Summer harvest and fall crops

 It's still hot here, but the early mornings and late evenings are nice.  Nice enough to work in the garden and enjoy it.

I've been seeing a lot of these wasps the past couple of weeks, most often in swarms hovering just above the grass in the yard.  Their black wings look metallic navy in the sunlight.  I used Google Lens to identify them as blue wing wasps (Scolia dubia).  They're non-aggressive, and an article I read said they are parasites of beetle grubs, including June beetles and Japanese beetles (hooray!)

The Japanese beetle population was low this  year, and maybe these guys had something to do with that.

My 'Winter Luxury' pie pumpkin and daisy gourd patch is delivering.  I've already processed some pumpkins for pies and eaten a couple of those.  They're quite yummy.  I've got about a dozen of varying sizes harvested and awaiting processing or gifting, and there are still quite a few green and growing on the vines.

I thought I only had one gourd vine, but found another - or maybe another branch of the one.  I've cut three and found as they age, they turn from lime green daisies to yellow.  They may go to gold or orange.  We'll see.

Charentais cantaloupes are appearing on the vines.

Unfortunately, the marigolds I planted around them didn't fool the raccoons.  They've already gotten two.  This is what they do to them:

If you're going to spoil them, I think you should eat the whole thing.

All varieties of peppers I planted are now harvestable.  The jalapeño peppers are turning red, so I'm collecting for jelly.  Unfortunately, I only got three plants going, so there won't be much jelly this year.

Chili peppers

Pablano peppers

Snack peppers, pablanos, red bells, and 'Quadrato D'Asti Giallo' red/gold bells

The 'German Johnson' pink tomatoes are just starting to ripen.  

'German Johnson' tomato

The cucumbers are going strong, and the 'Calima' bush beans I planted for a fall crop are already producing.

'Calima'

The 'Red Swan' green beans are flowering, so I'll be watching for some red green beans (!) soon.

'Red Swan' bush bean

A friend gave me three broccoli plants.  This is my first year planting broccoli.  If it goes well, it may not be my last.  I don't know what variety these are.  They're in a cage for now because I've been watering them separately until they take hold, and the raccoons are famous for digging up newly planted seedlings that are getting special watering.

Fall cabbages are slowly gaining ground.  Surprisingly, I haven't lost any, so I may have to thin them.  Or just have small heads.  That wouldn't be bad.

Until next time...

'Redman' super cactus zinnia

Are these the dog days?

Whatever they are, they're good for the garden.

The Charentais melons are still looking great.  I hope I actually get some melons before the raccoons do.  This will be the test for planting them amongst marigolds.

Charentais melon

The 'Marketmore' cucumbers are also looking good, and I've been harvesting one to three a day for about a week.

For some reason, cucumbers are the absolutely easiest fruit to miss amongst the leaves, even if the leaves don't seem that dense, as this giant on the left can attest.  They're not so good when they get that big, so I have to toss them.

'Marketmore' is a very nice cucumber that isn't at all bitter, so I've seen no reason to even attempt to grow another kind.

Tatsoi and green beans are coming along beautifully (after the initial bunny-stripping of the beans).  

Tatsoi

'Calima' bush beans

I've planted a row of 'Red Swan' bush beans between those two rows, and they're coming up quite nicely, too.

Compost hill's planting of striped Japonica corn has run its course, but the 'Winter Luxury' pie pumpkins are still having a heck of a year.  I've harvested about 10 already, and there are still a lot more on the vines that have not yet ripened.

half-ripe 'Winter Luxury' pie pumpkin

'Winter Luxury' pie pumpkin

I processed four pumpkins into puree to make pies and soups.  I baked one that I cut in half and scooped out seeds.  It was fine, but the absolute easiest and quickest was the instant pot method.  I chucked whole pumpkins into the pot on a trivet, added a cup of water with each, and pressure cooked on high for 25 minutes.  The skins practically fell off.  Soooo much easier and quicker (and easier on the hands) than the last time I processed pumpkins for pie 30 years ago, when I cut them into small pieces, carved off the rinds and boiled them.

No less messy, however.

While the corn is an ornamental flint type, I did test some for eating. 

You have to get it while the kernels are still young, and even then, they're tiny, tough and chewy.  They taste like corn, but if I were growing corn to eat, I'd choose a sweetcorn variety.

striped Japonica ornamental corn

Also on compost hill, one daisy gourd plant survived the early rabbit and deer feeding.  All I've been able to discover so far is this one gourd.  I hope when I harvest the rest of the pumpkins and clear the hill, that plant will have produced more, so I can see if they change color.

It's aptly named: daisy gourd.

stem end

side view

bottom view

The late-planted poblano peppers I grew from seeds of a grocery poblano are fruiting now.

And I'm harvesting the snack peppers I grew the same way.

My fall-planted peas are growing well, and if I don't forget to spray them with deer and rabbit repellant this evening, maybe I'll actually get to harvest some, unlike my spring crop that the moles ate before they even broke ground.

'Premium' peas

'Premium' peas

Some other harvested crops:

yellow pear tomatoes and early purple Vienna kohlrabi

'Cardinal' (green) and 'Amethyst' (purple) basil

The 'German Johnson' plants, of which I only managed to get two planted (drat!), are putting on fruits now that the hell temperatures of July are gone.  (Back then, a Facebook friend posted: "God, whatever you're cooking, it's done."  ;-D )

Fall cabbages are alive and in not-too-bad shape.

'Omero'

'Primo Vantage'

I've sprayed them with Bt a couple of times to prevent cabbage moth caterpillar feeding, but it looks like somebody found a window in which to snack.

It's hard to NOT eat these 'Fallgold' raspberries before they're completely ripe, because I still have a memory of the taste of them from last year.  Like honey drenched raspberries.

I finally had the time and opportunity this year to work on my paths.  I seeded them with rye and fescue, but of course, the crabgrass is taking over.  At least it looks like grass and not dandelions and clover.

And that gets us over to the flower gardens.

'Pat Austin'

'Winter Sun'

'Razzle Dazzle'

'Our Lady of Guadalupe'

top: 'Shazam!', bottom: 'Our Lady of Guadalupe'

Thankfully, the Japanese beetles haven't been bad this year, but at the moment, I'm battling rose aphids:

They're hard to control, and here's an article that tells you why:  Learn How Aphids Can Quickly Overrun Your Garden

I sprayed them for a few days with Sevin, then switched to the less environmentally detrimental pyrethrin.  I didn't notice them until they'd already produced enough honeydew to cause sooty mold to grow on the leaves.  That's impossible to not notice.

Yech.  

I'll go back to dealing with the aphids and leave you this time with a picture of one of the sweetest roses in the garden...'Our Lady of Guadalupe'.

UPDATE ten days later:

The daisy gourd's color is changing...