Mid Month Check-Up
I’m finding my garden posts from last year to be very useful as a gardening journal, so for future reference, here’s where things stand in the middle of August.
This incredibly robust pumpkin plant just appeared near the compost bin. We have no idea what variety it is, but it’s growing so fast you can almost see it. In the above photo from today, it’s about 10 inches across…
…and here it is a week and 1/2 ago (about 3 inches across)! Not only are the pumpkins huge, but the plant is incredibly prolific – there are about a half a dozen on it so far. We might just have to save the seeds from this guy.
I’ve got one lonely squash on my Romanesco zucchini plant, and it’s only about 4 inches long. I do think I see a few more starting though.
The “Orange Banana” plum tomatoes are finally starting to produce, but they’re far from ripe at this point.
The lemon cucumbers are almost ready to eat!
And the mini Blue Hubbard is starting to take on that trademark bluish hue.
Here’s one of the last blueberries of the season. This one is a “Chandler” – they’re huge and very tasty.
Lu, you were asking about dehydrators. Mine is a 15 year old American Harvest, so I don’t know if you’d be able to find it anymore, but I like it a lot. The one that my friend lent me is a Nesco, which I think is affiliated with American Harvest. It looks almost exactly the same as mine, but the motor and fan are mounted on the top. It seems to work very well. I’ve got big plans to build a solar dehydrator one day, once we’ve got time for such things (*hysterical laughter*).
Cheryl, thanks for the information. How many different and what type of foods do you regularly use your dehydrator for? Funny, what you said about your blog guiding you in your garden’s progress. While I don’t have a blog, I take photos of various *delicious* meals I’ve made. Sometimes I go back to those photos to remember what I served with something or what pan I cooked something in. Silly, yes, helpful, yes!!
That is one HUGE blueberry!
Your garden is amazing.
Wow…what a beautiful garden. It’s so thrilling to see veggies that are *almost* ready – I’ll bet they’ll be delicious. I’m really interested in getting a food dehydrator – have you ever made fruit leather in yours?
Hey, we have a pumpkin growing in our compost pile too. Our pumpkins look about the same. I haven’t seen the lemon cucumbers before, I will have to try them. I have a unmotorized dehydrator I put in the sun room but it take quite a bit of time. I will update the okra in the next couple of days.
It’s depressing looking at everyones garden posts and I’m stuck in an apartment without even a yard. Maybe next year.
I plan on building a solar dehydrator as well. I guess we’ll have to see who is less busy first.
Lu – No problem! I mostly dry apricots, cherries, tomatoes, apples, and fruit leather. I used to dry veggies to add to rice while backpacking, but haven’t done that in a while (I’ve even dehydrated cooked rice to make “minute” rice).
It sounds like you need to start a blog my dear!
Chelee – Thank you!
Mary – Yes, I’ve made fruit leather many times. It’s fun to experiment with different combinations.
Dawn – Lemon cukes would be great for you, because they’re a good short season variety (they’re also less bitter than other cukes).
Burdockboy – I think your “project” might keep you busy longer than mine will. π
What a beautiful garden,Cheryl!You are a really good gardner!Every year I tried out to made some pumpkins or zucchini in my garden but unfortunately without success!You are really good!Blueberries are delicious and I have only 1 plant in my garden!
Really nice pics!
Cheryl, would you mind indulging me with another question? How many watts is your food dehydrator? Thanks so much.
Hi!
I wondered if you might help us out w/regard to lemon cucumbers.
My husband purchased cucumber sets earlier this summer. We planted them and found, to our surprise, that one of the sets were lemon cukes. We’ve never had them before & aren’t sure when they’re ready to be picked. I did pick one yesterday, but it seemed like it wasn’t quite ripe yet.
How do I know when the perfect time for harvesting these little round balls will be? Your help would sure be appreciated!
~Deb
Steffi – I’m sorry to hear you’re not having much luck with your squash. This one certainly seems to grow better than the ones we planted on purpose!
Lu – The one that I’m borrowing says it’s 500 watts. Hope that helps!