Category: place

Camp, continued

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Foundation with retaining wall completed and sealed by Sam. The crawl space will be insulated. The original building has been moved back on top, but is not set in place yet. This back wall will be removed.
From the front, knee wall in progress. The front of the building will look completely different. The gable ends of the roof will be reoriented. A bank of windows in the front will allow lake viewing. The front door will be at the side of the building opening onto a skinny little deck.
From lakeside, a moment in time and space. The little camp is levitating.

The carpenters started working at camp on Monday August 18th. A huge milestone. Feels a little alarming really as I try to visualize the completed structure. It seems huge and ungainly compared to the compact one room building that’s been there.

We ended up saving the original structure, although this seems crazy and will cost extra. Now that it’s been decided, I feel happy that it will be there. Although the roof will be coming off, the front and back walls will be completely different and nothing about it will be recognizable. We will know it’s there as a small legacy from Ray.

Winter squash spreading

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Plot at Community Garden, covered with squash vines

I love this photo although it’s a bit fuzzy. The evening light, the barn next door, the trail head and surrounding forest. The echinacea glowing pink at the left edge and the pile of wood chips at the right edge. Most of all, the happy squash plants.

I really struggled to nurture these plants through serious transplant shock and then countering a squash beetle threat. I tried row covers, but found eggs on the plants that were under cover! So off came the covers. I then inspected the back of each leaf daily for a few weeks, tearing off the part of the leaf where eggs were laid. Not a single beetle on my adult plants. And they are growing like crazy! Some plants didn’t make it of course, but the others are just enjoying the extra room.

Growing squash is always fun because you don’t know what you’ve got under there until the foliage starts to die away. But I know I have at least a few butternut squash and a few pumpkins. I haven’t successfully grown butternut squash for a few years so this crop is especially sweet. On the other hand, my delicata and hubbard squash crops were a miserable failure this year, so there’s always some balance to contemplate.

Beginning of August in the hoop house

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Basil, purchased seedlings
Okra, from seed. Can see little conical buds forming.
The okra patch. Started these Cajun Jewel from seed, then transplanted them here.
Peppers! Our once-a-week deep watering regimen has really helped with pepper productivity, I think.
Poblanos! Probably my favorite pepper. Seedlings from Chuck.
A wee Black Diamond eggplant. They are not as robust as the peppers.
Large tomatillo plants, but few fruits that I can see. I hope they catch up because I have a lot of tomatillo recipes I want to try.
A mystery tomato (top) and Amy’s basil on the bottom. I’ve been pinching it from the top.

Beginning of August, Community garden

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Onions, white, red and yellow
More onions and a row of Burpee shallots. I’m letting them go to seed, I probably shouldn’t be.
Echinacea, pollinator attractor
Painted lady butterfly, maybe?
A sad row of leeks.
Winter squash has really taken off after surviving serious yellowing and attempted beetle infestation.
Baby butternut
Baby pumpkin
Auxiliary plot of carrots, lettuce “Merlot” and a few radicchio

Beginning of August in the fruit yard

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Turning the corner, greeted by a grove of volunteer sunflowers in the “early potato” raised bed
Nelson blackberry just starting to show some color
Strawberry bed, being tenderly nursed back to health after a rough bout with leaf blight last year
Raised bed of fingerlings, just starting to fall back
Raspberries. We’ve been eating a small handful every morning.
Some of the dye plants, getting ready to bloom
Grapevine
Concord grapes, still green

Beginning of August in the garden

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Almost too late for my end of month report, again! Now or never. I took these photos early, about 7:30 am, when a lot of the garden is still shaded by the big pine. The next post is an update on the fruit yard. Still have to post an update on the hoophouse and the community garden.

Approaching the garden gate past the monarda (bee balm) and the echinops (globe thistle)
Tomatoes growing along the fence line
Giant costata romanesca zucchini. Also in this row are a black zucchini, a patty pan squash, Farao cabbage, and an assortment of kale.
Newly planted spinach bed after harvesting fingerlings. Sam carefully removed every fingerling from the soil because we have seen how they persist year after year in a bed. He dug down to the sub soil and reconstituted the bed with sticks (modified hugelkultur), leaf mulch, azomite, and garden soil.
A wild mixture of carrots, beets, leeks, dill and chard.
Artichoke, mystery tomato (labeled Aunt Molly’s ground cherry but not), cutting celery, cilantro past its prime
Fall planting in harvested Fava bean area. Arcadia broccoli, Napoli carrots, and Eros escarole. Pea trellis in back, still producing.
Broccoli mostly past, but there’s one or two late season plants in this seed mix that hold promise still
Lush “late potato” row with volunteer sunflower
Horseradish bed and tomato cathedral, a jungle with volunteer potatoes growing in the center aisle
Sunflowers growing in the flower row where they belong for once. All sunflowers were volunteers this year, I didn’t plant one. (Transplanted a few though.)
Winter Squash climbing out of asparagus beds over top of chicken run. Red Kuri, butternut and Dakota Dessert.
Corner trellis with cucumbers on front and green beans on back. Center has some carrots, lettuces, and kale.