August Garden

August started strong. Everything in the garden was at peak harvest and loveliness. Then the heat, humidity and rains of August brought the blight. The cucumber vines went from a wall of green to a shriveled yellow mess in a couple of weeks. The tips of the dahlia leaves began to yellow and brown. The zinnias, never having done well this year, started to show freckled brown spots along with the melons. The tomato blight + chipmunks were decimating my tomato crop and I was tired of feeding the critters every tomato that was about to ripen (these little monsters are excellent climbers and can reach it all). Last week I picked every green tomato that was left and pulled up the plants. 

Tomatoes

We had a decent amount of tomatoes in July and August, though it wasn't the massive abundance we had last year where the plants were 6-8ft tall and there were tomatoes everywhere. This year the plants reached like 4 ft and flopped over. I'm going to assume it was the weather conditions. They were sufficiently watered, fertilized and staked. They had fewer aphids and white flies this year, they had their companion plants (borage and marigolds, which both did amazingly well). They just didn't thrive. There were flowers and fruits and even with the reduced crop I made a few batches of sauce, the boys ate a ton of cherry tomatoes, the chipmunks ate any tomato they could get their hands on (and left me the skins so I would know!). 

A week ago I was looking at what remained of the tomatoes. The plants didn't look great. I knew the tomatoes on the vines were the last ones we were going to get. And the chipmunks had eaten three that were starting to ripen. I was tired of feeding them. I wanted the final few tomatoes for us. So I picked everything left and pulled up the plants that evening. One less thing to do this fall, one less thing to worry about, and now the chipmunks can go eat everyone else's tomatoes instead. 

Vines and Things

The cucumber vines are on their way out. They were from a beautiful wall of green to a shriveled yellow mess. The plant isn't completely gone and there are cucumbers still ripening, but they are waning. Another couple of weeks and I'll be pulling them up. The melon vines are done and will get pulled soon - we got three small melons at once and now they are 90% dead. 

The malabar spinach is much shorter than other years. Maybe it's the weather. Maybe I harvested it too aggressively when I needed extra spinach in a pinch and didn't give it enough time to recover. 

Dahlias

It has been a good summer for dahlias. I've been so relieved that the plant problems are in the normal range of pests and forgetting to fertilize and not a mass die off from spider mites. I don't think I could take another year of that. I did lose 3 plants in the yard for unknown reasons, but in the garden the dahlias are flourishing. I've been swimming in blooms all summer long and the colors have been spectacular. 

Flower Cutting Bed

The snapdragons and pink lemonade cosmos have been FABULOUS. The plants are huge and healthy and producing a ton of blooms. The Apricotta cosmo got hit with a blight and died, I planted new seeds but they are tiny seedlings still (the blight also hit the potted cosmos on my patio this month and two died). I'll definitely try Apricotta again next year because I LOVE the color. The globe amaranth did much better this year being planted in the corner with the snapdragons. 

I've never had trouble with zinnias like this before. Most of the plants are dead or half dead, then a couple of plants are doing fine and creating spectacular zinnia blooms. I don't know what or why. I'm happy to get a few zinnias over none, and I really hope whatever has been shriveling the zinnia leaves doesn't come back next year... it's been a bummer because zinnias are a huge draw for the pollinators, especially the butterflies. 

Herbs & Strawberries

With the exception of the basil, this has been a great summer for herbs. Sage, chamomile, calendula, thyme, rosemary, lavender. Even the dill is still alive. The oregano is doing so well it's out of control. It's attacking everything, spreading a million sprouts that I'm pulling up all over the place. The self-seeded borage started to bully my other plants so I pulled it up. The red/purple sunflower has been delightful all summer long. 

The strawberries usually spread more by this time of year, and they haven't as much as usual. There are spots on the leaves... we'll see how they come back next spring. I need to also figure out a way to make this bed chipmunk proof. 

Pots

The hot peppers are having a fantastic year. Whatever has been terrible for the tomatoes has been great for the peppers. There are so many jalapeños and cayenne peppers and they keep blooming and producing more. The chipmunks steer clear, so we've been raking them in for hot sauce. 

I pulled up the potted tomato for the same reason I pulled up the others. the basil is covered in brown spots and almost dead. The lemon balm is yellow and sickly. The potted rosemary looks unhealthy too. The flowers are doing okay, but they aren't as big and happy as they have been other years. 

Elsewhere in the yard

Blackberries! So many blackberries. We had an excellent crop of blackberries this year. The chipmunks and birds also really loved the blackberries, which was sometimes annoying, but honestly there were enough for everyone. 

The brown turkey fig tree that was left in the greenhouse had brown turkey figs this year! The greenhouse kept the birds from getting them and we got to eat them this year. The Chicago Hardy fig tree has lots of green figs but none have ripened yet - it's usually a September/October crop. 

The elderberry bush produced some berries but I didn't wrap them in time and the birds got them. Next year I'll have to try those netting favor bags that can be used for flowers and berries or something. 

It's the beginning of the end. The crickets are now at a full roar, the light is starting to change and it's getting dark and 7:30 now. School starts in just a few days. Summer is waning. In September I'll be starting to the slow cleanup as things wane.