August 26 And What's Happening In My NE OK Garden

5 years ago

Had my morning garden tour and there are a few things to share.

Let's get the bad out of the way first. What's this on this black-eye, purple-hull southern pea leaf? Eggs, or fungus? It's on the back, too, same configuration. Leaf was touching the ground.

All this rain and cooler nights have jump-started my cheese peppers.

This is just a representative. I knew we had hot weather coming, and our Oklahoma sun wilts the plants and then blisters any peppers that are exposed. So I picked off any that were worth using. I had enough to share with three of my neighbors. I'm the only gardener in our little neighborhood this year, I think. They are always tickled to get stuff from my garden and I'm always happy to do it. They come around to help us any time we ask (and we try not to ask often), so it's my small way of reciprocating. The hot weather will also stall them out and so once again I will just try to keep the plants alive till the weather is cooler and I hope they go nuts again. Cheese peppers are the only kind of sweet pepper I grow, they're THAT good, and THAT prolific.

These are Amaranth, the seed has developed and so I lopped them off yesterday.

Hopi Red Dye

Golden Giant

These are Luffa gourd, planted at the base of two stockwire hoops:

The gourds are edible when young. They taste like squash and are pretty in soups and stir-fry when sliced. My mother used to grow these and it took me years to find the seed, as I thought they were squash.

Here are some of my "fall beans".

These are the beans that have held over from spring. They haven't yet made a thing. A lot of the vines died. I cut some of them back to take the energy load off the plant.

I guess this can be my test as these are very few and far between, whereas my beans planted at the stockwire hoops are 3" apart.

Some of my hybrid tomato plants are still alive, and I'm letting them live. I wasn't impressed with any of the tomatoes so I quit watering them. "If they die, they die", was my attitude.

These are the heirloom tomato plants I started in mid-July, inside, under lights, and then hardened them off on the shaded patio.

This is "the jungle"

That's Crunchy Muncher cukes on a make-shift, stand-alone, three-sided trellis, being viewed from the back. Some cheese peppers are growing in the space directly behind the cuke vines, about center left in the picture. Beck's Big Buckhorn okra to the right. I'm not impressed with those, will go back to growing my Cowhorn okra next year. I like them the best.

Lots of empty places in the garden. Also lots of grasses and field weeds. But all in all, more out of the garden this year than I would've ever expected. I learned a few more things, will do a few things different yet another year. The beat goes on.

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Comments (2)

jacoblockcuff (z5b/6a CNTRL Missouri
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I must have missed this post before. Your garden looks beautiful, better than mine at the moment LOL. In the spring, I always jump into the year excited and ready to get growing. Then this time of year comes around and I get incredibly busy with other things (other hobbies of mine and SCHOOL) and just kind of let the garden do it's thing. It's overgrown with weeds, but I don't care at the moment. I don't do a ton for fall due to the shade I receive in fall from a southern tree line anyways. I grow as much as I can, but just focus on prepping everything for next year.

I am, excited for my cabbages, carrots, brussel sprouts, and greens to start coming in. And I've also got the first successful beetroot stand I've ever achieved. Of course, it's been such a mild August! I'm ready for autumn honestly. Tomatoes are producing well, but no more fertilizer for them. Our average first frost varies, some sources say 50% chance of Oct. 7, others as late as Oct. 15. Seems to be early to mid Oct. most years at our house. Not sure if any fresh setting fruit on my plants will ripen.
User thanked jacoblockcuff (z5b/6a CNTRL Missouri
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Original Author
5 years ago
I am same, hungry to get my hands in the dirt before spring is even here.

You are wise to make school a top priority. Decisions you make now will color the rest of your entire life, so choose carefully and don't hesitate to ask for advice from your parents. Parents just seem to ache to give advice but usually no one's interested in listening. Such a loss.

My beets were a failure again this year. I think I harvested two or three that were big enough to eat. Not sure exactly what it is I'm doing wrong.

But I'm getting tired of the garden now. I'm still letting several cucumbers grow large and turn yellow on the Crunchy Muncher vine and today I just picked them all, and cut into them, and no viable seed in any of them. So I made pickle relish with the cucumbers and some onion and peppers out of the freezer from last year's harvest. The relish turned out a little runny even though I followed the recipe carefully. Maybe it will thicken up as it mellows in the jar. Tastes good, though, and I was needing pickle relish for the pantry as my relish from 2016 is oxidizing its metal canning flat and all it's good for now is the compost, 3 quart jars is what is left. I didn't make as much this year, and won't ever make that mistake again. I have this oxidation happening in other things that contain vinegar and I wonder why the manufacturers of canning jar lids don't make their lids a little more resistant to that. Metal lids on purchased pickles looks ever so much more durable than canning flats do, have you ever noticed that? That's just NOT right.

I have tiny beans on the bean plants. The wind has been trying to blow my trellis over in a couple spots and has pulled some of the beans up by the roots. Grrrr. Also the loofah is taking over and spreading out into the beans. Not good. I tore some of it out this morning and may do some more work on that tomorrow. But it's too late to do anything about the uprooted bean plants. *Sigh*.

Saw my little resident toad this morning. He's all warty and mud-colored. Cute, in an ugly sort of way. I'm sure he's finding lots of insects to eat.
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