Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Frost advisory for tonight.

Looks like gardening season may come to a close earlier than normal this year. Its September 19,  normally we're frost free  until  within a week of  October first.  Its just an advisory, however, but it is a definite sign of the end of summer.

In a way, i'll be glad to get everything taken apart and put away. Since the tomatoes got blighted i have not weeded and things are looking pretty bad out there!

Other than the ground cherries, nothing has really been providing any longer.  Well...besides the kale.

Last night's heavy wind and rain blew the Jerusalem artichokes around quite a bit.  They are still pretty much upright, but they are leaning in all directions.  I think after a hard frost hits, i'll have hubby take the heavy duty weed whacking blade to the stalks, clear them away and start digging as needed.

We'll be weed whacking the rest of the garden too.  Hubby wants to rake all the plant trash into a pile and burn it this fall so the garden will be cleaner in the spring.  i guess its worth a try. 

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Summer is almost gone.

Its been cool out these last few days. Which has been welcome. There was even a frost warning last night for northwestern Maine.

The garden did ok this year. Not great but acceptable.  My tomatoes got blighted out, but they were productive enough we ended up with plenty of good ones we were even ablevto share a few.

The kale was , as usual, spectacular.

The butternut winter squash has done well too. I managed to get 8 very niced size squashes. The delicata plant that survived gave me 4.

The cucumbers did ok. I was getting about three every other day, but then the vines just dried up.

I was not able to keep up with the green beans, but i planned on saving the seeds anyway.

The elberberries have done nicely too. I managed to pick a pound and a half and de-stem them over the course of a day.  I plan to make syrup ou
t of them if i can find the time.

The grapes were beset by Japanese
etles so they look pretty sad.  Last year i sprayed them along with the apple tree, but i abandoned my schedule for spraying... no apples this year though we are nibbling grapes off the uneven bunches.

The Carmine Jewel cherry plants are doing well,  leafing out nicely. So are the beach plums and the seaberries.
The goji surprised me and flowered.  I have even picked 6 or 7 berries and there are more yet to ripen.

I would have had lingonberries if my youngest daughter hadn't plucked the green berries off.

The prune plum is growing well despite even more Japanese beetles, the autumn olive is growing like the weed that it is. The Jerusalem artichokes are going like gangbusters despite the powdery mildew they have.

The summer squash were delicious while they lasted, which didn't seem very long.

The big thing this summer has been the Aunt Molly's ground cherries!  They are very sweet and good, tasting like non-acidic pineapple.  My youngest daughter loves them. Every day she picks a bunch and eats them on the spot.


The weeds did get away from me again this year but not as bad as last year!


Well this is my first attempt at posting a full entry from my phone, so we'll see if it posts.





Friday, September 7, 2012