our maine home – zone 5b
It’s been warm this week. Good weather for preparing to bring some plants indoors soon. I found a low table in a barter and swap group and picked it up this morning. It will make a nice platform for herbs in a sunny window.
We repotted the second lemon tree and the still-growing graft from the first lemon tree. Made up extra potting mix from leftover Pro-Mix potting soil, a little coir fiber, and a little sand. And some sprinkles of azomite and green sand.
A busy kitchen this morning with frost on the ground and the woodstove going. The coziness almost mitigated the ominous news about the Supreme Court. I have to keep remembering to return my mind to mutual aid as a principle. Feed the hungry. And take care of the land that feeds us.
The kiwi leaves are solid yellow now and look spectacular. Even though the sun was not shining when I took these photos, I didn’t want to wait because they’re sure to start falling soon.
The kiwi vine leaves are starting to turn color. The arbor looks especially beautiful this time of year. Unfortunately, the little round lights are broken and Sam couldn’t fix them. I’ll have to take them down.
We are harvesting:
It all takes some work. The garlic needs to be cured, the fingerlings dug and soil sifted, the fava beans shelled, blanched, released from their waxy coat, and frozen. The peas shelled.
I pick over the blueberries to clean them a bit then freeze them in a single layer on a tray. When frozen, we transfer them to a freezer bag. We pick blueberries every morning. This morning, hit a record of forty ounces.
Making room in the garden for a fall planting, which should be done – now!
We have a few hardy kiwi vines growing up over the deck on an arbor.
Two years ago a porcupine got up there in the spring and pruned the vines severely. We wrapped chicken wire around the posts and it put a stop to that.
This year Sam is training the increasingly lush vines to cover bare spots. He added some bracing in the arbor to reduce the size of the gaps.
We have never had kiwi fruits, but we have lots of blossoms. Maybe we are lacking a male plant.
I tackled a nasty chore today and was rewarded with a bowl of super sweet cold Concord grapes — frozen and thawed at least once, maybe more.
I had to remove and rewind the netting fence that we put up in the spring as a temporary chicken run. Bad idea in retrospect. The grape vines grew through the netting at the top and the weeds infiltrated it at the bottom. The whole mess had to be cut through and pulled out. The netting is lying in the yard now, waiting for me to get the energy to rewind it on the tall cardboard tube.
For now, can’t stop eating these tasty grapes.
Is it still mid-August? A lot has happened. We harvested the fava beans on August 11. Had a big party, the third annual, to shuck the beans. I have three small freezer bags of leftovers, which is good. I didn’t take any pictures, unfortunately.
We have picked over 20 pounds of blueberries, all in the orchard except for two containers harvested atop Schoodic. I know that should be quarts, next year I’ll switch to the more typical measurement.
We are still waiting for the Reliance peaches to ripen. Last year they were all taken, probably by squirrels. This year we took more precautions (netting around the trunk). Sam propped up the heavy branches. They have great color, but are still quite hard.
Sam’s working on improving the orchard fencing. Too many deer are getting in there.
He also added two more raised beds in the hoophouse. Over the next few days I’ll plant some fall and winter greens in them. The peppers and eggplants in the older beds are growing but not exuberantly, but the basil in there is doing great. We had to protect those beds from deer who came to munch one variety of pepper when we opened the roof to the sun and rain.
I’m picking green beans almost daily in the main garden. Also sowed some fall seeds in empty spots.
The fava bean area freed up, so we put up a pea trellis there. Also planted cilantro, broccoli rabe, and spinach in that area.
Harvesting lots of food: beets, cucumbers, a few ripe tomatoes, lettuce, escarole, radicchio, carrots, costata romanesca zucchini, kale, chard, dill, artichokes, broccoli, Savoy cabbage, fingerlings, strawberries, blackberries. Coming along: squashes, a few ears of corn, cabbage, soybeans, pattypan squash, lots of tomatoes!
The strawberries have a leaf blight. It’s their second year, they were planted in April 2018. The variety is Albion, from Fedco, an ever bearing variety.
It’s been a wet spring this year, a lot of rain, which may have encouraged the fungus.
Sam put down alfalfa pellets, thinking the extra nitrogen might help them.
Today, I weeded the whole bed. Then I decided to pick off most of the leaves including some of the dead ones on the ground, I didn’t eliminate the blight by any means, but we’ll see if the plants can recover on their own with new growth. They’ll need drip irrigation.
Escarole is bolting. I harvested two large bags.
Harvested one good-sized beet and a few turnips.
Also jarred up some sauerkraut (not grown by us).
Soon we’ll need to eat a couple of the artichokes.
Other news: More lettuce than we know what to do with. A few peas, a few baby cucumbers, squash blossoms, a few handfuls of blueberries, a few tart cherries. Harvested some fingerling potatoes due to potato beetle infestation.