The garden in mid August.....

Over the past week, we've had quite a few days of brutal heat and humidity, but on Friday, things cooled a bit, and working outside is a much more pleasant experience now. According to the weather forecast, the heat and humidity are on their way back for the latter part of this week. (They are here now!)

This day lily keeps blooming and blooming!

My first planting of beans has been harvested, processed and the plants pulled. The second planting is blooming now.

Tomato plants are loaded with green fruit, and some fruit are showing a bit of pink.

We have picked and eaten a couple off of one plant, that were red, but they could have used just a tad more time on the vine. That variety, although called Ultra Sweet, was flavourless, and I wonder if all the rain we've had could be the reason. As other varieties ripen, and are tasted, I'll have a better idea if that is the case. In other words, that first tomato, although lovely and juicy, was just bland.

We've tried a couple of the little Chocolate Sprinkles.

A couple of the top ones on the stem seemed ripe, although they have a pretty green mottling on them, so its hard to tell. When cut open, the insides were dark red and had a good flavour, so I am waiting patiently for some more of them to ripen. The only two tomato plants I raised from seed, that survived the late May frost, are Sweet Millions, and we've had a handful or two of those sweet little red orbs. 

The squash and pumpkins are growing by leaps and bounds, the squash are getting a nice, deep orange colour, and some of the pumpkins are starting to turn pale orange.

Best Buds are getting bigger!

The cucumbers have vined out, the picklers draping themselves further over the pallet ramps than the Straight 8's.

I've already made one batch of Bread and Butter pickles and almost have enough cucs for a batch of Nine Day pickles, two of our favourite sweet pickles. 

 

I'm still waiting on the dill to ripen some more before I tackle a batch of those.

The gladiola row has put out a phalanx of bud spikes, and the first few are opening, and are being quarreled over by the resident Hummers.

This year's hatch have taken wing, and the heavy traffic to the nectar feeders require them to be cleaned and refilled every 3 to 4 days.

I'm keeping ahead of the zucchini harvest... just...having made three batches of zuc bread for the freezer, frozen several bags for future muffins and made boats of one that got missed, and grew large.

Up in the barn, the garlic spread out on the old screen doors, and the hanging onions, are drying.

 

 I've used some garlic cloves in a couple of batches of basil pesto...what huge, crisp, juicy cloves they are!

I pulled my first planting of carrots which were nestled between the tomato plants.

There was the odd forked one and a few had signs of carrot fly maggots, so those were sliced and blanched, and are in the dehydrator. The rest are layered in paper towels in my vegetable crisper drawer, as I've found that is the best way to keep them.

I've picked and dried some of the herbs I'll use over the winter, basil, oregano, sage, thyme, savory, mint, borage and parsley. The red peppers are turning from green to red, and soon there will be enough to make red pepper jelly. Relish, salsa and chili sauce are still on the to-do list, but will have to wait until those tomatoes ripen.