My Basil is starting to yellow and look pretty sad, so I decided to do a little reading up on the culture of the crop. According to the articles, once the plant flowers, the Basil turns bitter and that’s the end of it. This makes sense as I never get to the buds quick enough, and the plant is flowering before I can pick them off.

I made Pesto last year and it was bitter, which I thought was due to the fact I used walnuts instead of pine nuts, which didn’t seem right. Now I know it was the Basil. I bought some potted Basil at Heinen’s, our new food store in town. I got three 8-inch pots for $1.99 each. Great price!

I made pesto with half new and half from my old plants and it turned out great.

The articles also recommended to add Basil to your cooking at the end. It holds it’s flavor better.

Next year, I’ll put a couple of plants in and then try succession plantings from seed.

I picked beans today. Probably should have done it two days ago. They are a little large, but fine. There were easily enough for 5 or 6 meals. There is a 7 ft. row of Roma Beans and a 7 ft. row of the other. So, I picked them 55 days after planting.

Next year, I should probably plant 8 ft. rows and stagger the planting every two weeks.

Heirloom tomato salad with roasted Roma tomatoes and cucumbers.

I got enough Heirloom Tomatoes to make a salad. A couple of Black Krims and one Cherokee Purple that should probably been left on the vine a couple more days, and a couple Lemon Boys.

I cut up the tomatoes and a cucumber and a bunch of basil. Dressed it with Olive Oil and Balsamic and some black pepper. Then I topped it with roasted Roma tomatoes. Delicious!

Don’t mess with this guy!

The drought continues, so in order to keep the garden flourishing, I need to water every other day or so. The garden is spread out in a haphazard manner with mostly raised beds. It’s tough to get good coverage with a sprinkler, so I water by hand which takes an hour or two.

I was watering under what is left of the pear tree. I’ve trimmed the tree as much as possible and will probably have it taken down in the fall, as it is shading parts of the garden, and I never get an pears anyway due to various animals and hornets and yellow jackets that attack the pears while still on the tree and then harass me when I walk through the garden.

Anyway, I was watering under the tree this evening and things started hitting me on the back. Finally, I got hit on the head with a pear. I looked up in the tree and evil squirrel was sitting there throwing pears at me. This has happened before.

Now, I bear no animosity toward the rodent, even though he (or she) has torn shingles off of my roof during nesting season, and made a hole in the shed, but then wisely decided that it was not a good place for a nest after shredding most of a roll of paper towels and stuffing them in the space above the door.

“Evil’ may be too strong a term to use for this furry creature. One would not call Disney’s Chip and Dale “Evil” no matter how much they tormented Donald Duck, so maybe a term like impish, mischievous, or other adjective that is less “dark” and slightly comic might be more apt.

After the pear on the head, I was tempted to set my watering nozzle to “Jet”, point the nozzle into the tree and give the little so-and-so a good soaking, but I remembered that squirrels can be very vindictive and usually have the last word.

I planted two more hills of Zucchini for a fall crop, as this one will probably succumb to borers by the end of August if not sooner. I also planted a couple of hills of Butternut squash, but I am probably way too late. In any case, it will help me set the planting date for winter squash for next year.

Almost all of the fall stuff I planted earlier this week is popping out of the ground already.

I also pulled up the onions that Mary gave me as they were doing nothing. I planted that whole cell of the herb garden with seed for bunching onions. I won’t thin them, and I’ll see if they will produce perpetually.

I fertilized the whole garden today with Miracle Grow.

Black Krim, almost ready to pick.

I picked the first four Black Krim heirloom tomatoes today. They are a bit larger than a golf ball, and very tasty. We’ll see if the later ripening ones are any bigger. I made open faced sandwiches with basil, onion, Black Krimm tomatoes and banana peppers on toasted multi-grain bread, topped with mozzarella,a bit of parmesan and a generous grind of fresh black pepper. I stuck it under the broiler until brown and bubbly. Very tasty. Can’t wait for the other varieties of heirlooms to ripen.

We picked enough blackberries for dessert for FWG last night. I made shortcake from Bisquick. Jackie was in from Africa, so it was a fun evening. This is almost the end of the Blackberries, the heat and drought limited what should have been a bumper crop.

Char picked a couple of cukes from her side of the fence — these are the first ones. They are coming in fairly slow, but I planted quite late.

We finally got some more rain last night, I measured about 0.6 inches. Every little bit helps, but the temperature is supposed to be back to 100 tomorrow.

I did the fall planting in the new bed today, hopefully I’m not too late. Here’s what went in:

• 2 Rows Roma Beans
• 1 wide row of kale
• 2 rows of Swiss Chard
• 2 Rows pat-a-pan squash, 1 green and 1 yellow.

I also planted a wide row of Bloomingsdale Long-Standing spinach next to the existing row of Swiss Chard.

I also cleaned up behind the barn for a planting of butternut squash.

This is the new raised bed.

Since the blackberries have taken over one of my beds and most of the aisle between the beds, I decided to create a new raised bed from one of the old ones, perpendicular to the others. I wasn’t able to do much with the old ones for the past few years because of the shade. It took most of the day, as I had to dig a trench for the new bed , remove the old wood and rebuild it into a new bed, fill the bed with soil and compost and then roto-till it.

But, it’s done and ready to plant with vegetables for the fall. I got little red bites all over my forearms from some critters, but they don’t itch, so no big deal.

Blackberries, almost ready to pick!

We’ve had blackberries for a week or so, but the production has kicked up enough that I was able to bring enough for dessert for FWG tonight. I make cream puff shells and put in some ice cream and them topped them with loads of fresh berries and whipped cream. A little decadent, but it is the first major harvest of berries. Everyone enjoyed it.

Got an Early Girl tomato today from the larger Home Depot plant. It doesn’t appear that any others are even starting to turn yet.