Last Week Of Garden Photos

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This is the last shot I took yesterday.  Patti, Violet and I took a drive out to the Ness Farm to check out the garden there.  We had rain nearly all day so things were too wet to work with, but just wanted to take a walk around and see how things were progressing since we had not been out there for a few days.

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The Blue Speckled flour corn is tasseling nicely, and stalks are showing silks 55 days after it went into the ground in a cold wet spring.  Not too bad.

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Even the Iroquois White Flour is showing a few tassels.  I had this one selected down to just under 100 DTM.  Maybe it will be earlier this year.  Only other corn I have planted out there that is tasseling is the Pink Flour selection I had made out of the Arikara/Mandan/Hidatsa white flour, which I would guess is running about 4 days behind the Blue Speckled Flour, and the Iroquois White Flour a few days behind that.  Popcorn, Black Flour, and the sweet corn from Mandan Rainbow Flint are all behind the other three.

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While I futzed around taking pictures, Violet enjoyed feeding the Ness’ chickens clover.

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Chickens seemed to enjoy it as well.  Their chickens do not have the variety of types we have, but he has a couple of groups, plus roosters, and are growing their flocks while increasing production.  We do not have that luxury, but hopefully some day we do.

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The old MN 13 experimental bushing cowpea is looking great.  MN 157 is not doing as well.  In the past 13 did much better as well so I might stop messing with the 157 which has poor germination and lower production than 13.  Still fun to play with old genetic lines developed back when the U of M agricultural extension was interested in increasing diversity of crops with Minnesota farmers instead of feeding into the monoculture farming we see now.

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The old German Maxima squash I got from Glenn Drowns is once again the earliest set squash in the garden.  I think that the Baby Vi Mochata would have beat it if the earlier planting had not rotted out with the cold wet spring, necessitating the replanting of it.  The replanting is looking great, but not flowering yet, much less setting fruits.

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Earlier in the week I had got to the Ness Farm planning to mow the ground cover down between the rows, and then weed the Iroquois White Flour corn.  Biting black gnats were too much of a bane though, intent of turning me into one large open sore, so all I did was the mowing and took two photos before running back home.  Mosquitoes I can deal with as they do not find me very flavorful.  Gnats though consider me some kind of delicacy, or are not as picky.

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That is the other pic I took.  Had planned on taking more, but the insect version of the Red Cross was too insistent on donations and I was not sticking around any longer than I had to.

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On my drive home this red summer coated doe paused long enough for an evening picture.  Low light, but did not turn out too badly.  Much less scraggly than the last photo I got of a deer with the new shorter fur in and the old winter coat all shed.

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Gardens here at home look nice.  Front garden is more manicured, back garden more cluttered.  Front garden is producing a ton of greens, being Tuscan and Red Russian kale, and chard, along with some volunteer lettuce and Japanese Red Mustard.  Tomatoes are lagging a bit here, but the Dragon Tongue beans are producing.  Lots of basil and parsley.   The German Brown Rocambole garlic bulbils produced a wide variety of plant sizes, some so small I will leave them in the ground until next summer, others much larger, and I assume, full heads of multiple cloves (though smaller due to being grown from bulbils and not cloves) which will be saved for planting next year.  It takes a few years to get huge heads when starting with bulbils, but you avoid any carry over of viruses held in older stock.

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Grapes are looking good.  Top photo is Bluebell and the lower one is Sommerset Seedless.

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Scarlet Runner Beans are not just flowering; I am getting some pod set as well.  Weather has been cooler over all, compared to most summers.  We even have an “Arctic” cold front coming in this week which will give us highs in the 60s for a short period which should cause even more pod set.  Regardless, they are beautiful, but it has saddened me this year to have such short supply of pollinators.  Most of what I grow does not require them, but I like having them around anyway.

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Borage is growing here and there in the yard.  Kids like picking the flowers early in the morning and eating them.  Morning, because that is when they are sweetest.  The leaves taste like cucumbers, but I find the texture unpleasant when uncooked.  Cooked, well, they taste like limp thin cucumber slices (as opposed to hairy, raw, cucumber slices).

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Purple Podded Blauchokker peas are doing well.  As soon as they dry we will begin picking and shelling them.  I did not grow any fresh eating peas this year.

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On the left side is just trellised dry beans, and right/middle is the 10′ tower I am growing Christmas Lima beans up this year.  Summer squash is down below, along with a lot of other plants.

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The two Malabar Spinach (also called African Spinach or climbing spinach, but not related to spinach at all) is climbing and producing quite well.  The leaves are a favorite of mine on tomato sammiches, which we have not had yet.  I have some good sized green ones, but nothing ripe yet for them.

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Dwarf Blue Scotch kale in the back yard is doing well.

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I have three, very large, hollyhocks this year.  All shades of pink, from nearly white to nearly red.

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Dill is heading up.  I always have to pickle a bunch of it long before cucumbers come into the picture because it tends to be earlier.  But having a bunch of dill preserved in vinegar is not a bad thing, and you can use it any time.

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We ate our first cabbage last night.  An Early Jersey Wakefield, steamed with ham, along with crusty bread covered in cheese, red sauce, basil and oregano.  Nell liked it the best, but I think all of the kids would prefer cabbage fermented into kraut.  Oh well.  We will have a lot of kraut too, but this variety is best for eating fresh, and the Copenhagen and Large Flat Dutch best suited to kraut.

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I have seen a grand total of 2 Monarch butterflies this summer in the milkweed.  A few bumble bees.  No honey bees.  Some flies.  That is it.  It does smell wonderful though.

And that is the photos since we were at the zoo.

 

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