Well, it’s been a couple weeks since the last update. Things are still chugging along and we’re up to almost 40 pounds of produce! (38.5 to be honest!) It’s been fun and we’ve had plenty of fresh produce from the garden for sure! And already put up some jams and jellies, pickles, homemade ketchup and salsa and made some ALMOST all home grown meals! Next year, I really want to try and see if we can’t accomplish a dinner or two all on our own produce! That would be really cool.

The sunflowers all over the place are just doing awesome. The mammoth ones are finally flowering and it’s just so cool. We already picked a bird feeder full of seeds from the first batch, but these last heads are going to fill more than one when they are all done. We sure get a kick out of the goldfinches hanging upside down and picking out early seed meats and really enjoying our garden! I just love taking photos of them and the significance in my life they reflect!

The compost center is doing a wonderful job, I’m happy to report that we’re down to two large trash bags from three…. and a good deal is the kitchen scraps and then yard waste that we’re getting used to putting out in the compost pile! And we’ve been watching our trash waste a little carefully… just cutting down on waste in general. The tea towels and bar towels are being used for just about every kitchen need and I’m down to about one roll of paper towels a month! There are a few things that they do so well at… drawing fat from bacon, and well, yucky things… but thankfully we’re not doing both that much!

We’re experimenting with some cool fall crops… set of broccoli and cabbage, and broccoli, peas and spinach from seed. They are doing pretty well, the peas are already flowering! It’s been getting pretty cold at night, down to about 47-45 degrees, but the days have still be nice and warm. I think that I might get a little bit of floating row covers for just one bed and see how long I can keep them from dying off from cold and frost! I’d love to build a cold frame but I’m not quite sure where to put it yet.

Our one little pie pumpkin finished up, and then the vine died. That was that. One pumpkin. There is another out there, trying, but it’s only about the size of a baseball and very very green. I don’t think it will make it. We have a white one over on the southside of the Moby, but it’s not going to be too big I don’t think.

Got three reasons that the pumpkins and squash are not doing well. First, those little dudes. They invaded about a week ago and are just being very inconsiderate guests. Next year I think I will need to consider some sort of gentle, yet effective insect program. I haven’t had too much trouble, just these guys and then someone ate lots of holes in my last bean crop… they still made a nice crop of beans, but I felt bad for them, working so hard with leaves gnawed full of holes!

Reason number two? Water. It’s been a weird year for rain and watering. I think next year, all my water hungrey crops will be located VERY near the spikot. One set of pumpkins we planted so far away, you needed to pack a lunch to water them. So of course, we didn’t do it as much as we should have, so they had inconsistent watering. next year? All within a few feet of the water! And I think those will be the ones set up with the drip irrigation system I hope to install next year.

And last? Powdery Mildew.

Yeah, too late I realized what was up and I just decided not to treat it. Next year though, I’ll be ready. I’ll have researched and decided what I will do.

But actually, to be honest, I might just skip the whole gourd family all together. I mean, we hate pumpkin pie and all, I was just growing them to have pumpkins for Halloween! And then we’re really not that into squash either and those dudes take up a lot of time and water and space… I think I might use that space and effort next year for something much more productive and something we really like. We can get a couple pumpkins from the farmer’s market for a few bucks and still have that holiday fun. Sounds good to me!

Our one apple is hanging in there! It’s getting red and beautiful. We just can’t wait till it’s ready to come off the tree and get sliced up and enjoyed. The trees are hanging in there. Four are doing pretty well, one is a little gangly. But she’s still got some green leaves, and green wood, so I think she’s doing okay. Hopefully she will make it through the winter and come out the other side all beautiful and ready to grow a nice little crop for us!

Next spring I hope to add some cherry trees to the back of the lot, because they would be beautiful to behold and yield some nice pies for us! Doesn’t take too many to make happy campers. I really like the idea of fruit producers. I know it takes them a little longer to really start producing, but that’s okay. We now have apple, peach, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and grapes. In a couple years, they will be doing great! And hopefully we will add cherries to the mix.

We actually got a whole pound of grapes of our baby vines! And we made jelly from them… but you already know that. (gg)
Still, can’t help but admire all the beautiful colors of these grapes!

Of course, the tomatoes are going nuts. They have been very productive. Every time I go out there, we pick more tomatoes! Been eating a lot of fresh tomatoes and also making stuff from them. Gave away some too! That’s always nice.

First batch of cukes did not do too well, but this batch is doing much better. Again, another water loving crop that I think will need to be close to the water source. First batch suffered from the inconsistency factor. I didn’t realize just how much they did. Second batch I was very dilligent about, and made sure they NEVER dried out and I have been rewarded with a bunch of little pickles waiting for the frig!

Sweet corn is doing well…. many of them have ears on them and I think we might actually get some crop of corn. I know I planted it way too late… next year, they’re getting in as soon as it’s warm enough. But I think we’ll make it. At least a couple dinners of fresh from the moby garden into the pot! It’s just so good that way. I’ve been seeing signs of folks around selling sweet corn so I know it’s time to start finding someone with the best sweet corn! I want to consider freezing it… I need to do some more research and see what works best.

Got lots of little gourds and decorative mini-pumpkins and such that seem to be making good progress. And some birdhouse ones too! We’ll see… just going to let them go until it’s frosts!

Look at this weird gourd flower! I’ve never seen a white one before…. all the rest are that beautiful yellow flower color.

This normal one has a HUGE black bee in it. Not sure what it is, but it’s pretty darn big. We’ve seen more different varieties of bees and bumblebees and hornets and wasps and all this year than ever. Kind of interesting, just how many species you can attract with a nice garden.

I didn’t plant these, but gosh, huge mushrooms after a couple days of rain. They were big…

Black eyed susies really did well this year. They are all $1 rejects from the Lowes, late in the season. Speaking of which, I need to go and see what I might be able to rescue this year! And I do want to plant more bulbs. We put in the ground about 400 last year and we just loved seeing them come up all over the place. I want to do another load of them soon. I love the first good signs of spring in my yard and hope that in a few years we will have ooooodles and ooooodles of daffs and tulips and all coming up all over the place. I really love those little touches of life, little reminders that everything is moving forward like it’s supposed to.

Our potatoes, as noted in another post, were kind of a bust. Out of those three large grow bags, each with over 100 pounds of soil in them, lovingly mounded up over the season…. only resulted in 4 pounds of potatoes.

Yes… 4 pounds. I believe the seed potatoes we used were probably close to 4 pounds to begin with! HAHAHA! I think that as a few commenters have said, that the soil may have needed more good stuff and they might have been too shady. I have also found several other blog-gardeners report poor harvest of the same grow bags and all.

Well, next year, I’ll probably try it again, just one bag, and in the sunshine with a full bag of compost in there with them! That will show those taters who’s boss around this farm. Yeah.

Look! Another first! We actually have a sugar baby watermelon trying to grow! Amazing. We might get it to large enough to eat status…. you never know. We had these plants over on the east side and they were not doing well. Moved them about first of August and they are finally thriving, but well, probably a little tooooo late. Oh well. Next year… next year….

The sunflowers on the south side are really going to town. Next year I will plant double! I just love them growing up and kind of hiding the less than beautiful side of the moby. And they are just cool. I like them.

Well, that pretty much wraps it up… we’re up to 38.5 pounds of produce and I think we just might hit 50 before the summer’s done. It’s getting a little chilly, but the days are still hot and sunny. I checked and it’s very very unusual to get a killing frost around here before the second week of October. By my reckoning that means almost another 5-6 weeks of growing left! We’ll be watching carefully.

I know so much more this year than I did last year about my particular growing situation. I will be reviewing and plotting and planning for next year’s garden all winter long! It will be fun. Next year? I WILL need a freezer! For sure!

How’s your garden coming along????

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