A lot of you have asked how my garden was doing this summer–or should I say lack of summer here in Laguna Beach. I think we broke a few records for how little sunshine we’ve had. So when I woke up to sunshine last Wednesday I was so excited–I had forgotten what that was like. This summer the sun made an appearance around 2 or 3 in the afternoon–if at all! Needless to say, it wasn’t good for growing hot peppers. Sorry, Mike Ellena!
But in spite of all that here is was I was able to harvest last Wednesday while the sun was shining.
I know I picked these potatoes a little soon, but they were sharing a bed with all the hot peppers and I thought just maybe they were the pepper problem. But on second thought, it was just lack of sun. But that’s okay because they turned into a great dish.
I love the look of turnips! They are just so photogenic. I added them to the roasted veggie dish and they were great.
The flowering thyme ground cover has filled in nicely, but right now I’m trying to figure out the right amount of water. I think some of the trees are getting too much because of the leaf damage, but my gardener disagrees. (I think I’m right, don’t you?)
It was time to bring in the reinforcements once I did the clean up. I bought a lot of herbs, and a whole new batch of peppers–hopeful that September and October will bring on the heat. I also picked up some more of my favorite Harvest Supreme (every time I type that I think of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme).
Some good news on the corn this year. I planted 18 stalks–3 different varieties. And hurray! The white corn produced good looking and more importantly good tasting corn. The other 2 varieties–not so good. They were overrun with ants and it was a big mess pulling them out of the ground, not to mention then I was overrun with ants. I still have a few more cobs that I’ll harvest next week.
Once again, the San Marzanos were the most abundant.
This was as close as I came to a hot pepper, which isn’t saying much. Even the photo turned out badly.
Here are more of the San Marzanos.
The only plant happy about the lack of sun was the lettuce. Usually it burns up in the summer heat, but I’ve had a good crop this year.
I recently planted more onions….
…and Blue Lake green beans. Blue Lake are the only ones I like. All the other varieties that I’ve tried tended to be woody.
But this was the real winner this summer–the “pineapple” heirloom. It’s as pretty inside as out and it had a great big flavor. Not to mention I had one that weighted 2 pounds. Really!
Can you believe my mid-August clean-up filled this entire “green” trash can!
Now for the problems. Too much water on the plum tree? I think so.
And the pitiful “female” kiwi! She’ll never mate looking like this. Again, I think it’s a water issue.
The same with my pink grapefruit. At least the fruit appears to be doing well, but the leaves are yellow and falling off.
But this is very sad. It’s the raspberry bush. Something is obviously feasting on it and it isn’t me!
If any of you have any suggestions for me, please let me know. As we all know, gardening is the best humbling experience one can have.
Categories: Gardening Tips, Summer
Tags: august gardening tips and problems, garden clean up, tomato harvest, what to plant in august
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You have a beautiful garden! Those tomatoes are just gorgeous.
Thanks! It’s a real labor of love.