Truly it is August. rain has finally decided to grace us, along with 100 percent humidity..after the hottest and driest summer on record., the onions and zucchini gave up the fight, the pumpkins and parsnips are fine. Beans only so-so. I need to have a bed of picking beans ( despite loving the mixed beds)to have enough for meals instead of a handful a day. Cucumbers just starting to come on.I may have to break down and buy hybrid zucchini and beans.. instead of heirlooms, just too much wrong in the ground still I think.Fusarium wilt maybe?
tomatoes plants look terrible but the tomatoes are fabulous! we've made sauce, eaten fresh with mozzarella, made some oven dried tomatoes....just fun. Next year the pots will get outside stakes and the cages. the puppies knocked them over way too often.
i did notice everything growing near the pumpkin vines is healthier. especially in this very hot summer, the shade helped. It is something to remember- the vines themselves are useful not just the pumpkins.and even with this heat, you can walk around the beds and..no insect damage at all, none. mixed planting and herbs in the beds-just plain work!
the little asparagus from seeds are looking great and the trench is rapidly filling in.
Some of the beds have cover crops ( beans, buckwheat) and as I plant out the baby rutabagas and turnips and onions ( for green onions)-presently in a tray full of compost- I will add compost, manure, greensand,rock phosphate if I still have it more lime and possibly a handful of the mixed minerals,. anything not eaten becomes-cover crop for the winter. Extra straw after strawing the garlic and shallot beds will go on any bare spots.Peas in another bed. Broadforking before final planting.Economical, and workable. the commercial cover crop mixes are expensive.I do have more comfrey and nettles to add somewhere...great plants, produce lots of biomass and so much more.
these beds ought to be jumping by next spring.
to keep spinach and lettuce growing,. I plan to try some hooped row covers. low enough not to collapse under snow one hopes! We ought to have fabulous fresh greens up til hard winter!
I have tons of iris to replant//thinking of more tulips and i might break down and get more lilies-sigh. I miss the big bed of them. More hostas and daylilies need to be divided, and more plants put around the fruit trees, yes, they all survived this summer (permaculture works!) hoping for more berries next year so may break down and find better "berry" fertilizers. it is horrid acid soil; the cardboard is still visible in some places after nearly 2 years. but the berries seem happy :) to compare, I took an herb and pepper bed covered with cardboard and straw to kill off Jersusalem artichokes...it's gone. was gone in less than 3 months.
not a totally successful year- the heat did not allow a huge potato crop in the bags but i'm replanting the bags and using row covers when needed for a fall crop.But I learned, and the plants grew, and I am happy.
Bruce is building a room sized arbor- 5' by 7 ft and the arch starts 5 feet up. red roses for sure- and maybe grapes or kiwis., I also like autumn clematis.
