August 1-Garden Report
The rains
came regularly along with lots of sunshine and warm, some might complain too
warm temperatures—and my garden has thrived.
All and all, one of my best gardens in many years. Here is an accounting of where we are in
mid-season:
The potato
crop still remains the winner in the competition among its fellow
vegetables. On Saturday we dug the red
potatoes, about a bushel from a row and a half.
Beautiful, big, blemish free potatoes.
More than we’ve harvested in recent years.
Second
place has to go to the tomatoes. I have
tomato plants five feet tall and still growing.
Natasha picked a pan full of ripe ones.
A little blight is showing up, but so far scarcely visible. Main crop a week or two away.
Third place
to the green beans. Three times
harvested, beautiful, blemish free, and oh, so good with a gentle steaming, and
then a goodly amount of butter and a dash of pepper and salt.
Other blue
ribbon producers, Leaf lettuce—we’ve cut five times, and it’s still coming
back. Swiss chard, a first time vegetable for me. It grows tall, red stemmed, and three times
harvested. Same for the broccoli, huge
early heads, now smaller, but lots of them.
Also three times harvested.
Cucumbers,
twice harvested, they like the heat, doing well. Zucchini—just four hills and wow, found a few
if properly dried and preserved would serve as baseball bats.
Sweet corn,
a week or ten days away from harvest time.
Late sweet corn planted after peas harvested is now knee high and doing
well.
Squash,
pumpkins and gourds, all growing wildly.
Vines everywhere, sneaking under the garden fence, invading the sweet
corn patch, crowding out any weed that might consider growing in their midst. So thick that I can’t see if we’ll have a
crop to harvest.
Now for the
“less than expected” crops. First place loser: green peppers. They are a miserable failure. Not one pepper and the pathetic looking
little plants, just sit there, seeming out of place and miserable.
I harvested
the onions on Saturday, red and white ones.
They had tipped over and quit growing, so time to harvest. Red onions, average size, not close to “brag
eligible.” White ones, small, too
small. Should have planted yellow ones.
The recent weather has been perfect
for our sandy loam soil, which needs lots of water. Fingers crossed that good garden weather will
continue.
THE OLDER TIMER SAYS:
Some garden years are good, some less so, but all are wonderful.
Writing From Your L
ife: A second Clearing Writing Class
is scheduled for Friday, October 28. Call 920-854-4088 to Register.
Upcoming Events:
August 9, 6:30 p.m. Winnebago
County Historical Society. Oshkosh
Library. History of Wisconsin
Agriculture.
August 12, 9-4, Writing Workshop,
The Clearing, Door County. (Filled)
August 20, 10:30-11:30 am. Waupaca Annual Arts on the Square. Story telling.
August 22, 7:00 p.m., Twin Cities
Public TV. Live appearance. The Land
With Jerry Apps
August 29, 7:00 p.m. Wisconsin Public
TV. The Land With Jerry Apps
August 30, 7:00 p.m. Milwaukee
Public TV. Channel 10. Live appearance. The Land With Jerry Apps
September
8, 7:00 p.m. McMillan Memorial Library,
Wisconsin Rapids. Workshop on memoir writing. Participants should have a copy
of TELLING YOUR STORY. Book will be available for sale the evening of the
workshop.
Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial
Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:
Emmy Winner, A
Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based
on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old
Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and
Shadows.)
Also
available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames
County. and Wisconsin
Agriculture: A History.
Jerry’s newest books, Roshara
Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guide
book for those who want to write their stories—are also available.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
No comments:
Post a Comment