Rich Creason
We have had some rain in the past few days.
I suppose that’s good news because it helps the plants without me having to water them.
It’s bad news because the garden is extremely muddy when we have to walk in it.
I can walk around the entire garden and look into it to try to see what is going on there without getting my shoes in the mud, but when something has to be picked, it’s a different story.
It looks like I won’t have to worry about picking anything on the south end of the garden. That’s where the pumpkins and gourds were supposed to be growing. Unfortunately, they must have missed that memo. I can see two pumpkins about the size of softballs hiding in the tall grass, but they both looked shriveled.
This is what has happened every year for the past few seasons. They get about that size, then die. No idea what is causing it.
The gourds are usually not a problem. They are interspersed with the pumpkins and corn and just do their thing until harvest time. But when I look into the tall grass and weeds, I don’t see any gourds this year. When October arrives, I will do a closer observation to see if anything is hiding there.
On the other end of the garden is where I planted the six hills of zucchini. Again, I think I wasted my time planting zucchini. So far, I have picked three medium size off of the six plants. It looks like I will be buying them at the farmer’s market in Pendleton again this year.
I planted about six tomato plants at the north end. I really don’t care about whether they grow or not.
Susie doesn’t eat them, and I will only eat one on a cheeseburger.
When they are ripe, I just pick them, put them in a bag, and give them to friends or neighbors.
Of course, since I don’t care, they seem to be having a large crop again.
I planted four rows of ornamental corn again.
I use these as decorations on our front porch in the fall.
They are tasseling and it looks like I have an ear on each stalk. These are easy to grown and normally do well.
Of course, our green beans are doing great again.
Four rows are still full of pods and blooms.
Susie wouldn’t let me help her pick this year because I can bend over, but can’t stand back up again easily.
She will pick a row and bring the beans in to me. I will snap them while waiting for her to finish the next row.
I will then get the canner and jars ready while she takes a break, and we will get from three to 10 quarts from each picking.
She has picked five times this year, and we should have one more picking left.
We have canned 30-some quarts so far.
Now, we have four rows of Lima beans left to pick.
The plants have a lot of pods that stay well hidden in the leaves and are hard to find. Later this week, mud permitting, I will check to see if they are ready to be picked.
We will just freeze these instead of canning.
I have no idea how many we will get, but a couple years ago we only had two rows and put up a bunch of quart bags.
If we have a lot, I may ask some friends to help Susie pick while I make a pie or cake for their help.
For the first time in forever I didn’t plant any sunflowers.
Usually I grow a huge variety that gets about 12 to 13 feet tall and the heads are a foot across.
I plant four or five rows and a bunch of volunteers just sprout all over the garden.
This year, most got tilled under or mowed down.
Only one large sunflower made it this year. It is already about 10 feet tall and still growing.
The five acre field behind us didn’t get mowed this year. In the middle of it is one lonely sunflower growing. I’m sure it is from a seed from my garden because it is also about eight or 10 feet tall.
Susie planted some pepper plants in the front of the house.
They are doing so well, she had to put stakes by several of the plants because the peppers are so heavy, the plants were falling over. They are about four feet tall so I can help pick those!
Rich Creason is an award-winning outdoors and travel writer whose work has appeared in local, regional, national and international publications for 40 years. Born in Anderson, he is a graduate of Markleville High School. He lives in South Madison County with his wife, Susie. He may be contacted at [email protected].
