Blessed Lughnasadh everyone! The corn is tasseling; a cuke is growing on the vine I grew from seed, the farmers market plants only produced one spherical cuke (that is going to be made into tzatziki or raita) but they have new blossoms; we’ve harvested and eaten about ten Supersweet 100 maters, the big tomatoes which were labeled as Supersweet 100s (all my bollocks) are reddening, we’ve harvested about 8 Fresno peppers and there are four more growing; the pea pods are developing; we’ve harvested and eaten some arugula that was nice and spicy; the lettuce is holding on but we lost the cabbages to cabbage moths; the beets look very good and the carrots are okay. The pumpkin patch is off to a strong start with 15 of 18 sprouting. Sadly, the navy beans seem to have gone the way of the butternut squash, not a single sprout out of 50 planted. I waited too long to plant them after soaking, I think, I’m croning and even with good supplementation sometimes I just don’t have the energy.
This weekend is the biggest neighborhood event of the year and there are a lot of gatherings to attend but I should find time for garden tending. We got 1 1/2 inches of rain in the past 36 hours so I don’t have to do that but I should probably thin the carrots. I also need to pot up borage. I don’t know what to do about the dill, they’re all 3” tall and droopy but never developed true leaves. There are many tiny basil and oregano sprouts and some tiny tarragon sprouts, but no sage. We have teeny tiny marjoram and thyme sprouts but no summer savory. Man, Minnesota is hard, even indoors I’ve never had so much difficulty getting seeds to germinate and grow. So resow the sage? I donated the extras after sowing (shoulda kept’em yeah yeah bugger off)? Gotta buy more seeds, no-one is selling the plants anymore. Resow the summer savory? What the hell, why not. Start again with the dill? Hell, I dunno, maybe I’ll try sowing in a big pot and starting them outside, even though I intend to keep my herbs indoors year round for cooking. But it’s only July so I am \*not\* giving up. Goddammit.
The glass gem corn won’t be planted this year. The spot I was going to plant just doesn’t get enough sun, because of the maple tree in the backyard. And I can’t plant it against the south fence because that’s where the pumpkin patch is, and the north fence bed is full of succulents and other plants that would all have to be pulled out and anyway, that’s where the beautiful morning glories are and I won’t touch them, they were too much of a thrilling surprise and I love them too much. I have five of the taters set aside from the harvest hoping they’ll chit, but no sign so far. Maybe I should move them to the windowsill. So hopefully we’ll have a second tater harvest before the growing season is over. The temps are back down to summer norms, low to mid 80s for highs, and there’s plenty of sunshine to come this week. These 2-3 weeks of sunshine has worked miracles in the garden. And when the beds are finished producing I’ll top up the soil and rake in compost before covering them for the winter. But that’s not until October.
