August Garden

August was a hard time this year in the garden. It often is - it's the time of year when the blight sets in on the tomatoes, the powdery mildew claims the cucumbers and melons, black spot appears on the flowers. It's the beginning of the end for many things in the garden, making way for Fall crops. This year, August brought blight, mildew, mold, brutal heat and humidity, damaging storms. Honestly it's kind of a miracle the garden did as well as it did in spite of these conditions. 

One new thing I had to add this month was deer netting. The chipmunks were visiting too frequently and starting to cause problems, so it was time to kick them out for good. I stapled deer netting to the bottom third of the fencing and buried it in the rocks - the fence now keeps out bigger critters and chipmunks (and Morgan, the digger). Our only problem now is a pair of super annoying, greedy squirrels who are raiding our tomatoes and melons. Our yard is adjacent to 3 other yards with vegetable gardens and these squirrels are raiding and terrorizing all of us. 

Dahlias

The dahlias are overall doing really well, but it's an uphill battle. They are HUGE, so massive that the tomato cage supports aren't enough to hold them anymore. Especially the Belle of Barmera and Wynn's Moonlight Sonata - these are like over 7 feet tall now. It's cages and my largest stakes to keep these monsters upright. And these big violent storms we've been having are definitely a huge problem - knocking the dahlias over, snapping branches. And then there's the powdery mildew problem. I'm spraying the dahlias this year with real mildew spray, the kind I'm using on the roses. I hate using chemicals when I don't have to, but the natural remedies were useless this year. I never spray anything we eat, but I couldn't bear to just let the dahlias die like the vines. 

Despite all these things, the dahlias are overall doing really well. I'm getting lots of blooms off of all of them, except Jowey Winnie, which is still small and struggling to survive (don't know why, since it gets plenty of sun and the same conditions as the others). Even the Totally Tangerine is now producing flowers with longer stems (still short compared to the other dahlias, but they are now like 6" instead of 2"). 

Mixed Flower Bed

The zinnias are in their full summer glory now. It's gorgeous and there are so many blooms. Despite the powdery mildew, they thrive. Butterflies and bees flit flower to flower happily, I don't cut them until evening when the the pollinators have quieted down. 

The globe amaranth is going nuts. There are a million blooms. Next year I should only plant one, not two.

The cosmos are too crowded. Not only did they take over the bed (so pushy!), but I'm not seeing a million blooms as I expected. There are lots of flowers, but they don't like being so cramped. I definitely over-planted and I had to cut them back to give the snapdragons some space - they were being completely crowded out by the globe amaranth and the cosmos. The yarrow is also struggling thanks to the cosmos - I'm only getting a few blooms and I have to keep cutting back the cosmos to give the yarrow some light. 

Tomatoes

The tomatoes are still going. Blight set in, but the tomatoes are fighting it. It's been a very good year for the tomatoes - even with the blight, even with the tropical storms and thunderstorms with hail that cut them down - they keep coming back and producing more. The cherry tomatoes have been prolific. Bloody Butcher and Early Girl have been great producers. Purple Cherokee had a ton of tomatoes came in at once. The Plum tomatoes are ripening now. We've also had several bushsteak hybrids (though that seems to be the squirrel's favorite). 

The squirrels though! Monsters. And the biggest problem in our garden this year, hands down. They are greedy monsters and are eating whole, big tomatoes right off the vine. As soon as the tomato starts to ripen they jump in and eat it. I've seen them run off with whole tomatoes in their little mouths, practically toppling over from the weight. It's gotten to the point where I'm picking the tomatoes at first blush and letting them ripen on our windowsill to have some! It's frustrating. 

The malabar spinach really took off. It's delicious and it's so heavy it's pulling the archway over (and I'm having a hard time fixing it).

Vines and Things

Powdery mildew killed the cucumber and melon vines by the end of August. There were also a few squash vine borers that did some damage as well, though cucumbers and melons are not their preferred meal so it was limited. However - the cucumber vines while they were still alive were incredibly prolific this year. We must have picked over 30 cucumbers, possibly more. We couldn't keep up. 

The melon vines did amazingly well too on the obelisk. We actually had 6 cantaloupe melons on the vines. The greedy squirrels got 3 of them (TRAGIC!) and we had 3 of them. The ones we had were delicious. The squirrels said the same.  

The chard is finally coming back after being decimated by the hail storm. It took a while and we haven't harvested it because it was so sparse. The carrots look good, I just have to keep pushing back the nasturiums so they don't overtake the space. Green beans are growing and have reached the top of the archway. I fully expect a decent fall harvest in late September/early October. As you can see in the photos, the nasturiums are hitting their September peak where they turn into enormous giants. 

You can see what the bed looked like after I pulled up the melons and cucumbers this weekend. It's emptier, but much cleaner too. 

Herbs and Strawberries

I can't get the strawberries to stop spreading outside their bed. They are too happy in their new home. 

The herbs were all doing beautifully all month until the last week of August. Then the basil died way back. A few things are starting to look spent. I trimmed the chamomile and calendula way back, though I'm still getting lots of blooms.  The sunflower is spent, the squirrels and birds enjoyed the seeds. 

I have lots of herb bunches drying inside - lemon verbena, oregano, thyme, lemon balm, lavender, marjoram, sage, calendula and chamomile. 

The rosemary is still small, I haven't been able to harvest much of it, in the bed or in the pot. Hopefully if I can successfully overwinter it in the greenhouse, it will come back bigger and stronger next year. 

Pots and Peppers

The hot peppers are coming in like crazy now that the summer is waning. I'm picking jalapenos and ghost peppers every few days. The ghost peppers are so hot that they burn my fingers when I touch them. Mike and Oliver, lovers of all things spicy, are scared to eat them. The habaneros are finally growing big as well. 

The morning glory is big but it never bloomed. It also is growing into the dark garage instead of up the garage (which we only recently realized, looking up in the garage). It's not quite what we were hoping would happen here. I haven't given up on morning glories (next year I'm going to try them along the chain link fence) but I think this pot will be something else next year. 

Other Fruits and Things

We had blackberries all month long and they are just now tapering off. I made sorbet. Pies. Compotes. We ate them fresh by the handful. Anytime anyone came over they picked some. It felt a bit Utopian in our yard (come in, have some fresh blackberries ripened in the sun, sit down and relax...). 

The figs (Chicago Hardy) are still green, but they are getting bigger. I'm hoping for a good harvest in September/October because there are LOTS of figs this year thanks to the mild winter and the fig trees not dying back to the ground. It's motivating me to wrap up the best trunks this winter in insulation 

Now that I have the greenhouse, I want to dig up the Brown Turkey fig root ball and plant it a big pot and overwinter it in there. The Brown Turkey fig has never produced fruit because our winters are too cold for it and it dies back to the ground every single year (even the years we've wrapped it). 

Lastly... flowers. Buckets and buckets of flowers.