19th (or possibly 20th or 21st) zucchini harvested

From the central bed, southmost of the late starts.

Made Shepherd's Pie

I love that this uses all these things from the garden:

- potatoes

- celery

- carrots

- tomatoes

- chard

And, sooooo delicious.

Original pot of buckwheat (sowed July 11th) has seeds

The seeds are dark brown but don't seem quite ready yet,but soon.

That's about 50 days from sowing.  Plus a few more days since the seeds aren't quite ready yet.

Zero sparrows/chickadees; only occasional goldfinches

So bizarre, went from tons of sparrows eating 2 Tbsp of millet a day, to zero.  Not hearing them singing, not seeing them in the yard, nothing at all.  Neither the chickadees.  Did they start to migrate?  Something else?  Hmmm.

I do still occasionally see goldfinches, both at the feeder and at the one remaining sunflower plant.

Also, this year I never saw the white throated or white crowned sparrows of last year.

Zucchini plants not looking very good

I'm especially puzzled why three of the four central late season zucchinis have been flops.  Didn't produce anything, and now are flopping over / looking wilty, maybe borers.  But sheesh.

I still hold out hopes for the southmost central late season plant -- it still looks good, harvested one off it today and another on it will be ready in a few days.  But then its next pre-flowering starts are looking white/pale, so, perhaps this will be it...

One of the original zukes in the north bed flowered yesterday and I pollinated it; if it takes, it will be that plant's second zuke...!  Sigh!

Powdery mildew is certainly taking over this must be a factor for sure.

18th zucchini harvested

From the only one of the four late-season plants in the central bed.  This is the second or third zuke from that one plant.

(The hydro meter late-season zucchini also produced several zucchinis.)

Sowed buckwheat in west bed and north bed

From the seeds started in paper towels a couple of days ago.

Just scattered them randomly, didn't "plant" them as such.

Covered lightly with soil, then with row cover directly on the ground to try to keep out whoever ate all those seeds I had sowed a month or so ago.

Sowed lettuce directly from this year's seeds!

The lettuce left to go to seed by the air conditioner has tons of seeds at the moment, so I sowed a bunch of them in the same spot, by the air conditioner.  Right off the plant and back into the ground.

Sowed pre-germinated kale seeds

Wow, many of the kale seeds placed into PTs yesterday germinated already!

The weird thing is that I swear I started Siberian and Premier Forge, but I didn't notice any of those paper strips the Siberian is in.  But some of the "PT" was all clumpy... so maybe that was them?  Hmmm.

Sowed in vermiculite pockets. Placed row cover over top until they pop up.

17th zucchini harvested (or 18th -- I might have missed logging one a few days ago)

^^^

More buckwheat started in PTs

^^^

Kale started in PT for fall crop

Been a crazy heat/humidity wave the last 2-3 weeks.  But it should be over in a day or two.  And have all this room now from having removed the ground cherries etc. etc. so, why not try some kale.

Started both the Premier Forge and Siberian varieties.

SVB frass -- BTK'd a zucchini

Clearly frass in two spots of the stem of one of the older zucchinis in the central bed.

Decided to try to save it.  Applied BTK in both holes.

16th zucchini harvested; new ones are greenish/yellowish

From the hydro meter plant.

Removed all ground cherries :-((((((((((( (due to rat)

Oh so sad.  Oh my.  There would have been hundreds, even likely thousands of ground cherries to harvest.  But the plants are simply feeding the rat(s) so I just can't keep them.

So now, there is nothing in the yard that interests the rats, save maybe a few tomatoes if they get to them before I do.

Compost bin gone.

Kitchen step blocked off.

Bird feeders anti-drop tray.

So with any luck, the rats will soon move along to some other more hospitable place.

Goldfinches are back today, but still no sparrows

No idea why the goldfinches came back today, as it's still very hot and humid.

Removed all but one sunflower plant

A sad task.... they were still blooming and stuff.  But I really need to minimize all rat food sources.

Kept the one in the NW corner as I've never seen rats up there and it's so cheerful.

15th zucchini harvested

From the northwest of the older plants in the central bed.

Farewell, compost bin

"Garden Gourmet".  Gave it away, it left today.

No more "odours"s for the neighbourhood.  And no more shelter for rats.

Some day when I get my country place, I will for sure have another compost bin.  Or two.  Or three.

Officially no winter squash harvest this year

That one cushaw that had taken and was a nice size is all rotting now at the neck.  Gross.  Officially kaput.

So I removed the winter squash vines to get things cleaned up.

Will take a break from winter squash for a few years!  Which is just as well, because I still have two butternut squashes from last year sitting on the kitchen table...

Few birds the last few days? Maybe due to high heat/humidity? (Were TONS of birds before that)

I had been seeing SO many birds at in recent days.  Where did they all go?

SVB eggs found on ronde

I have not been checking for SVB eggs whatsoever, but happened to see several while looking at the air conditioner ronde today.  Removed the ones I saw but wasn't actively searching the out so quite likely more eggs on it.

Confirms what I thought, that the SVB moths are still egg laying well into August.

Forget-me-not seeds harvested from a great plant

This particular plant grew so nice and big and strong, with lots of flowers.  I harvested some seeds from it in past weeks but the branches weren't fully brown/dry by that point.  They are now so I harvested a ton of seeds.

The one and only cushaw that took is rotting on the vine :-(((

Sigh....  About a week ago, noticed some browning in the neck area...  Now noticing it's getting all sunken in in the neck area and there are more of those brown spots.  Will see what happens...  Sigh!!

13th and 14th zucchini/ronde harvested

The ronde was yesterday from the air conditioner plant; the zucchini was today from the southmost of the newest transplants in the central bed.

Potato taste test: Banana are definitely the best, so smooth and creamy and nice-flavoured

Steamed the three kinds of potatoes from this year:  cherry, bintje, and banana, and had them with margarine, salt, and pepper.

Banana are far and away the best:  A delicious smooth, creamy texture, and scrumptious soft flavour.  Luxurious!

Bintje was second:  Flavour is ok, but a sort of pasty texture.

Cherry was least good:  Earthy tasting.

PT buckwheat sprouting like crazy! Transplanted into former-potato-pots

Wow, started in paper towels yesterday and today tons have sprouted.  Scattered them onto the pots freed up from the potato harvest.  Then sprinkled soil, then placed floating row cover over top, weighted down with rocks.  

Potatoes all harvested

The plants got all diseased looking in recent weeks so I harvested today.  These are the weigh-ins.  Cumulative, for the 5 pots, almost 8 lbs of potatoes.  It didn't seem like a lot as I pulled them out, but looking at them in the fridge, it's some good eating.

- cherry red (3 seed potatoes) = 3 lbs

- bintje pot #1 (3 seed potatoes) = 1.5 lbs

- bintje pot #2  (3 seed potatoes) = 1.5 lbs

- bananas pot #2 -- the unique taller pot (4 seed potatoes) = 1.2 lbs

- bananas pot #1 (4 seed potatoes) = 0.5 lbs

Tomato plants dying, limited harvest, no new flowers

The cherry tomato looks the worst, with many yellow and/or crispy leaves, but the other tomato plants though look better also haven't produced new flowers/fruit in several weeks.

So it will be a relatively limited tomato harvest this year, but still actually pretty good, had many sandwiches and orzo salads, and have made two batches of bolognese so far, with likely at least two more batches to come using the rest of the tomatoes once they're ready.

Picking them at breaker stage has been working great, especially with the full size tomatoes; the cherry tomatoes are tending to be a bit weird texture like when they're harvested totally green.

Buckwheat sown a few days ago mostly didn't take -- eaten by birds and/or rat -- re-started in paper towel

A few popped up but hardly any.  (And no one is bothered them once they're up.)  So today I started more in paper towel. Once germinated, I'll place them out, and will cover them with row cover until they pop up.

Removed cucumbers (diseased) and several more zucchinis (unproductive / clutter re: rat)

The cucumbers had a great run, huge harvest so I can't complain that the vines have been dying in the past few weeks, looks like some kind of disease (maybe what they had last year?  haven't compared photos).  So I removed them completely today, along with a final harvest of cucumbers.

Removed all 3 of the remaining zucchini plants in the north bed.  None of them had ever produced anything nor looked like they would do anything, plus today I noticed a tunnel where a rat dug near the compost bin, so I did a big clean-up / decluttering of that area.  Maybe SVB sign in one, but not the others though  I didn't look all that closely.

Tray suspended under sunflower seed feeder working on goldfinches' sloppy eating

The goldfinches are so darn messy.  Even though the sunflower seeds are shelled, they seem to be interested in only one bite from each and they toss their rejected portions onto the ground.  So, I now have a clear plastic pot tray thing (nice and big, a few dollars at Ritchie's) hanging under the sunflower seed feeder.  So far so good, it really seems to be catching pretty much everything, and the sparrows come along and happily eat the stuff that falls onto the tray.

Sightings of the rat(s) are much fewer now that the sunflower heads from the mammoths are gone.  The presence of the ground cherries is I'm hoping the only thing keeping them here, plus the shelter they've taken under the kitchen step and in the compost bin.

Finally enough ground cherries for a pie (slow due to rat) -- aphid damage minimal

The aphid thing is gross, but not horrible, minimal impact to the harvest.

The larger impact is the rat who, out of all the things in the garden, seems interested only in ground cherries and sunflower seeds (rather from bird feeder or from sunflower plants themselves).  Oh and s/he also took a bite here and there from a couple of tomatoes that I didn't pick soon enough.

11th and 12th zucchinis harvested

Both from one of the original zucchinis in the central bed.

Powdery mildew marches on

Whoa, all of a sudden (or so it seems) there's powdery mildew all over the upper leaves of the cushaw, and to a less extent some other cushaw leaves too.

And some of the central zucchini leaves, so I removed their tulle permanently for more air flow.

Pruned the worst leaves and some other leaves too for air flow.

First loss to SVB

The ronde in the central bed that never produced anything.  Noticed today there was really nothing coming in at all, so inspected more closely, and sure enough the stem was all eaten through.  Removed.

9th and 10th zucchini/ronde harvested -- both from the newest transplants

^^^

Removed all mammoth sunflower heads :-( (to deter rats)

Alas, so sad.  The mammoth sunflower heads just can't stay -- the rats are a big fan even long before the seeds are anywhere near ripe.  So, removed all the remaining ones today.  

So far I've kept the non-mammoth sunflower heads, will see if the rats make their way onto those ones too or if their stems are too fragile or whatnot.

The goldfinches have the sunflowers at the feeder, plus the remaining non-mammoth heads (for now at least).

So many birds! My birdfeeder dream come true

Oh wow this is so much fun!  So many birds coming to the feeder these days.  They obviously aren't bothered by its new spot.

Seeing these -- in various combinations too which is even more fun:

- song sparrows (eating more sunflowers now, bulking up for winter?)

- chipping sparrows with young (eating mostly millet)

- goldfinches (sunflowers of course)

- chickadees (noticed them starting today -- hadn't seen them since several months, maybe they didn't like it against the wall) (sunflower seeds)

- house sparrows (occasionally, and only one at a time)

Chickadees!

Fun, spotting a chickadee a few times today!  Haven't seen them in a few months, maybe they didn't like the birdfeeder being against the wall and are a fan of its current location.

DO try horsetail fungicide again next year -- this year I got too busy to use it properly

With powdery mildew making its presence gradually but persistently known the last few days, I just don't feel like fighting it much.  Due to the dog broken leg situation etc. I haven't been on it and I really should have been spraying it in recent weeks.  Also hesitation to use it due to risk of "aroma" and bothering neighbours, combined with the rat situation -- I don't want to push my luck.

So, next year yes definitely try horsetail fungicide again, as this year was not a test of it.

Sowed buckwheat round #2 in multiple vacated spots

- in the formerly basil bed (north bed along south edge)

- in the formerly carrot bed (central bed, southwest corner)

- in the formerly beet bed (south of hydro meter)

- north of the air conditoner where a zucchini was formerly

Powdery mildew on underside of air conditioner ronde leaves

Sigh... The march of the powdery mildew.  Didn't do anything about it.  Don't have the energy to deal with it right now what with the lame dog situation.

This ronde is freestyle:  no tulle, no vertical, so relatively decent amount of air circulation.

Powdery mildew all over a/c zucchini vertical and under tulle -- so I removed whole plant

My vertical method is quite terrible -- the leaves get all squished up in there, no air flow at all.  Then factor in the tulle too.  Hadn't noticed until today all the PM in this plant, but then, have been pretty preoccupied the last week with a dog with a broken leg and then another dog who turned up three-legged lame three days later.

Didn't feel like trimming the plant -- it has produced one single zucchini all year and might have produced another at some point but nah, decided to just toss the whole thing.

A second cushaw flowered, but I didn't notice until it closed... did the bees take care of it?

Time will tell...

Carrots ALL harvested -- great harvest! Bolero next year for sure!

Harvested ALL the remaining carrots today.  Previously I had harvested only a handful.  So, there were lots, and they almost all were very decent sizes. Best carrot harvest in several years for sure -- by far!  My guess is because of the minimally enhanced soil in this bed (central bed southwest corner), plus trying Bolero.

Next year I will forego Nantes and Touchon, and grow only Bolero, as they seem to have done the best.  (Hard to say 100% sure the difference because I used Bolero seeds to fill gaps in the Nantes/Touchon.)

Oh, and I came across an article (can't find it now) saying Bolero are very good for longer term storage, bonus.

Reason for harvesting them all in one go is because I moved the birdfeeder to that area today.

Beets ALL harvested -- not the best harvest

Due to finding a tunnel at the step from our furry visitor, harvested all the remaining beets.  Tossed the leaves because I just won't have time to do anything with them given the dog broken leg situation.  The beets themselves were definitely on the small side.  Not the best beet harvest, but then, I'm not the best beet fan either, so it's not really a bad thing.

Celery rotting too, maybe same as what kale had?

So I removed / cut down all the celeries in the central bed.  Some of them looked ok so far, but I've moved the birdfeeder there so I won't be eating anything there anyway.

The two remaining celery in the pot next to my chair I didn't have a close look at, but harvested some today and didn't notice anything.

Bird feeder moved, and harvested/trimmed a bunch of things, due to rat

Moved feeder from west wall to central bed.  Removed climbable plants/sticks near it. Cleaned up etc. too.  

Cushaw looking amazing!!!! Supported it with nylon

The cushaw that opened July 28th most definitely took!  (Noticed it a while ago but didn't blog it until today.)  It's a decent size already!  Used an old nylon to support it.

Removed tulle from the last tulled north bed zucchini

To give the plant a good pruning and increase air flow as much as possible, now that signs of powdery mildew have appeared in that north bed.

Removed all leaves from volunteer sunflower in central bed -- to remove shade from central zukes

The head drooped a long time ago and critters (ahem) are eating a bunch of the seeds now even though they're still white.  Should have pruned the leaves a long time ago to give those original central bed zucchinis the best chance.

Wonder what will happen to its sunflower head now that all the leaves are gone.

Removed the north bed basils due to downy mildew

I do think there was home for some of them as new growth was appearing, but, overall the bed looked just gross and I didn't want to look at it anymore.  Left one plant just because.  Will plant buckwheat there soon.

Powdery mildew starting to appear in north bed wimpy zucchinis

Pruned the zukes/rondes today and noticed first signs of PM but only on the north bed.

Haven't been applying the horsetail fungicide much.  Should.

6th, 7th, and 8th zucchini/ronde harvested

^^^

Buckwheat in container started flowering a few days ago (under-roof buckwheat didn't do well due to rain)

^^^

1st zucchini harvested from the newest transplants = 48 days (7 weeks) from sowing to first harvest

From the plant north of the hydro meter.

Its seed was sowed June 19th, so that's 43 days from sowing to flowering, and a total of 48 days (7 weeks) from sowing to first harvest.  In line with various webpages, ~45-55 days.

Many goldfinches visiting; also song sparrows and chipping sparrows, with the occasional house sparrow

The goldfinches are starting to really get into the ripening sunflower heads, which is great especially since I'm not harvesting any myself.

Baby chipping sparrow! (soooo cute)

I decided I really like chipping sparrows.  They're just so darn small and adorable.  Baby was pretty cute too.

Removed tulle from southmost central zucchini

Noticed a big gap where the tulle was floating rather than being anchored.  Given that, plus the plant was getting squished under the tulle, I removed it and will take my chances with the borer.  The plant doesn't have anything promising yet.

Female zucchini flowered on one of newest plants

The plant north of the hydro meter, under tulle.  Pollinated it with a couple of males.  

Its seed was sowed June 19th, so that's 43 days from sowing to flowering.