Garden Log from southern Herkimer county, September 4, 2008
Read other people's comments here.
Index, arranged by date, and all the pix are here.


Harvesting continues,
Today is the day for hops.
Remember I spoke of expectation of festoons of flowers? Well, here they are:
Big thumb-size blossoms, some of them. I wonder, are the bigger blossoms more effective,
weight for weight than the smaller blossoms? They both have the yellow lupilin glands.
Funny to think of a gland on a plant. This morning I picked all the blossoms I could reach from the ground.
I won't be climbing any ladders to pick hops this year. This afternoon I will be cutting down my hops poles
to get the higher flowers. Replant the shorter pole in the same hole next year. Hops vines die back every fall,
and send out new growth from the roots in the spring.

I have been picking a few of the Hungarian Wax peppers and pickleing up hot pepper rings.
The smaller peppers that are left when we get close to frosting will be pickled as strips.

Are you worried that the purslane weed will be taking over in your garden? Take my advise.
Pick purslane for nightly salads, and you won't have enough. pretty much gone by September,
except for tiny leaves.

Been eating beans every night. Still, Jane can barely keep up with keeping them picked.
Still waiting for the vine peach to be ripe. That was one item oversold in the seed catalog description.
Never had a vine peach? You didn't miss much. Mammoth pumpkin is now bigger than any ball used for sport.
More like a little weather baloon. Just a guess, looks like it would weigh in around eighty-ninty pounds now.
Not a lot to say about the winter squash. There's a lot of them out there. Still too hot to turn on the oven
long enough to bake a sample. I think there are two or three zuccinni ready to come in, and summer squash.
The summer squash is having another flush of blosson and fruit. These look rounder than before, with more green.
Sampled the sweet corn last Friday, closer, but still not ready, will be sampling again tomorrow.
I think I'll go look at it now.