... and so are the Brandywines.



The basil keeps on keepin' on, no matter how much we cut and use for pesto. I think this adds credence to the realization that we probably only need 6 basil plants next year, instead of twelve.


The squash plants are getting the better of us, and will soon overpower us and take over the household. We can't keep up and they keep getting too large. We should be picking them when they're 7 or 8 inches, I think, but they've been getting to 10 or 12 or more. We made the most of it, though, by slicing a couple of the big guys and grilling them on our brand new $40 grill.


The Red Knights are still green, but have the perfect shape.


... and certainly look better than this Green Bell plant that seems to have died of mysterious causes. I don't think it's only because we left that one pepper on the plant so long that it turned red.


Super Chili #1, however, is turning all kinds of red -- way inside there -- and that's a good thing.


See?


Another view of the decimated tomato supports, and the garden beyond.


The view from the other front corner, over the squash plants and beyond. Yes, we've been lax with our weed patrol. We'll get on that again soon.