Our 2nd 90 Degree Day of the Year

 I actually got up pretty early - for me! - and we made it down to the Farmer's Market by 9:30 AM. After a delicious breakfast  we set out to enjoy the sights and sounds of the Market. It had been 3 weeks since we had a chance to visit so I knew that there would be lots of new things to see.

First of all, the produce is just amazing right now. We still have lots of the mid-season favorites like beans and summer squash but are now seeing many late summer vegetables as well. The tables are loaded and the displays are beautiful.

One vendor at the market specializes in Peppers. In the Spring she sells plant starts and then in the summer she sells the fruit. She has a really diverse offering for our part of the world. I imagine she is growing the peppers in hoop houses to provide extra heat but that is just a guess. All of her peppers were labeled clearly and displayed in pretty wicker baskets.

One "new-comer" since I was last at the Market were figs.

I also was attracted to this basket of "Lemon" cucumbers.

We were amazed at all of the cantaloupe and melons that we saw for sale. While there have always been a few varieties offered in past years, this year the number of different kinds that we saw were just amazing. It was a melon lovers dream and I think really reflects the amazing diversity available in seed catalogues now. There are so many interesting heirlooms from Canada and Russia that can grow well in our climate and mature without a lot of heat and humidity.The Farmers now have access to them and we are benefiting from it.

A lovely display of nectarines.

I was most excited to see the corn truck there! Most of his load was bi-colored though he had a small amount of all yellow corn too. This cold, wet year has really affected his ability to get a mature crop to market. Everyone was thrilled to see him there. I picked up two ears for dinner tonight.

I loved this hand-made quilt that was a backdrop in one vendor's stall.

I ended up buying three different melons today - an unnamed cantaloupe, a "charentais" cantaloupe, and a "lambkin" melon. I had never heard of "lambkin" melons before but their yellow and green skin caught my eye. It was a AAS winner in 2007 and is know for both its excellent flavor and its long keeping ability. The seller recommended that we eat it last of the three varieties that we purchased because it would still be at peak flavor the longest. After a fun day at the market we stopped at Down to Earth and then headed home. The temperature hit 92 degrees today and we had a warm evening tonight to enjoy. I worked down in the garden for about an hour and a half. I got another row weeded and dis-budded all of the dahlias. I got back at the house just before dusk and we enjoyed dessert outside and watched the International Space Station fly over at 8:51. A very nice day!

Coneflowers

As August slowly marches toward September many of the perennial flowers are done blooming for the year. One exception to this is the cone-flowers.These reliable plants start to bloom in July and are in peak condition in August. The "traditional" cone-flower is purple but there are many new colors and forms available now.

This bright one is named "Tomato Soup". Unfortunately, the tags for the two yellow varieties have disappeared.

Green Tomatoes Galore

I finally harvested my first two ripe tomatoes this past weekend but the bulk of the harvest is yet to come. My plants are now loaded with green tomatoes in various sizes and shapes. Let's take a tour..

"Black Krim"  fruit.

A nice group of "Azoychka". This Russian variety produced my first ripened tomato this year.

"Person Sprayless OG" hiding deep in the plant.

"Black Prince" seems to be forming very uniformly round fruit.

I love the shape of these "Black Plum". As you can see they are growing in large clusters.

A perfect, young "Santa Clara Canner".

And a long truss of "Super Sweet 100". So now I just need another three weeks of sunny days and fairly warm nights and then the tomato glut should arrive! For obvious reasons, the kitchen garden is off limits to the cats. But, as I was taking the pictures for this post. Tom-cat snuck in and crept behind me. He settled down between the winter squash and the morning glory and tried his hardest to blend in. Good try buddy!



Azoychka Tomatoes - First Tomato Harvest of the Year

This weekend I was watering and generally fussing with my tomato plants. I was admiring all of the green tomatoes that I have on all seven plants and wondering when I would finally be able to harvest one. Imagine my surprise when I bent down and looked back into the "Azoychka" plant and saw some glowing orange in amongst all of the green. Staring at me were two ripe tomatoes just waiting to be discovered and picked.

"Azoychka" is a Russian heirloom reportedly found at the Moscow Bird Market. This indeterminate plant does well in both cool and warmer climates. It is stated to produce an abundance - 30 to 40 - orange/yellow tomatoes  per plant in 68-78 days. I chose this new-to-me variety this Spring since we were having record cold temperatures and rainfall. And it seems to have been a good choice. It was my first variety to set and not surprisingly, the first variety to to mature. These two fruit weighted 5.50 oz and 5.58 oz and were pretty blemish free for an heirloom. I am anxious to hear what my taste testers think about its flavor.

Sunday in the Garden

Not too much to report today. We had a mostly sunny day and I was able to spend a little over an hour this morning down in the big garden weeding. I now have half of the dahlia rows completely weeded and that part looks really good.

Now that I am starting to get some blooming flowers in the garden, nectar loving critters are beginning to frequent the area. I am now seeing hummingbirds working the zinnias and today I had this swallowtail butterfly flitting from bloom to bloom.  This is yet another reason that I choose to garden organically. I love having all of the wildlife in and around my garden and would hate to cause them any harm.

Zinnia Blooms

I spent most of my free time today down in the big garden continuing my weeding project. I ended up getting five dahlia rows done so I feel good about that. I am starting to get more and more color in the garden every day it seems. I now have the first blooms open on two varieties of Zinnias that I started from seed this Spring. First off, the "Zahara Double Cherry" are starting to bloom. They are smaller plants, about 8" tall. They are branching like crazy though and are going to be covered in blooms in a few weeks. I am surprised by their color however. I assumed with Cherry in the name that they would be bright red. In fact they all seem to be what I would describe as hot pink. Oh well, they are very pretty none the less.

I also have the first bloom open on a "Blue Point " Zinnia today. It's a lovely, happy shade of bright yellow. After I finished up for the night I came across this little fellow sunning in the road. I haven't run across many snakes this Summer, perhaps due to our cooler weather. He wasn't very happy having his picture taken so I finished quickly and headed home.



Full Sturgeon Moon

Tonight after work and dinner I went down to the big garden for a relaxing evening of weeding. I got quite a bit done. I only have 3 rows of bush beans left and then all of the rows will be weeded. Then it will be onto the dahlias! But it is already looking so much better. That week of heavy rain that we had in July germinated every weed seed in the garden I think. But if I can get it all weeded now, perhaps it won't be so bad this Fall when more regular rain starts up again. I did have some new dahlia blooms to admire during my weeding breaks. Pictured above, "Stoneleigh Joyce" a red Pom.

And I have my first bloom of "Pooh"  a bi-colored collarette of red and yellow.

New for me this year is "Frank Kafka" a miniature ball in lavender.

After weeding I went back up to the house and enjoyed dessert on the back patio as the sun when down. We soon noticed that moon rising above the shop roof in between some Fir trees. Tonight is August's Full moon. The Native American tribes from the Eastern US and the Northern Great Lakes Region are credited with naming the Full moon in each month. The most common name for the August Moon is the Sturgeon Moon but it has also been called the Full Red Moon, The Green Corn Moon, and the Grain Moon.

"Mixed Color" Morning Glory

My "Mixed Colors" morning glory plants are finally living up to their name. For The last month or so almost all of the blooms have been white with a soft purple star. Then I started getting some pink blooms and now I am finally seeing a few purple blooms everyday as well. It is a very pretty mix but hasn't been very evenly distributed between the three colors. I can't complain about its vigor however. It has already completely covered the tower I gave it as support and is now slowly climbing up the deer fence. A few stray vines keep attacking my poor pepper plants!

The Big Garden Inventory 2011

Last week we took a tour and inventory of the kitchen garden next to the house. This week it's time to go down to the Big Garden and see what's growing! This garden is planted primarily with flowers but a few vegetables did find their way in. Here's a complete list of what's growing there this year:

Seed

• "Hutterite Soup" Bush Bean - Seed Savers Exchange
• "Queen Sophia" Marigold - Johnny's Select Seed
• "Durango" Marigold - Johnny's Select Seed
• "Tangerine Gem" Marigold - Johnny's Select Seed
• "Red Gem" Marigold - Johnny's Select Seed
• "Lemon Gem" Marigold - Johnny's Select Seed
• "Persian Carpet" Zinnia - Renee's Seed
• "Zahara Double Cherry" - Zinnia -Johnny's Select Seed
• "Blue Point Bouquet" - Zinnia - Renee's Seed
• "Bling Bling" - Zinnia - Renee's Seed
• "Speckled Hound" - Winter Squash- The Cook's Garden
• 199 Misc. Dahlias - various sources

Plants

• "Profusion" Mixed Colors - Zinnia - Peoria Gardens
• "Apricot Profusion" - Zinnia - Peoria Gardens
• "Lady Bird Cream Purple Spot" - Nasturtium - Log House Plants
• "Sunrise Serenade" - Morning Glory - Log House Plants
• "Grandpa Ott" - Morning Glory - Log House Plants
• "Split Personality" - Morning Glory - Log House Plants

The "Hutterite Soup" bush beans are now about 8" tall. They are doing well but I really don't think that there will be enough time for them to grow beans to maturity before the rains come this Fall. I just got them planted too late this year. It's already a week into August and they haven't even bloomed yet.

I ended up with more rows for flowers this year then I had flowers started to plant in the rows. So it was off to the nursery! I came home with a couple of 6-packs of "Apricot Profusion" Zinnias. I have grown many of the Profusion series from seed, but hadn't ever heard of the apricot color before. I took a chance and I am so glad that I did. It is a wonderful shade of orange that just glows on overcast days. I can't wait for the plants to really branch out and be covered in this terrific color.

One of the many "new-to-me" plants that I started from seed this year are the Gem series of Marigolds. These dainty plants are getting covered in the smallest, single blooms of reds, oranges, and yellows. I think these plants would be better displayed planted in a pot closer to eye level then they are here in the ground. I do think they are awfully sweet though and it will be interesting to see how tall they get.

The "Zahara Double Cherry" Zinnias are another new one for me. I read about this variety in an issue of Organic Gardening last year and decided that I wanted to give it a try this year. It shouldn't be too much longer before the first blooms open.

My two rows of "Persian Carpet" Zinnias are finally starting to take off. These poor guys didn't get planted until quite late so they have some catching up to do. They will reach a height of only around 12" so they are a bit quicker to bloom than some of the other taller varieties.

A perfect bud on a "Bling Bling" Zinnia. This is another new variety for me. The colors on the package are super bright as the name implies. It should make for a dazzling row.

I think that this "Blue Point Bouquet " Zinnia will be the first zinnia that I started from seed to open. I haven't grown this variety for two years and I am excited to have it in my garden once again. It offers a great color assortment on nicely sized, well branching plants.

The dahlias have just started to open. Here is a bloom of a new-to-me Pom "Valda".

Another Pom, this time the pink beauty "Lismoore Peggy". This particular bloom is perfectly round, just as a pom should be. It would be a great candidate to take to a dahlia show.

One of my favorite collerettes "David Lam". It is such a beautiful shade of dark red.

A partially opened bloom of "CG Nordic".

And this bloom is all about potential! An immature bud of "Ryecroft Dave's Choice", an excellent show flower. Depending on the weather this bloom should be open in about a week I would guess.

A view looking across all of the dahlias down toward the flower rows at the far end.

Yes, there are a few vegetables in this garden! Here are two of my four "Speckled Hound" Winter Squash. Considering what a shady, and slightly damp place that I have planted them in, they are doing remarkably well.

Here are two fruit on one of the plants. The yellow fruit on the left did not get pollinated and is in the process of falling off. The one on the right did get pollinated, I think, and should begin to rapidly expand in size. Fingers crossed!

Here is my trellis planted with many varieties of Morning Glories. Because this picture was taken in the evening most of them have closed up for the day. I have had a big problem this year that when the varieties finally bloom they are not the variety printed on the plant tag. Oh well, I love them all so it's just been a bit of a surprise to see what all I have.

Here is a bloom that has started to close of "Sunrise Serenade".

I have had a lot of these open this week. Again, it is not the variety on the tag but I think it is "Flying Saucer".

And I can't forget Dorothy's rose. It is still throwing off a beautiful bloom here and there. I don't know its true name but it is a reliable performer year after year.