Mid-August in the Garden

What a lovely time in the garden.. No matter how many of the small fruited tomatoes I pick, the next day, there are dozens more that are ripe and ready to pick! We're now enjoying sungold, yellow grape, yellow cherry, ladybug and red pear.. The costoluto are starting to ripen up too! In about a week, they should be ready to harvest. I have about a dozen roma tomato plants too and although they are heavily laden with fruit, not one seems to be turning colour! (Brenda - are yours finally starting to colour?) Once they start, the sauce making can begin.. some romas, garden garlic, handfuls of basil, just-picked onions.. can't you just smell it?

The zucchini are going crazy.. I picked about 20 4-inch wide patty pan and 6 kousa just before we left for PEI.. thought I'd share them with the Ontario cousins, who seemed thrilled by the garden bounty. (I also brought along some sungold tomatoes and a HUGE bowl of multi-coloured beans). Yet, by the time we returned only 5 days later, there was another dozen zucchini ready to pick.. no wonder gardeners leave excess zucchini on their neighbours doorsteps!

The peppers are always a bit slow to start in late spring when the earth is still a bit cool and the rain is more frequent than they like.. But by early August, the plants are 2 to 3-feet tall and covered with a variety of fruits. We grow jalapeno (my favourite!), sweet banana, cayenne, sweet chocolate, gypsy and Holy Moly, a smoky pepper that grows up to 8-inches long! The long, thin peppers start off deep green, but mature to a deep brown. This award winning pepper is very delicious and easy to grow. Not the greatest photo, but this pepper is now 7-inches long!

The white 'baby boo' pumpkins are looking gorgeous.. they're about 4-inches across and growing up one of our A-frame trellises. I'm so glad I planted the cukes and gourds on the newest A-frame trellis, as they're really weighing it down! Somehow, in early April, when I start the seeds indoors, I always forget how vigorous the vines are and how I should be a bit more conservative in the amount of gourds I grow! They're just so much fun, it's hard to use any restraint! We also have apple, spinning top, snake and speckled swan gourds!

The snake gourds are out of control! The vines are sprawling in every direction and 'snaking' under the fence and up a nearby spruce tree.. in fact, that vine is now about 12 feet in the air and has reached the top of the tree.. I have NO idea how I'm going to harvest those gourds! If you look closely, you'll see the huge, light green leaves of the gourd at the top of the tree.. anyone have a tall ladder?

Happy Gardening!