Inside: We spent all of June sowing seeds for our garden. How’s it growing six weeks later? Find out with our late summer garden update!
Amy, Amy, hopefully not contrary, how does your late summer garden grow?
Well, no silver bells or cockle shells, and if I had pretty maids all in a row, they’d have dirt under their fingernails after I put them to work weeding. But the cucumbers are growing (see above photo), and, in fact, I’m collecting some in my vegetable crisper to make curry pickles.
Remember my little tomato seedling? It’s over a foot tall now.
The sweet potato vines are off and running, trailing up the log now. Dreaming of Thanksgiving dinner! I can almost taste Emily’s sweet potato casserole. . .
I’ve also got watermelon planted in a hay bale. Lots of watermelon, actually. And me on a special diet. . . Not to worry, though. The chickens absolutely love melons, and I can have limited amounts to eat. Mom loves it, too. Plus these are sugar babies, which is a small variety I fell in love with years ago. Just right for a serving or two.
Other veggie seed I’ve sown. . . Winter squash is trailing up a mammoth sunflower (the variety, not necessarily the size, as this sunflower is fairly small from others I’ve grown in the past). Cabbage and cauliflower seedlings are waiting for their new home in the cole crop bed.
Now for the not-so-good news. A marauding band of raccoons dumped over my containers of wildflowers right after sowing the seed, so scooping up soil back into the pots created seedling uncertainty. Some seeds were buried too deep, and knowing what is what has been a challenge. But after doing a little hunting online, the foliage in one pot resembles forget-me-nots, so I have three of those. They seem to be growing a little slow, and I’m not sure they will come back in my zone, as only the hardiest varieties are perennials in zone 5. Granted, I’m zone 6a, (although I’ve heard folks in my neck of the woods say we are in zone 5).
The small zinnia seedlings in the flower bed are just starting to bloom. This seems to be the year for zinnias to flourish. They are doing quite well everywhere I have them. Some flowers, well, not so much. Definitely a zinnia fan. I have another post in the works for a zinnia story update from a post I ran last year, but that will have to wait.
That’s the status report six weeks in. We’ll do another post toward the end of the garden season to see how the late summer garden has turned out this year. Stay tuned.
How does your garden grow? Tell us about it in the comments.
Related posts:
Planting the Late Summer Garden
Turn Sprouted Sweet Potatoes into Plants
Compost 101 and Other Cheap Organic Fertilizers
Posts from a year ago:
Open Windows, Food Shoot, and Other News Fresh From the Garden
Kathy
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Question…how will I know when the sweet potatoes are ready? Do I have to dig them up to find out!
amy@amyharkemoore.com
Hi Kathy! Good question. . . Unlike white potatoes which signal their readiness to be harvested by the foliage turning yellow, sweet potatoes keep growing as long as the weather is warm. For our neck of the woods, gardeners generally let frost dictate harvesting sweet potatoes. It’s best to choose a cloudy day before frost to dig them up, and then let them lie on the ground for a few hours, but not overnight. Ideally it’s good to let them cure for 10 – 14 days in a warm, dark, dry place before storing away in boxes. . . If frost does come before you have a chance to harvest, the next morning cut the vines at the soil level, which should buy you a couple of days before you need to dig them up.
Hope that helps. 😀