Late Summer Newsletter
How’s your garden? Have you been harvesting anything? Canning, freezing, dehydrating? Do you have photos of your gardens you’d like to share? Write to me and let me know!
Fall gardens – It’s time to start seeds for our cool crops – the same ones you grew in the Spring! Refresh your beds first with composted manure and plant away! Our first hard frost is usually mid-October so look at the seed packets – days to maturity – to verify the plants will grow out before then.
I’ve had challenges this year for sure! How about you?
Lack of germination – many sunflower seeds didn’t grow out front.
Squash bugs – took out a zucchini plant early, then made their way through the yellow summer squash.
Tomato hornworms – were eating my PEPPERS! Oh no you don’t!
Mosaic virus – affected the cucumbers but they produced a lot before that happened.
Volunteers – cherry tomatoes appeared in the pathway that I wasn’t planning on.
Vigorous growth – the early hot weather and then lots of rain made the butternut squash soar! It’s taking over a whole corner of the yard, crowding out melons and trying to smother the grapevines. The delicate plants overran the cherry bush patch. Weeds were super happy with the rain!
Failed experiment – sweet corn growing in five gallon buckets
Powdery mildew – is affecting the summer delicata squash. It smells like when you leave clothes in the washer for too long. There’s still a ton of squash growing on the vines though.
Solutions – I have learned many ways to tackle these. If there’s a way I can help you, let me know!
Some I’ve written about in my blog. Blog - The Lazy Northern Gardener
And some wins!
Incubated some chicken eggs and am growing more layers (and maybe roosters). Littles have been merged with the Bigs without too much drama.
Decent onion and garlic harvest.
Raspberry bushes produced fruit. So did the serviceberry and chokeberry.
Native garden flowers have flourished – almost too much!
Volunteer squash and volunteer little yellow pumpkins filling in gaps out front.
Sweet corn – Peaches and Cream was delicious! First time growing corn.
Peppers galore! First time growing from seed and a large variety of types.
Teenage heritage river birches are getting taller – for shade in the middle of the backyard.
Eggplant and okra – first time to grow, harvest and cook up. They aren’t too bad!
Woodchip pile – we’ve finally used it all up. It was three yards last year……
The jury is still out on:
The Ruth Stout potato patch
Canning – hot water hurts! But I put up pickles, peaches, pole beans and pepperoncinis so far this year. I’ve started freezing the harvest instead…
If you find my tips and services valuable, I hope you share with friends, family, neighbors and colleagues!
If you need a consult or coaching, write and let me know!
Learn and grow. And learn some more…..
Tammy
Website: http://www.thelazynortherngardener.com
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