An August Assessment of My Vegetable Garden

Well, here we are in August already!

Depending on how. your summer is going you might be thankful that we are rapidly approaching the “season of the pumpkin spice.”

Or maybe you are in disbelief that it’s already this late in the season because you haven’t planted that last flat of flowers you bought in the spring.

Or maybe you are right here in August, taking it all in and enjoying each hot day.

I’m in the “right here” camp, though time does seem to clip along at a rapid pace, doesn’t it? Especially if you are one of the kids who had to go back to school this past week because of something called “balanced school year calendar.” Did they even have time to get good and thoroughly bored these last two months?

Anyway, out in the vegetable garden, it’s a good time to step back and assess how it’s going, and I have done just that for The Vegetable Garden Cathedral.

The picture above shows some of the harvest from August 1st.

On the plus side, this has been a marvelous year for green beans! I’ve picked and picked and now I’m kind of ignoring the green bean plants because I’ve picked and picked. Plus these later green beans tend to be a bit tough. But I have two new rows I planted a few weeks ago that may provide me with a few more green beans before the end of the season.

Also, the scarlet runner beans, which I planted late, are just starting to flower.

Those are going to be as pretty as advertised! I cannot believe that reading a book on vegetable gardening written in 1926 convinced me to grow them after all these years.

The summer squashes have been doing well enough—not great, but not awful. One key to the success of those I planted from seed was planting nasturtiums alongside them, also from direct-sown seed.

The nasturitums are supposed to offend the squash bugs and keep them away. I’m all for that and they seem to have done just that because I don’t see a lot of squash bugs right now. Plus the nasturtiums are pretty and edible.

Staying in that same family as squash, the cucumbers have been a major disappointment. They seem to have some powdery mildew or other plant disease problems. This is where better crop rotation might have been helpful because I think I planted them in the same bed where I grew squash last year. (Memo to self: keep better notes on what was planted in each bed.).

I do have one cucumber producing well, and that is ‘Quick Snack’ which is growing in a six-inch container on my patio table. I wrote about it in my lazy cucumber post. I would like to apologize now to the cucumbers because they aren’t lazy, they are sick. I should just pull them, but hope springs eternal that they’ll outgrow whatever is ailing them.

Moving on…

In the next raised bed over from the cucumbers, the tomatoes are doing pretty good. I’m harvesting several every few days and have plenty, though some have those splits on top which is related to haphazard watering. I’m pleased with most of the varieties too. I need to make another note to check my seed stash to use some of the leftover seeds next year instead of buying them again. They’ll be good for a few years.

The peppers are doing quite well!

Well, all are doing well except this one plant. It’s ‘Ruby Giant,’ a variety I decided to try after reading that 1926 gardening book. I don’t know why this one is yellow and won’t grow. Another plant of the same variety across from it is doing just fine. All the other peppers are doing great, including ‘Big Bertha’ shown in this picture next to the ailing ‘Ruby Giant.’

Elsewhere in the garden, the sweet corn has been laughable. It’s a small patch and produced pretty small ears of corn. I’m not even sure they’ll be edible but I wanted to pick them before the raccoons did. (I’m pretty sure the raccoons have been out there… I blame them for pulling down several sunflowers to get to the seeds.)

Also ridiculous is the okra. I planted ‘White Velvet,’ a variety I read about in that 1926 book. I was so excited when I found the seeds for it at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange that I accidentally bought two packets. (I gave one away at a talk I did in the spring.) I think I planted them in too much shade because they are probably only about two feet tall and have yet to flower. The packet said they could grow to ten feet tall. I didn’t expect that but I did expect taller than then two feet.

Anyway, that’s pretty much how the summer vegetable garden is growing this season. One final positive note… I do believe I’ll get some figs this year.

And maybe some pawpaws, if the raccoons don’t pick them first.

How’s your vegetable garden doing this year?

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