Cindy’s Blog

We had another dinner from the garden tonight. The corn stalks have been turning yellow and even the luscious corn I drive by every week on my way to the knitting group is drying up. So we harvested some of it.

Mmmmm…. What a success! Here’s Garrison enjoying the first bite of the freshest possible corn - we boiled water, then immediately harvested, shucked and cooked it. Only the yellowest cob on the right tasted good (but it was very good). The rest were chewy. We must have waited too long to harvest, even though the tassels weren’t as dark as they are on supermarket corn. Oh well, I apparently don’t have the touch for corn farming.

We also harvested the soybean crop, shown here on a map of the high school for scale.

The yield was more than I expected and it was the best edamame I’ve ever tasted, although the pods were smaller than what you’ll find elsewhere. What’s new? Freshness really matters when it comes to edamame. These were basically free. I used dried soybeans from the grocery store. Does it make a difference? I have no idea.

The pumpkins are starting to turn orange.

And the morning glories, now that they’re surrounded by prickly pumpkin leaves and are too tall for rabbits, are doing great. They blossom every morning in a variety of colors.

Here’s one of the newest additions to the garden - cantelopes. They’re the size of kiwis right now.

After a long spell with no new female pumpkin flowers, behold the newest pumpkin:

It’s too soon to tell if it’ll continue growing or wither. It’s being protected from the heat of the pavers with Garrison’s Army recruitment letter.

Summary of the last month
We lost our organic certification when they sprayed overhead for the West Nile virus. The first year I’m serious about my garden this happens. The tomatoes are slowing down, as are the pumpkins, which are starting to turn orange. The edges of the soybean leaves are starting to brown, although most of the pods don’t look that puffy. The corn is starting to dry up at the tops. I’ll harvest that in the next few days.

The flowers are coming into full bloom and attracting a steady stream of butterflies and hummingbirds.

Watermelons are languishing.

One was sacrificed after a neighborhood cat started batting it around, biting into it and rolling back and forth on the leaves. The autopsy revealed rotted flesh and a dozen almost mature-looking seeds. I can see why Moon and Stars watermelons almost became extinct. They’re only about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. I can’t see them being a reasonable size in a month or two.

The culprit:

Here’s a much sweeter cat, Jack. 21 pounds of sugar, maybe more.

Here are some of the results of our pre-spraying harvest…

…and a recently comsumed yellow zucchini, which only turned yellow on the half exposed to the sun.

Crop Evaluation
Corn - a disappointment. What did I do wrong? The ears are small and sparse.
Watermelon - another disappointment. The leaves are small and pale green and the melons just aren’t growing as expected. Forget Moon and Stars. Let it go extinct.
Soybeans - It’s too hard to keep the bunnies away from it. I had to replant many times. I expected delicious fresh edamame, which is so hard to find. I might get a handful from this crop.
Pumpkins - not bad. a very good producer. If the newest one lives we’ll have ten pumpkins from one seed packet. The pumpkins are taking over a large, ever-expanding area.
Zucchini - Just o.k. It’s producing some but I’m underwhelmed.
Santa Claus melons and cantelopes - These make me happy. They were planted late but seem to be growing and producing nicely.
Peppers (from seed) - forget it. An absolute dud. Only two sprouted and they’re still only two inches tall at the end of the summer.
Basil (from seed)- Good. The first planting was a dismal failure, but the second planting was very successful.
Thyme - growing slowly but didn’t die.
Oregano (from transplants and from seed) - languished then died.
Rosemary (from transplants) - Growing slowly. I was expecting better from this one.
Mint (from seed) -never germinated.
Mint (transplant) - flourishing.
California poppies - Only one or two from the whole package are still alive. I don’t know if they died or were eaten by bunnies.
Leeks (from seed) - growing slowly. It’s hard not to trample over them they’re so small and fragile.
Strawberries - Fun but have to be fenced off to keep bunnies from devouring the leaves.
Black Beauty Eggplant (from transplants) - Popular with both rabbits and insects but surprisingly productive.
Snow Peas (from seed) - Grew easily and tasted good but were way too attractive to rabbits.
Red Summer Flower Mix - Wonderful. I’ll definitely intersperse flowers with my veggies again.
Cosmos - The vast majority were eaten by the rabbits. The three that survived are over three feet tall, but have yet to flower.
Morning Glory - Also popular with the bunnies, but they’re beautiful.

Tomatoes (all heirloom) get their own section:
Amish Paste - Horrible name, yummy productive tomato.
Red Grape - another yummy tomato.
Green Zebra - Garrison’s favorite. Yellow and green striped. When you get past their look they taste good.
Mortgage Lifter - Yummy. You definitely won’t pay off your mortgage by selling these. The plant will probably produce only about 6-10 of them.
Costoluto Genovese - Our least favorite of the bunch. Not an improvement over supermarket tomatoes.