Summer’s coming to an end but life in the garden continues…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Summer’s coming to a close. The daylight is fleeting and the cool autumn air is whistling through the trees and soon their leaves will put on a spectacular color show and I’ll have to rake them into big piles and haul them to the curb. The garden plants are hanging on and giving all their energy to the fruits clinging onto their stems.

We picked some pumpkins yesterday and celery, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage and one crazy zucchini. The root vegetables can still sit in the ground for another couple of months. On a cool fall Saturday afternoon, I’ll head out back and dig up a wheelbarrow filled with onions and carrots and celery. So, long as the Buckeyes are playing an evening game and as long as I have a hot cup of apple cider to sip on.

Jake will help. By help I mean pee on anything that’s still vertical. As the world’s only farm Chihuahua, he has to mark his territory right? Mindy is always a big help harvesting too. She doesn’t like the planting but is a patient harvester. Carefully looking underneath each vine and every leaf. She can have some hot apple cider too.

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Sunday Pictures… Lots and lots of pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Canning Time’s a Coming

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The garden is bursting with life and the tomatoes are finally staring to ripen. Which means, it’s time to can. My Dad found me a pressure canner at a garage sale yesterday for $8. What a deal. New they run close to $90. I’ve been canning the “old fashioned” way by putting cans in a huge pot of boiling water that takes forever but with the new canner, it takes just minutes and only an inch of water and it doesn’t turn the kitchen into a sauna in August. Thanks Dad!

Stay tuned, I’ll post a “How To Can” article with step-by-step instructions later this week. If you have any questions, send them to me now.

 

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I hate Deer, Rabbits and Humidity….. and lot’s of new veggie pics!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave got the fence patched up where the deer were braking in to feast on the watermelons, pumpkins and corn. An ear popped up today as well and I grabbed a picture of a dragonfly on the corn. Did you know that a dragonfly’s life span is just 24 hours? I also snapped a couple shots of the rabbit I must take down in order to save my crop. god, I hate rabbits and deer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green Pepper, Thai Hot Pepper, Zucchini and tomatoes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found a ton of pumpkins popping up. I was worried that they wouldn’t be pollinated but after my last post I noticed lots of bees, dragonflies, ants and other insects doing the pollination job. Thanks for the help Mother Nature.

I’m trying a new format with this post. Wordepress has made it a pain in the ass to post pics and text and make it look decent. So, please take a moment to click on the thumbnail pic to see it.

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A hot, hot harvest day and a new enemy.

 

   

Hot, hot day on the farm. It was 95 degrees today and tomorrow it’s gonna be 97 but with a heat index that makes it feel like 110°. That makes it no fun to be in the garden. Add about 80% Humidity to that temp and that equals a very difficult harvest. Luckily Mindy spent a half hour collecting the veggies.

The small grape or (cherry) tomatoes are getting ripe but the other types are still pretty green.

The peppers are starting to really pop! You can see a green pepper and a Thai hot pepper in the above picture along with spinach, lettuce, dill, basil, cucumbers, and grape/cherry tomatoes.

There’s a couple of jack rabbits that are just destroying the garden. They’re taking down broccoli, cucumbers, pumpkins and now I gotta take them out. I think I’ll set some traps this week and relocate the little guys to somewhere else. Far, far away from here.

There’s also a video of Jake chasing one rabbit off here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFnq-U6ppHA

Here’s a couple stills of the varmint.

   

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The veggies are getting bigger each day!

Cherry Tomatoes are turning red the Beefsteaks have a bit longer to ripen.

Supersonic and Romas are popping too

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Basil and Apples growing on the tree

   
Cabbage is balling up and dill is looking tasty.

Sweet Corn is growing really fast.

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An Unwanted Guest and Loads of pics

   

I caught this doe in the rear field this morning. I have got to get that fence repaired in the beck. Usually deer are active at dusk and dawn but this young lady was out and about around 9:30am. Not a good sign. I also caught a jack rabbit in the front garden yesterday. I won’t use chemicals to keep them out. I use hair clippings (they hate the smell of humans) I get from the local salon and I need to build a scarecrow.

   
Broccoli                                                   Cabbage

        

Corn – Planted at about 10 days apart. You can see the difference between the middle and right pic. The right pic was rototilled once again before planting so the grass is really staying out of the way as compared to the middle pic. The sweet corn looks lush green and very healthy!

   
Cucumbers                                                 Pumpkins

   
Leaf Lettuce                                                Spinach

   
Roma Tomatoes                                        Supersonic Tomatoes

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A small toad

I cut the back field today. It took so long it was so tall.

  

The finished field. I’m thinking about tilling it and planting corn or maybe pumpkins.

toad

After cutting the grass, I found this guy in the field. So, I took him next door to the pond for a nice swim.

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