Well, here we go into September. As usual, I’ve backed off on garden care as other priorities and mosquitoes have kept me away. We had the Honey locust tree removed a couple of weeks ago and Greg’s crew did a superb job of removing the tree that was mostly hanging over the garden. Only a little minor damage.

It has been a very dry summer. We had storms and 2 1/2 inches of rain the second week of August, and that has about been it. The second storm after we returned from St. Louis knocked power out for about 13 hours and trashed my editing computer. After a couple of days of messing around, I replaced the P/S to no avail. Then I needed to replace the MOBO and that fixed it. With that all of the software updates, I lost a couple of weeks of gardening, and then it was one thing after another.

Tomatoes over the old compost did well. I had moved the Champion and Early Girl there this year from their previous spot next to the Horseradish and they were falling over from tomatoes. I took about ten pounds to the Project Hope food pantry on August 7th and they have been abundant ever since, even with me giving a lot away. The tomatoes next to the Horseradish are barely alive. It’s the same pattern as last year, even though I had worked a lot of compost into that last row. I looked up if Horseradish could be causing the problem, but most of the effects of having horseradish around are beneficial.

The zucchini has been very productive as have been the peppers. My seven Jalapeno plants aren’t enough. Shishito peppers have been prolific, but most of them are hot this year. Strange. They are again from Bonnie Plants.

The eggplants failed again, I harvested just two small ones. I think they didn’t get enough water. After the peas failed I planted Lazy Housewife pole beans which came up quickly and were starting their climb up the trellis when they were eaten to the ground, likely by rabbits, even though they were fenced in. I guess I need to redo my fencing.

The broccoli bore well all summer, I should have picked it in a more timely manner, though. The tomatillos started bearing near the end of August and they are doing very well.

I never got to staking the blackberries which bore relatively well. The early ones that were overripe were loaded with Picnic Beetles, so picking was a slow process. As more got ripe the Picnic Beetles seemed to go away. But because they weren’t staked, they were difficult to get into and many were near the ground. It would be good if I did may staking this fall after cleanup. Cucumbers are doing well even though they got in late. The lemon cukes are just starting to bear. I won’t need a potted cucumber next year, but two potted tomatoes would be better.

The potted plants were looking yellow and bad, but one shot of fertilizer really greened them up. I need to make watering easier and need to do and need to do better at picking and watering come August.

I didn’t keep up with the Herb gardens very well because of the time spent constructing the mint garden. I definitely need to learn more about growing basil. I spent lots on plants with multiple replantings and the crop was horrible.

Here’s what I found. Basil likes well-drained, moist soil. I probably need to prepare the soil to a greater depth with lots of compost. I should water and fertilize more often.

I am seeing an explosion in produce this week as the tomatoes are coming into their own. I picked the first of the heirlooms a couple of days age netting a couple of large, delicious Cherokee Carbon tomatoes and a large Lemon Boy. There will be more today and a lot this week. Zucchini are coming in at a reasonable rate and Natalie made stuffed zucchini last night. The cherry tomatoes are producing in abundance. I needed to run a rope from the top of the large cherry tomato cage to the crossbeam of the hanging basket support on the deck. The plants are almost 8 feet tall. I picked the first chocolate cherry tomato yesterday. I tied up the San Marzano tomatoes, but the tomatoes are still small.

The Champion and Early girl plants stopped ripening over a week ago, but now are starting to produce. It is strange how they will produce some fruit right away and then stop for a while.

We had the first head of brocolli last week and I will cut two or three more today. I am ready to pull up the second batch of beets. Peppers are producing well, the Shishito plants are loaded and there are 3 or 4 large green peppers ready to pick. The rabbits (or squirrels) have been attacking the Jalapeno plants. There are some small eggplants and at least one should be ready in about a week.

I pulled up the peas which were a total bust and planted “Lazy Housewife” pole beans. I learned how to massage Kale with salt and oil and we used some on Bacon, Kale, and Tomato sandwiches and it was quite good.

I’ve been munching on blackberries when I am out in the garden and probably will pick some today.

Tomatillo plants are growing well and have lots of fruit, but ripe fruit is still a couple of weeks off.

All in all, it’s been a good gardening year so far except for the Alaskan Peas and the fact that I couldn’t find any Okra plants. I’ll plant it from seed next year. I’ve been able to keep up with the weeding – I am hitting the tomato patch with the string trimmer which seems to work well if I pull the weeds close to the plants by hand. The rest of the garden is either my hand or with the hula hoe.

Other than harvesting and watering, the garden has been somewhat neglected as I’ve been consumed with getting the mint garden done. The mint garden is done just in time, as the daily harvest is increasing and I need to make sure that the garden is picked and that I use the vegetables or give them away.

What’s in the mint garden? A lot of different mints for openers! My yard has been invaded by escaped lemon balm for a number of years and I’ve had a pot of chocolate mint growing on my deck for a number of years. But a couple of years ago, my good friend, Danielle, got me into drinking mint tea, or “weed water” as it is called in her blog post. <https://www.makeaheadofmonday.com/blog/weed-water> So, it has become our summer drink of choice, as opposed to regular iced tea. I am also working mint into different recipes.

I wanted to experiment with the different types of mint, and bought the varieties that were available at local nurseries. Here are the mints in the garden: Chocolate Mint, Sweet Mint, Spearmint, Mojito Mint, Apple Mint, and Pineapple Mint. I didn’t plant any lemon balm as it is already everywhere. The mint is planted in the steel rings that are buried 1 foot in the ground to help control unwanted spreading. I also have Lemon Verbena, Pesto Perpetua Basil, regular Basil, Mexican Tarragon, Bronze Fennel, and Pineapple Sage, as well as a few ornamentals for some color. Cucumbers are planted along the trellis at the back of the garden.

This area was overgrown with invasive plants and neglected for a lot of years so I am happy to finally have it beautiful and productive.

I pulled up the larger beets today, which was about half of them. We made a beet salad with goat cheese and arugula from an Ina Garten Recipe. It was not bad, but I’ve had better beet salads. We saved the leaves for future salads.

I got started on the “Mint Garden” a couple of days ago. I bought four galvanized steel fire-rings from Tractor Supply on Wednesday to contain the mint. It required two trips, as I could only haul two at a time.

On Thursday, I got the first ring installed which was a real pain as I ran into a stump and roots from a maple tree that we removed about 4 years ago. I was able to cut through them with my trusty Ryobi reciprocating saw, but it was a lot of work. I planted it with sweet mint and planted the three clumps of ornamental grass to the east of the ring.

We had a lot of rain Thursday night and Friday morning, but I went out in the mud on Friday afternoon and got the second ring installed and planted two pots with trailing petunias that were 1/2 price at Goebbert’s. There were some roots, but they were old and I was able to cut through them with my shovel. I needed to add more soil to the ring but ran out of time and energy.

I am designing as I go. I’ll have a path through the garden and in front of the cucumbers with 16 X 16 pavers. Hauling those is going to be a pain. I am guessing it will take at least 3 or 4 trips to Home Depot to get them all. But I have two more rings to install first and rain in the forecast every day for the next week.

I picked the first couple Zucchini today, the smaller one went into my breakfast omelet along with another tomato, some basil and a jalapeno.