August 27, 2012

A Prizewinner pumpkin grows large and orange-red as summer comes to an end.

It's time to get rid of the old to make room for the new.  Two hundred eighty-eight corn stalks were macheted at ground level, clearing a 20 ft. x 25 ft. space that will be our fall and winter vegetable garden.  The tiller evened things out, and any weeds quickly wilted in these sunny and dry days of late August.

Corn stalks dry after being cut.

The 2013 Farmer's Almanac calls for a colder than normal winter with above average precipitation for the eastern two-thirds of the nation.  Unseasonably chilly temperatures will reach as far south as the Gulf Coast.  Last winter was so warm because of a most unusual combination of a North Atlantic and Arctic Oscillation that pulled warm air up from the Southwest, and a La Nina that kept the jet stream far north.  Last winter was ideal for gardening year-round, but this winter looks to be different. So we are taking advantage of the remarkably cool August to get our fall garden in early.  Nine brussels sprouts transplants were moved to the garden under milk jug covers - not to keep the frost out, but to shield from hot sun and hungry insects.  Cabbage, broccoli, root crops and greens will soon follow.  Since grass mow is so thick, it will make an ideal mulch to keep weeds down around our new plants.

A bucket of compost went into
each planting hole

Superfreak pumpkins have an interesting appearance.

We have counted at least 50 pumpkins ripening in our patch, and more are setting daily.  We are almost ready to go through and cut everything orange from the vine.  A prizewinner giant is almost red; it really stands out among the smaller varieties.  These will soon be moved with hay bales under our front yard maple tree.

Brussels sprouts transplants underneath protective milk jug covers.

July 23, 2012

7-pound cantaloupes/muskmelons are coming 5 per day. 

It's not hard to tell what the kids have been into when their hands are sticky and they come with sweet juice dribbling down their chins.  This week we harvested 8 of the first melons coming this season.  With all the rain we have received (not complaining), we were afraid they might be bland and watery; the smaller melons aren't quite as sweet as the thick big ones, but they all win taste tests compared to supermarket produce!

Jars of tomato halves canned for spaghetti and goulash.

We've wiped our hands of corn for a while, though what we have stocked in the fridge should hold out until our second crop ripens by August 4.  We've done more tomato canning, halves and juice.  Onions are curing well in the barn, and green beans have revived after their mid-summer slump and are producing enough to keep a daily helping on our dinner plates.  We're picking fresh carrots and cucumbers as needed to go with  tomato slices.

On our "to-do" list this weekend was, gather brown and air dried dill seed and save it in an envelope to plant next year.

Onions curing in an airy dry shelf in the barn.

We're having more fun hand-pollinating and watching pumpkins of all sorts, shapes, and sizes grow daily; some of the 'New England Pie' variety are even starting to turn orange; we've picked a few 'Jack-Be-Little'.  Our hopes are high that a 'Prizewinner' which set last week and that grew the size of a melon in just 7 days will end up being a show-stopper to display in the front yard this autumn.  "If you grow pumpkins, you will be happy when you pick them.  Savor what you feel, in addition to what you taste.  Enjoy the blossoms - if pumpkins were rare, gardeners would pamper them in greenhouses just for their extraordinary flowers."  --J. L. Hudson as quoted in The Perfect Pumpkin, by Gail Damerow

This 'Prizewinner' pumpkin grew to the size of a melon in just 7 days.

May 9, 2011

This back yard was a vast expanse of lawn punctuated with a few mature trees when we moved in one year ago; the addition of more than 70 fruiting trees and bushes, and a 2,000 sq. ft. vegetable garden have enabled us to live independent of grocery store produce shipped across thousands of miles from domestic and international sources.  Now all it needs is a few chickens to make it a true hobby farm, but we'll save that for a future year.

Spinach season has come to a happy end - on Saturday we cut the plants off at ground level, more than enough to fill a tall kitchen trash bag.  It was washed, and what we did not save for fresh use was blanched and packed into freezer bags to enjoy later.

Each section of the garden is planned seasonally, and we practice succession planting and crop rotation so that no part of the garden goes to waste - something is growing or in production nearly year-round.  Now that spinach is gone, the ground is clear to plant pumpkins.  Bryan dug wells in the middle of the plot and filled them with aged, composted manure.  Even in this little space we grow four varieties:  Prizewinner (giant), New England Pie (sweet), Connecticut Field, and Jack Be Little (mini).  The former are always a hit at the annual Pumpkin Festival in Pumpkintown each October.

"If you grow pumpkins, you will be happy when you pick them.  Savor what you feel, in addition to what you taste.  Enjoy the blossoms - if pumpkins were rare, gardeners would pamper them in greenhouses just for their extraordinary flowers."  --J. L. Hudson as quoted in The Perfect Pumpkin, by Gail Damerow.  Seed will go in the ground this Saturday the 14th.

As an experiment this year we planted nine Aunt Molly's ground cherry bushes from seed - sent as a free gift from a mail order company.  The idea of annual fruit sounds appealing.  Compare the garden now to what it looked like in February, here.