The garden is making a comeback! Summer is backing away slowly and Fall is creeping in.
Food Planted in the Kitchen Garden
- Atomic Red Carrots – Direct seed
- Rutabaga – Seeded in flats
- Cauliflower – Seeded in flats
- Broccoli – Transplanted from flats to garden
- Cauliflower – Transplanted from flats to garden
- Cabbage – Transplanted from flats to garden
- Beets – Direct seed
- Parsley – Direct seed
- Lettuce (Green Salad Bowl, Speckles Butterhead, Sweet Valentine Romaine) – Seeded in flats
- Leeks (American Flag) – Seeded in flats
Food We Harvested
Total Harvested: 13.44 pounds
Total Market Value of August Harvests: $58.75
Food We Foraged
We did not forage any food this month. BUT! I’ve seen lots of chile pequins growing in the neighborhood.
Food Growing in the Ground
Annuals
- Beets – I’ve seeded these twice, now, and The Squirrels are right behind me, digging tiny holes everywhere!
- Cauliflower – It’s new and tender, but looks healthy.
- Broccoli– Newly planted and doing great.
- Kohlrabi – I lost the entire first planting due to pest damage. Not sure what’s eating them.
- Rainbow Lacinato Kale – The surviving plants are doing ok and look healthy, but not thriving. Squirrels are decimating this particular bed.
- Silverbeet Chard – Lookin’ good. Looking’ real good.
- Purpletop Tunips – Healthy. These were old seeds and I thought I wouldn’t get good germination, but I was WRONG! I’ve thinned them so that I’ll actually get some roots.
- Cabbage – Lost most of first planting to squirrels and unknown pests.
- Tatume Squash – It appears that one of these plants has hybridized. Its leaf looks much different than the more normal-looking plants, but this is also the plant that has the most fruit on it. I’m calling it the Accidental Tim Burton hybrid, because the leaves look like something Mr. Burton might draw.
- Waltham Butternut Squash – I’m not sure what happened, but the remaining plant has vanished. Poof!
- Corno di Toro Pepper – I finally pulled this plant out. It was depressing me.
- Little Mama Roma Tomato – So much plant! So many blossoms. Not. One. Fruit.
- Purslane – Past its prime. I’ve been using purslane as a cover during the hot months and now I’m pulling it all out to make room for fall plants.
- Kale, curly – Healthy. I cannot believe how well this kale is doing now. It’s still aphid free, which seems like a miracle.
- Lambs quarter – I’m paying no attention to this. It mostly serves as a barrier between the dogs and the fence, which I leave in place to deter the dogs from making a new mud pit.
Perennials
- Garlic chives – Healthy.
- Thyme – Healthy.
- Oregano – Healthy.
- Multiplying Leeks – Healthy and abundant!
- Multiplying Onions – Healthy
- Sage – Healthy
- Lavender – Healthy.
- Fennel – New fennel plants are coming up from roots and a few from seed. I’ve thinned them and pulled out the old plants. I’ve soft mulched the older plants along the fence line. Fennel seed can prevent other seeds from germinating, so I try to keep it somewhat separated from the main garden.
- Lemon grass – Healthy
- Jujube – Healthy. Next expected harvest: August 2018
- Fig – Healthy. No fruit.
Food Growing in Containers
Trees
- Thai (Kaffir) Lime – healthy
- Meyer Lemon – Healthy. A few lemons. As in, four lemons. Not impressive. I trimmed it back aggressively last year to move it through doorways. The trimming was not timed well and appears to have dramatically affected its production this year
- Mandarin – We aren’t getting along. I’m still planning to plant it somewhere. I don’t even care if it dies anymore. It’s already dead to me.
- Bay Laurel – Healthy.
- Key Lime – Healthy. Producing many limes. The tree shape displeases me. Looking for resources to learn pruning and shaping techniques.
Perennials and Herbs
- Ghost Pepper – Healthy. Kind of. This plant is still recovering from having its root unceremoniously ripped from the ground when I moved the container. There are lots and lots of blossoms, but the leaves have gotten tiny and there are no fruits. We’ll see. I’ll need to prune it for winter if there’s any hope of getting it though the door. And, I’m pretty sure the root has grown into the ground again.
- Lemon grass – Healthy
- Garlic Chives – Healthy
- Ginger – Looks great!
- Basils: Thai, Holy, and Italian Sweet, all healthy and producing nicely! It’s really hit its stride. I’ll be drying the Holy basil for teas, making lots of pesto with the Italian basil, and using as much fresh Thai basil as possible.
- Chocolate Habanero pepper – Healthy and flowering, no fruit…still.
- Tangerine Dream sweet pepper – I finished it. It’s dead.
- Celery – I planted some celery from the grocery store. It’s dead already.
Water Usage from 7/14 to 8/14
Notes about our water usage: We collect and use water from the air conditioner and rain events to reduce the need for metered water in the garden. We account for metered water usage using a hose-end water meter, like this one. We account for the amount of collected water by estimating 3 gallons per day for the air conditioner and manually counting buckets after a rain event (we base the estimates on our Super Technical 5-gallon Bucket Measurement Method) .
- Total Household Water Consumption: 4200 gallons (down 200 gallons from last month!)
- Garden Water meter total: OOPS! The meter failed! Again. This section might disappear.
- Collected water: 62 gallons (estimated at 2 gallons per day)
- Percentage of our total water consumption used for garden: 5.48% (Since our irrigation patterns were similar, I’ve used the number from last month)
- Compared to our neighbors: We used 9.2 fewer gallons of metered water than the average resident in our area.
Expenses
- Water: $1.74 (Calculated as 6% of total water bill)
- Pine Straw: $48.42
- Compost: $20.43
- Seeds: $25.31
Hippie Christmas Miracles
Pomegranate – Saved for seed
Thoughts on all that
This thing with The Squirrels is killing me, but I haven’t devised a solutions. I tried sprinkling cayenne pepper as a deterrent, but it just made me sneeze and I think The Squirrels may have enjoyed the seasoning. So, more on this next month. If you see a new squirrel recipe, you’ll know what happened.
In other news, hooray Fall! I’m so glad you came. Summer is such a jerk.
What are you planting right now? You can leave a comment here or contact me via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram.
Pat
Wow I’m impressed looks great.
Lesley
Thanks! I’d love to know what’s happening in your garden. Your keyhole gardens have been so successful!
Lesley
Thanks!!
shirley
ur garden is fascinating. years ago, when we were there, u said u were going to put in a garden and it is gorgeous. i have never heard of a lot of stuff u plant, so i really like the pictures. lemongrass is beautiful. do u cut a stem, stalk, leaf (not sure what it is called) off n chop just one? do ur former friends, the squirrels, ever leave the garden alone? i read cheyenne pepper would work, also. wrong reindeer!
Lesley
I’m glad you like the photos! A neighbor gifted the lemongrass, so it feels special. It grows in clumps, and you can grab on a few of them at once to pull them out from the roots. Then, to cook with it, you take off the outer greener parts and you smash the pale middle part of the stalk with the side of a knife, sort of like you do with garlic cloves. Then you either mince it or just use it in large pieces. It’s hard to chew, so lots of recipes tell you to leave it in pieces that are large enough to easily take out when you’re eating.
And, The Squirrels rarely leave the garden alone. Right now, though, it seems like there are more than usual. I’ve actually been contemplating a live trap and a new stew recipe.