On the one hand, I can’t believe it’s nearly September. Summer can’t be this far along, can it? On the other, I am shocked that we probably still have 4 to 6 weeks of reasonable growing conditions before fall really, truly shoulders aside summer. This has been the best summer I can remember for the fruiting crops since I started growing veggies a decade ago. Tomatoes, pepper, squash, corn – all thriving.
Here’s what’s going on in my garden right now. The glut of food is a bit overwhelming and I’m just trying to hang on and get things processed so as not to let any of this bounty go to waste.
Click on the thumbnails to go to the full size photos as a slideshow type thingy, if you like.
How is your garden doing this month? Have you had any issues with downy mildew?
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LOVED your interview with Lee Reich! D
So beautiful!
Gorgeous garden! Your efforts have really paid off.
Here in western Oregon, we’re having a late tomato trend. The little ones (cherry, pear, grape) are okay, but the big ones are so slow. The plants are huge and they’ve had lots of flowers, but they’re only now setting fruit. (Our region’s bees were late this year, too.) In past years, we had ripe tomatoes a full month earlier.
As for mold… yup, it’s all over our squash leaves. We heard from one of our local veggie farmers that a spray of diluted hydrogen peroxide can stop the mold without harming the plants.
Great pics! I just started getting powdery mildew on my delicata and thinking of trying the diluted milk trick. Have you heard of this?
Purple Pole Beans are one of my favorites. They are easy to pick and they don’t leave me itchy. My other favorite bean is a Romano bean that a coworker gave me. The seed she got from the seed stash of someone that had passed away. No idea what variety they are but they are fantastic.
WONDERFUL!
Please tell me what has your trick been for getting such a great pepper harvest in the NW??
I am super jealous of your amazing garden, especially all those beautiful canning tomatoes! My tomatoes are just starting to ripen, but they’re just about all slicers, & we’re limited by renting anyway. Eventually there will be an actual bought house with a yard I can tear up and plant to my heart’s content!
Beautiful and nicely photographed! I have some downy mildew on my tree collard. It is situated next to a tomato bed which may have contributed to the problem. Lots of cherry tomatoes and persian cukes. Herbs and carrots are delighting us at every meal. My nettles are dry on the top but still lush underneath- great for gnudi!
This is my first year gardening in the Seattle area (Northshore) and I’ve lost my one & only squash plant to terrible mildew. Of course I only got one squash plant because I read that I’d get way too much squash if I got more than one plant. I only got three measly zucchinis this season! 🙁 But my cherry tomatoes, strawberries, blue lake and violet podded stringless beans, and various lettuces are doing just fine.
I’d like to take this moment to thank you for your blog and everything you’ve shared. You’re practically a neighbor so it has been nice to follow your planning and your successes as I learn about gardening. I’m glad to know that the mildew isn’t just my problem as a novice! But sad because we seem to all be struggling a bit with it this year.
Our one zucchini developed powdery mildew this week and it is pretty bad. I’ve sprayed with baking soda and I am going to try a milk/baking soda/dish detergent solution that had rave reviews online. But it has given us 37 zucchinis so maybe it deserves to retire! The mildew has also spread to the sweet dumpling squash though and I want to fight to keep them going. I am feeling overwhelmed by our cucumbers this month– I don’t think I will plant 5 of them next year!
Yes, this is the hottest, driest summer I can remember ever.. and I’ve been here for…uh..60 years! Thanks for the glorious tour 🙂 And a question… peach with no leaf curl? Which variety? ox
It’s been horribly cool here, so I just now spotted my first orange -not even fully ripe – cherry tomato yesterday. We’ve had green fruit on these plants for close to two months!
Most impressed with my zucchini. We’ve gotten absurd numbers from only 5 plants, and really it’s only 3 of them that produce 80% of the squash. We’re growing pumpkins, but the mildew is really decimating the foliage. Hoping they hang on long enough for the fruit to ripen.
We’ve also got “special” sunflowers which track the sun backwards. As in, they purposely face away at all times. Weird.
Most of my garden is in cover crops for next year, with some basil and broccoli interplanted as the seedlings got ready.
Weirdly enough, the only major animal damage I’ve had despite zero fencing is to my chard. If I grow it next year, I’ll have to fence it off from the rabbits. Some animals have tried munching on the pumpkin rinds and occasionally will scratch a zucchini, but that’s really it.
Much like the goblin chief, our summer has been ridiculously cool. Tomatoes are just starting to ripen but we have lost a lot to blossom end rot despite fortifying the soil. We have had good beet crops, lots of kale, and lots of greens. We tried something new with our potato boxes this year but won’t know the outcome until we dig them up. Also tried sweet potatoes but I am thinking this cool summer probably did not do those any good. Tons and tons of beans. Lost an everlasting bucket of fermented pickles….not sure what went wrong there.
I realize how busy you must be with your garden, home, kids, blog, book, and god knows what else, but how the frick do you get your rosemary–and so much of it–to come back in the spring?!? I’ve tried it SO many times in SO many places in my yard in Newcastle, WA. It NEVER comes back…not once. What am I doing wrong? I will conquer rosemary! Someday…How? Agh….
Are you sure you’re talking rosemary since that should be a perennial for you. It never dies down and blooms several times a year.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/170/#b
Hi Erica:
I don’t know if you’re still reading comments to this post or not, but if you are can you tell me the variety of peach and watermelon you’re growing?
Thanks. I hear ya when it comes to produce overload. I did just find a frozen bag of satsuma plums in the freezer from two months ago and was so happy – I’d already forgotten all about them – so now I will look forward to plum cobbler in the dead of winter!)