Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Death Watch

I'm on a death watch in the garden. Several weeks of over 100* with the heat index coupled with sporadic rains and me gone to fair for a week and a half. This all adds up to tragedy.


I picked a half bucket of green beans as I pulled the dying plants up. As I sort them I may get a meal for us.


Cucumbers were in this piece of row now in pile. I came back to all 4 plants yellowed out.
Sweet potatoes to the right are growing so hopefully we'll have a harvest in the fall.


Watermelon plants are dying, zucchini is gone, summer squash as well. I think cantaloupes are going shortly.


Tomatoes have so much blossom end rot  I'm severely perturbed. Sounds better than pissed right? 
I did pick a bucket and half of possibilities . After sorting and cutting out bad spots I'll see where how it goes . There are many more on the plants if weather normalizes. Please God I love homemade tomato sauce.

I did pick green peppers and jalopenos. No one like them but me so small harvest is fine. Dill plants are all ripe and falling apart. I've never harvested it before but hope too before it dies out or sheds completely on the ground. I've always planted them as deterrent for tomato hornworms. This year I haven't seen one yet knock on my hard head. 
Weeds surround the outside of garden waist high so I wonder if air circulation is a problem? 
Otherwise I'm swapped cleaning up camper and house from fair. Laundry out the "was-sue" if that's the word. 
LN is a camp counselor again this week so she helps at night but by then I'm beat.
Yard was a mess, flower gardens weed riddin ! Seriously it was only 10 days.
Ugghhh ....
S's oldest son and family driving in from Texas tonight or tomorrow so I'm rushing to get ready. 
Timing is everything or nothing....
Come on fall!!!!




5 comments:

  1. Golldang it! Another situation where if we all lived in close proximity I'd drop everything and rush over to help you (at least) get ready for your Texas company. I've felt the helpless feeling you're feeling right now. No matter how hard or fast you work, you know there's no way you can get it all done.

    What a bummer you had such terribly high temps at home the time you were gone at the fair. I would have watered for you every night . . . but the plane fare back and forth would have killed me. ;o]

    I know you'll get a handle on it, but just not as fast as you want. Hoping you can get some veggies at a nearby Farmer's Market or some such to make up for your dried up crops. Sending hugs.

    P.S. You can know that after reading this post of yours, many of us probably don't feel nearly as under-the-gun with our own garden problems and long lists for the day!

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    1. I would help you too MamaPea. I managed to fill 2 crockpots with tomato puree to cook down. I'm trying new method instead of stove top.
      I know I'll catch up with everything (I hope) but it tales a bit ;]
      My amish neighbor passes on veggies when she's had her fill. We give her trash corn to can or freeze as well. Afterr sweet corn runs out local grower has green beans I ll get and we share those also.

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  2. Always hard to watch the elements destroy hard work.
    Hope you can salvage enough tomatoes for sauce.
    I did not know that about dill and hornworms. That's a good thing to know--we are plagued by them every year. It doesn't help that I have so much trouble seeing them that they destroy most of my Brandywines before I see what's going on.

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    1. Sue I read that years ago and it worked well. This year no issue there thankfully. I filled 2 crockpots to cook down. It's a start and hopefully more will survive the brutal conditions. At this point I'll take what I can get.

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  3. I agree, "Come on fall!" After our gardening drowning and shriveling up to nothing, I'm ready to hunker in for the season. And go camping....

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