Summer is over

August was really not great shakes in terms of weather but now it's starting to get noticeably colder and darker. Still harvesting a lot of stuff but I can tell it's slowing down.

I have patty pan (summer) squash and Turk's Turban (winter) squash that I planted but something squash-like self-seeded itself, probably from last year. The problem is that I have no clue what it is. My best guess is an acorn squash which I tried out but never took off. I harvested a small one - a bigger one is still ripening - just to make sure it's not a round zucchini. It isn't.


I found some carrots I forgot about. They're not the prettiest of things but they look edible. I can't really expect too much on my kind of soil. Seems September is full of mystery and surprises...

crazy harvest stuff

Managed to nip to the garden in the break between downpours (of course, the weather now is turning nice as it rained itself out). After a week of not going to the garden I expected the worst. And in a way, it came to pass - the cucumbers have followed the beans in snapping the twine. Next year I will consider wire instead. The corn is also leaning, probably because it has been very windy over the last couple of days. Otherwise, the garden is looking surprisingly good after being neglected.

The winter squash are putting their tendrils up the fence - I didn't even know that they are climbers. I keep moving them to the ground but they keep insisting. I guess they win. Continuing to harvest the little carrots, more to come. The guinea pigs love them which means that the humans usually lose out. I also dug up the last batch of potatoes and they are amazing. I mean, what could be better? Come on - Potatoes! Funny shapes! Starch!

This week's harvest was the best yet, so much variety, a little bit of everything and not overwhelming like some summer harvests. Hopefully the weather holds a little bit longer. I will be sad when it all stops.

I bartered some produce for eggs, salsa and hot peppers last week which has rekindled my interest in keeping chickens again. When we didn't know what to do during the zucchini glut we simply had an adapted Greek dish with grated zucchini, eggs and dill (left out the usual flour since Toxicfingers is gluten intolerant). Eggs are so versatile and nutritious. (Hey, Twinkle, if you are reading this - any advice?) Hmmm...next year maybe.

good fences make good neighbours

As I was doing my usual bit of pottering around yesterday in the garden, a woman passing by informed me that she got the plot next to me and is getting someone to roto-till it for her soon. She also asked me to turn on the seeper hoses for her since it "needed a good soaking". Er, right. pre-installed seeper hoses coming right up... Since the initial weeding effort on that plot had already resulted in the compost pile nearly ending up on my cherry tomatoes (close to the boundary but still on my side) I thought it best to construct the wood-chipped garden pathway that the community garden requires between plots.

There are so many plants flowering right now and it is easy to just brush them off as just some also-rans compared to the vegetables. I took some pictures of the nasturtiums (munched on one while watering - very peppery!), potatoes, borage (only tried the leaves so far which have a lovely cucumbery taste) and, of course, the rocket/arugula.

The cucumbers are doing well. "Orient Express" is sporting quite a few fruits which put on several inches almost overnight and "Lemon" finally is producing little globe-shaped cucumbers (even though you have to hunt for them in the foliage at the moment). The last cucumber "Bog-standard" has flowers but I have great hopes for it.

In the overview picture, the zucchini seem to dominate the entire garden. Which is true - I am faced with the first glut of the season.

I managed to harvest good-sized bunches of mustard greens, collards and rainbow chard, plus four not-quite-baby/not-quite-war-clubs zucchinis. Considering that I still have half a zucchini in the fridge and more on the way tomorrow, I am shopping around for friends to take them off my hands (haven't stooped to leaving them on doorsteps yet...)