After several days of dry, sunny weather, we got socked in with three days of rain, some of it hard rain. Today, we woke up to fog as it’s supposed to warm up and get sunny again. So, being forced inside for a few days, I got all the beans shelled out. On Friday, just before the rain, our friend, Sherri, came and picked beans for a few hours. We are astounded at how many very nice beans our trellis of Aunt Jean’s dry pole beans produced. We all love them as a baked/soup bean and they’re so pretty, being bright white and brown, nice fat, round beans. I shelled out a big box full and there are still a lot more on the trellis that weren’t quite ready to pick.
The bags on the sweet corn ears have worked very well, so far, even with the rain. And the birds haven’t attacked any of the other patches — yet. We hope they’ll hold off for a while longer, so I don’t have to bag them too. It’s kind of labor-intensive, but it does work.
This afternoon (after the sun comes out again), I’ll be seeding out more tomatoes. When Sherri went home, I sent her with a nice crate of tomatoes to can up. She told me she got 40 pints of salsa from them yesterday! Sweet! Later on today, I want to trim up the onions I have had curing in the greenhouse, cutting off the dry tops and roots. They’ll go into crates and be stored away in the basement to over-winter. I’m sure I’ll also be using some for salsa, canned tomato sauces, and dehydrating too.
How grateful we are for such a bounty, even in this, a very hard gardening year.
— Jackie
Jackie,
We love those Arctic Blum tomatoes!! There sweet as candy, my wife puts them in and on almost everything. Have a great fall.
I grow four varieties of onions. Two are cured and bagged in mesh onion bags and stored. The red storage onions are on the rack in the green house and what’s left of the Alisa Craigs are still in the hoop house just starting to tip over. They are not long keepers so we use them as we need onions in summer and fall. Some are four inches in diameter! We shilll have t had a killing frost in our area of the Copper Basin Alaska but it can’t be too much longer. Snow already in several areas of the state. Wish I could grow dry beans. I got some one year in the hoop house but it is too much wasted space especially since I’m using a walker and a cane and can spur the hoop house intensively working off a stool.
re the garden comments: I’m in western Minnesota and weather here has been all over.My tomatoes were a flop. Got enough to freeze some but the ones that looked like they would be successful all had little holes in them and I will end up buying canned tomatoes at Walmart so I can make salsa. I appreciate seeing others comments and Jackie’s advice.
In reading through the comments, I see so many folks that have had successful gardening and other comments that are not so favorable. I look forward to this blog. It’s a highlight of my week. I have a failure that I would like feedback on. I planted 3 hills of Hopi pale grey squash and only had 1 hill that produced 1 plant. I mulched it and watered as needed. The blooms were prolific but squash didn’t set on. When did I do wrong?
Btw, I live in Oklahoma and our weather has been all over the spectrum this summer.
Sheryl, I live in far north California, zone 9, and my squash did not make. I had to re-sow my zucchini 5 times until it finally prospered. It would grow an inch tall and stop growing; some times not coming up at all. The last sowing did come up and is beautifully tall, but producing very little. Remember how squash produced so many you can’t give it away, people are so tired of it? Not this year. Little to no squash. I have one summer squash that produced 2 squash, the other, none. Did everything the same. Amended in fall, and rotated. I just don’t know.
Thank you so much for the feedback. Here’s to next year. Btw, I’m 80 and ready for ALL gardening to be done in mineral tubs. I tried 1 eggplant, radishes, carrots and cherry tomatoes this year in tubs. They did fairly well-just trying to see what would work in tubs. The provider green beans were also prolific with plants, few blooms and not one green bean. Do you plant in tubs?
Sheryl & Elizabeth, my squash didn’t do the best either. They germinated ok, but winter ones died and summer ones only produced a little. I’ve heard high temps especially at night will make the pollen sterile! And the decline of pollinators hurts too. Hopefully next year!
Thank you. Guess with the weather being from one extreme to the other, I am fortunate to get what did produce.
All my life my Daddy talked about wonderful Christmas beans. I never had any until I bought some speckled Limas at an Amish Farm. They look just like white Limas but with purple irregular freckles all over. The farmer said they were Christmas beans. I took a bunch home and shelled them and then I cooked them with ham, and they were delicious. They have a white bean but nutty flavor. They look similar to the ones in your picture; but yours are round. I serve them with corn bread, and they are wonderful. The water I soak them in turns purple, so I drain it off and then slow cook in fresh water and seasoning. I am continually amazed at the variety of tomatoes, potatoes, etc. from which we have to choose! Love your pictures.
I was given a bag of Christmas limas. Am thinking of growing out a few after I figure out what to make with the rest. I hate to just go with the usual chili when they are so pretty.
My mother cooked them with a ham bone or smoked shank.
Those are beautiful beans! It’s sure a blessing to have friends to help you. That’s what the world should be about. We have friends & family like that too. Rain here last night, so am canning tomato juice today. Dry beans are all shelled, and a few Monte Gusto beans & sweet peppers still in the garden to pick. Your angel trumpet flower is unusual and a beautiful color! The humming birds have been enjoying the cannas outside my kitchen window.
God is Good!
I have four tomatoes on my table – one was starting to turn, second blush of turning and two decent size green tomatoes with nice looking skin. Will be the last of my harvest. Holding out hope the two small zukes on the plant I grew from seed (in the garden) get a little bigger before frost comes. We’ve watered it but I fear those dratted squash bugs found the plant.
We did get a little rain.
A number of bean and corn fields are ready to harvest but it is not happening. Some farmers have decent storage bins which they prefer to *not* use when the corn is first ready to pick. I’m not sure where the beans will go – a bit late for edamame, not that there is a enough of a well paying market for it. I’ve also not seen much urgency for hay cutting beyond feeding local beef cattle. Rough time for farmers – for most GMO means they can’t even save seed for next year.