Being gone for 10 days near the end of July is stressful on me on multiple levels, not the least of which is coming back to a couple weeks of weed growth. But here we are, and this was my first day back at it.
Started out in the morning with a drive to Buffalo to clean up out at Adickes farm. Took Nell and Claire along with me, but when we arrived the temps were already over 80 with 85% humidity, so I had them lay low and just did the mowing there. Took me over 3 hours with the breaks I needed to take so I would not collapse. Heat and I do not do well together.
Late squash plantings there are just starting to vine.
Popcorn is reaching 6 feet tall and not showing tassels yet.
Bear Island Flint topped out at 5 feet, and ears are set.
The speckled red flour corn we planted in the 3 sisters garden is just finishing setting ears now, and is only about a week behind the Bear Island Flint. Beans are climbing the corn stalks and the squash is starting to fill in the areas between the hills of corn and beans.
Just another shot of one of the hills.
When we left, I took the kids out for burgers and lemonade. Once home, I just kind of collapsed for a few hours, then was back out in the garden here at home.
Tomatoes and beans are starting, so that was the first order of business.
Violet, of course, “helped”.
This is a shot of the Golden of Bacau beans. One of our favorite for fresh eating. Lousy canned or frozen though. <laughing> So we eat them until late summer, from now until the plants stop producing.
Yes, I multi-task my trellises, which makes things look a huge mess, but they are just full of food ready now, and food that will ripen later. That is Purple Podded Pole beans, and Bluebell grapes.
That is a Mandan Squash I have vining through the Golden of Bacau bean trellis.
Did not pick this, but just wanted to show how far along the apples on the Kleffman Apple tree that is grown from seeds that Nell and I stratified, and then sprouted 9 years ago now. There are a couple hundred on the tree. Looking forward to this.
Started digging garlic. Just the German Brown Rocambole I grew around the edges of the garden beds in the front yard. This is a head just 2 years out from growing from a bulbil. I had cut the scape off of early so the head is pretty good sized and well formed. This year they are about 2.5 inches across.
Same type, but one I did not cut the scape off of, so it set bulbils. As you can see, the extra energy it puts into making the tiny topset garlic cloves directly detracts from the size of the harvested head. But you can either eat the topsets, or plant them and in 2 years have a head of garlic like the photo above this one.
So, that is the garlic from the front yard. A lot more to dig out of the back yard. Several times this amount, plus about 300 out at the Adickes farm. <grin> Going to be a big garlic year. That pile above is 4X what we use in a year. Just from edging a few garden beds. Food does not have to be hard to procure.
This last pic is an interesting one. 4 years ago I had a drying rack back in Piper’s dog run. A bulbil managed to sprout there the following year, and I never did anything with it….until this evening. So, three years of growing and splitting underground, gave me a bundle of small garlic heads about 8 inches across, and several heads deep. Has me playing in my mind about establishing the stuff just as perennials I do not dig at all in several places and just leave alone for a few years.
