It's the dog days of summer, eh? In the garden too, especially with the weird wintery weather we've had all season. Just in time for scorching ninety degree days to come this weekend. Mudder...help!
I'm hoping it will be just the cure for the 4 unripened Purple Cherokee tomatoes and 1 bunch of Chocolate Cherry toms on our vines and not the death of them, ya know?
The installation of the hummer buffet has finally paid off. :o) There are two to three hummingbirds out there each day, fighting for rights. Unfortunately, i found ants out there last week too, so i need to step up my food rotations. The lively zippers have a little routine going. First they check out the raspberry canes, then they fight over the feeder a bit and the losers zoom over to the garden on the other side of the yard to patiently wait their turn while perched on a tomato cage (that is guarding the pumpkin vines from the scratch-happy feathered flock seeking to destory the garden.) After a few seconds pass, the zippers buzz the feeder to let their friend know time's up. If you happen to be out there, they will buzz you too. Especially if you have the sprinkler in your hand. :o)
Other than pulling out the spring veggies to make room for fall seed and tying up tomato vines, there hasn't been much else to do. It's pointless to try to keep up with the dandelions in August. But we have had luck in starting a few new strawberry plants from the runners.
These are destined for the wash basin in the front yard.The bees are out in full force too.
Sadly, none of our sunflowers are. :o(But the dandelions and enchinacaes are tiding them over.
The hollyhocks are as tall as the deck! Hooray!
The hollyhocks are as tall as the deck! Hooray!
The cukes are starting to flower prolifically...
with a few fruits of our labour...
i am hoping these are going to be some of these tasty looking pickles this year!And by the looks of it, i think they'll be just enough cukes for one jar! :o)
The brussels are coming along too.
The brussels are coming along too.
Need to plan my attack to save these babies for Moose from the slugs.The tomatoes
borage is loving the tomato bed
Our corn is doing really well,
considering we planted it towards the end of June.And our cocozelle is finally putting off some squash!
This will be my screen saver come November!
I also have a question for any Western WA gardeners: i've heard from a few people that we can start onion seed here and it overwinters. Any truth to that rumour?
Your garden is looking lovely! And yes, yes, you can start onion from seed right about now. It's hard to grow big onions here as you need nice, fertile sandly loam for them but it's definitely possible to get medium to small sized ones. I also plant shallot and garlic cloves in the fall, in late Sept or early Oct.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your kind words on my blog - I was a little down after the morning session but when I went back this afternoon it was much better. I also met Goldie from PCC who asked to come see my yard which is thrilling - I've been following her vis a vis PCC for some 20 years now so it was lovely to meet her in person.
xo, Annette