What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Was going to pull weeds, but it feels like 102, a humid 102. Nope not happening.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Yeah, hot as Hades in Arkansas again.... At least August is almost over and then it should cool down rather quickly. In the meantime, the peppers & tomatoes are loving the heat. I collected my biggest harvest of tomatoes to date...around 10? They still aren't fully ripe but should color up rather quickly within a day or so. The cherry tomatoes are in overdrive. I can hardly keep up with them.

My last squash plant and pumpkin are on life support. I don't think they will make it through the week. I'm hoping to get ONE more pumpkin and a couple of spaghetti squash to ripen up before they go kaput.

I still have a few watermelon to collect. One is fully ripe. I'll probably pick it tonight. Another 4-5 watermelon are still growing but look promising.

Going to make some bread & butter pickles this evening, I think.

I'm also thinking about planting some cauliflower in self-watering 5 gal buckets as an experiment. I won't start those for another few weeks though.

 

[WthrLady]

I have 8 cherry tomatoes in the garden, and I'm pulling in more than a gallon of tomatoes a day. I'm considering cutting a couple at the ground to halt their season.

The chickens have their own tomato garden of 16 plants, they go in there looking for bugs, tomatoes, and for the shade. It can go until the frost for all I care.

Currently feels like 106. I left the girls inside and just changed out their water. On my way back to the barn I heard a prairie cicada in the willow tree and it was low enough I could reach it. I snatched it and tossed it into the run. 23 crazed beaks and one freaked out giant bug. LOL. The littles finally caught it and played with it for a while before eating it. What a ruckus.

 

[Sueby]

It's rainy & humid here, but the heat won't be here till tomorrow I think.

I pulled another gallon of green beans, blanched & frozen already. Picked a ton of peppers & a cuke. I must have thrown a dozen & 1/2 split sungolds to the birds. I found a green brandywine on the ground, wrapped in newspaper to ripen.

Those little *&^%$# cuke beetles have no where to go since I ripped out all the plants, I've found them on the sungolds & the peppers! I don't know that they'll do any damage to either, but man do I hate those little buggers.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

First batch of bread and butter pickles processing now. This is my first canning on my new stove. Everything seems to be ok. Fingers crossed.

 

[Sueby]

I love that everyone is canning stuff (& harvesting)! I want pics from everyone! LOL. (I miss @igorsMistress, she always shamelessly begged for pics with me!)

 

[Sueby]

& I meant to mention to those of you talking about butternut squash - I used to make a great gratin with it, it had parm cheese & bread crumbs, it was delish!

 

[NewBoots]

I dumped out 2 of my potato feed bags this morning and was pleasantly surprised. They held about 5 gallons of soil each and the russets produced a surprising amount of potatoes. There aren't all that many of them so I don't think I'll bother with curing them except for the seed potatoes for next year. There're 3 bags still out there that the foliage hasn't died back on so hopefully we have more coming. The reds and whites didn't produce at all (I just mixed them in the bags together when I planted them) but I'm fine with russets. I didn't expect anything at all and like the peppers, they've really surprised me with their production.

 

[WthrLady]

I love that everyone is canning stuff (& harvesting)! I want pics from everyone! LOL. (I miss @igorsMistress, she always shamelessly begged for pics with me!)

Ya, where'd she GO?!

 

[Elyrian1]

Hubby gets a week of paternity leave at his new job, which is amazing and just fantastically wonderful. So, garden prep is happening. He's got a load of aged mulch coming in this evening, and is laying cardboard in the drop zone as prep. Somehow, he's doing this with a newborn strapped to his chest, so I can take a nap. Yeah, he broke the mold.