5 Acres & A Dream

August 27, 2010

August Garden Tour

August has been an odd month. It's usually one of our hottest, along with July. June is usually mild, sort of easing us in to summer. This year, it's as though August and June switched places. This year, June presented itself with a long, uncomfortably hot heat wave. July was more of the same and even though there was adequate rain in the area, it always seemed to skirt around our place, leaving my garden dry and thirsty. August has been amazingly cooler and wetter than I remember past Augusts to be. Cool, of course is a relative term, and is often offset by our humidity. Still, highs in the mid 80s to 90s is welcome, compared to flirting with 100 like we did during June and July.

Other things seem uncharacteristic too. Even though the thermometer says "hot," the breezes blow cooler. Their sound in the leaves of the trees is reminiscent of September, not August. Something else that's strange, has been the occasional sound of crickets during the day. That's a sound thats usually reserved for autumn. Considering that last winter was longer and colder than usual, I'm hoping we aren't in for an early winter this year.

Because of all the rain, August has been a green month. Everything is happy with the moisture and it shows. In fact, some things in my garden have made a comeback. Like the Swiss chard...

... and my bush beans ...

I had long since given up on these as being done for the year. In fact I neglected them terribly when I watered. The variety is State 1/2 Runner, which had already given me 24 quarts of canned green beans. I now have high hopes for another batch or two.

My Kentucky Wonder pole beans are doing well too...

... though these have been slow to start producing. These are the ones I planted with the popcorn, in hopes of having ready made bean poles.

I have learned that popcorn isn't the best corn to do this with. It doesn't grow tall enough! At least it's true of this Japanese Hulless, which was the only OP variety I could find.

The most striking plant in my garden is the giant golden amaranth...

At eight to ten feet tall, it's a traffic stopper. Well, maybe just a traffic slower-downer.

The seed heads are supposed to produce up to a pound of seed each. I planted them for chicken feed.

One thing we've learned about it is that the seeds don't all ripen at the same time. They ripen over a period of time, so that harvesting needs to be done on an ongoing basis. This has proven to be something of a challenge. Not only because the heads are larger than any container I have (I've been spreading out a sheet to shake them into), but because the stalks are so stout. It's nearly impossible to bend the plants over to shake out the seeds.Harvesting a two person job.

There are other types of amaranth. I chose this one for it's advertised output. Hopefully I'll be able to collect enough seed to make them worth it!

Other things doing well are my watermelons, as shown in this post. Also the okra...

It's Clemson Spineless. And my sweet peppers...

These are an heirloom variety called "Chinese Giant." I'm afraid they haven't lived up to the giant part, but they are pretty and have an excellent flavor.

My sweet potatoes too (Bush Porto Rico), have thrived. They are the dark green bushy plants in the back row behind the bush beans ...

Those are yellow cosmos in amongst my sweet pepper plants in the front.

Actually I need to check on the sweet potatoes soon, as they are harvested according to desired size, rather than when by what the foliage is doing. Definitely before first frost, which can damage them.

The sunflower heads are now heavy with seed.....

... and drooping under the weight of them. I grow these for feed.

One of my biggest frustrations though, are my tomatoes, of which both varieties (Roma and Rutgers) which have been stricken with blight. At least I think it's blight. I've compared the leaves and fruits to pictures in The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control, and blight seems the most likely cause, though some plants fit other disease descriptions. I did spray these early on with a liquid copper based fungicide, but obviously it either wasn't enough or it was the wrong thing.

Unfortunately, I lost a lot of fruit because of this. Fortunately I planted more plants (30 Romas, 6 Rutgers), than I would have needed if they'd remained healthy. Volume offset loss, though I wouldn't have minded having more. Obviously I have some studying to do before next year.

That's this month's highlights.

Tell me, how does your garden grow?

August Garden Tour photos and text © August 2010 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/

August 25, 2010

How 'Bout Them Watermelons

Our Sugar Baby watermelons have done beautifully this year. We've had juicy sweet watermelons to eat almost daily, and to give away to family and friends. Eventually though, we had a few too many, so I decided to dehydrate some.

Dried watermelon is something like fruit leather: sweet, sticky, chewy; probably about the closest thing there is to a natural candy. It's a real treat if you're a watermelon lover with a sweet tooth, or a kid.

It's a great thing to do with over- or under-ripe melons. The hardest part is getting out all the seeds.

I cut it into slices between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick. The thinner they are, the less drying time they require. My Excalibur sets the drying time for fruit and fruit leathers at 135° F. Because watermelon has such a high moisture content however, my quarter slices took a couple of days to reach the desired stiff but slightly pliable, leathery texture, like the photo on the left below.

What's going on in the photo on the right? Well, our humidity has been so high, that the finished, dried pieces quickly get soggified if left out! I had to re-dehydrate several traysful.

In fact, I did that a couple of times. In the end, I took the finished, cooled pieces, and layered them in a container between wax paper, and put them in the freezer. A tad frustrating, I admit.

I figured there was no sense in staying frustrated about it though, so I consoled myself with....