Sept. 2, 2020
Liz Writes Life
On Sunday night, I finally noticed how long the shadows were
at 7 p.m. The sun was almost down. Yep, we have lost more than an hour of
daylight in the evening. Morning is the same. This past week, it was chilly as
I was starting to irrigate at 8 a.m. with the sun barely peeking above the
cottonwood trees. I have noticed that the plants do not need as much water,
even though some days are pretty hot still. It must be because of less daylight
hours and longer dark time. Fall will be here -- soon I hope.
But, it is still summer temperatures and that makes the
garden continue to grow well. So, today I will report on the ups and downs of my
garden.
Whew, it is finally September! Don’t know why August (and
January) just seem to take forever to get through. Like I mentioned last week,
extra hot temps of the dog days of summer are going to be with us for two more
weeks – at least. Ugh!
Actually, I am pleased that the garden is doing so well,
especially the tomato plants that are huge and full of tomatoes. I planned
better when adding the right kind of fertilizer at the right times, this year,
and it has paid off.
Last week, I picked two dozen red tomatoes, lots of
cucumbers, too much zucchini, a handful of green beans from the one plant that
survived and four large bell peppers. These pepper plants are small, but producing
really well. The plant I picked has four more peppers on it and there are five
more plants! I sliced and froze these peppers to use in the Green Tomato Sweet
Relish that I will make after I can all the red tomatoes that I need.
On Saturday, I got into a weeding mode and cleaned-up around
the zucchini plants and the potatoes. Ended-up popping out four Russet potatoes.
I didn’t need more potatoes, so I didn’t dig in the soil to search for more. Some
weeds have made it through the lawn clippings, between the rows, but are easy
to pull out. You just have to do it!
Outside the garden: I didn’t get all the puncture vine
sprayed as I had hoped. About two or three more gallons of herbicide should do
it. Because the sprayer nozzle seems to go bad easily, I am rinsing the little
inch-long nozzle when I am done. I think it is helping it spray better.
The onions that I planted from seed in May and then
transplanted the first week of July have grown really well. Most stems are
three-feet high and the bases on some of the plants are getting quite big. So I
decided to pull one up to see how big the bulb had gotten. Oops, not big at
all. These are torpedo-shaped purple onions and won’t grow huge, but I did
expect a bulb bigger than an inch-wide. I did clean it and sliced it for a
bacon and tomato sandwich. Yum!
I haven’t said much lately about the moles, but it is time to
complain about their tunnels that I try to mash down – when I find them. The
little varmints seem to like the cantaloupe row. I have been able to keep the
soil irrigated, but there are some nice-sized cantaloupes growing and they are
getting too wet. Many of the cantaloupes are producing right next to the base
of the plant (where I irrigate) and two half-grown melons fell-off the stems,
when I tried to move them a bit. No, they were not ripe.
This is quite frustrating, so I used a brick that was handy
to place under one much bigger melon and a small piece of board under several
others to protect them from the soggy soil. Unfortunately, the moles keep
re-tunneling in this area. I will need to plan better next year. Maybe, I could
use two-by-four boards to place a few inches from the plant base stem that
would hold the melons up off the ground? I better write that down somewhere, so
I will remember to do it. Ha, ha.
A mole tunnel was also affecting the large rhubarb plant. One
morning, as I was irrigating, I noticed a bunch of water pouring out in the
gravel driveway about 12 feet away. Yep, the water was coming from the hose I
was using on the rhubarb. Rats! Or rather moles! I started at the fence and
stomped and stomped the ground all the way around the rhubarb. So far, the mole
has stayed away, but I am checking and mashing every day.
This rhubarb hadn’t been harvested for two months and the
stems with heavy leaves were turning into mulch under the plant. So, I decided
to harvest it starting at the bottom. There were about six huge red stems in
the middle that did pull out easily. When I was done, the plant actually looked
pretty even (shockingly, I didn’t over harvest) and I gave away about 10 pounds
of rhubarb!
It seems like this summer has been extra long. And it has as
it was actually the end of March, when I started hand-irrigating perennials
because of the spring drought. Five months of gardening! In looking at the
weather predictions for September, there will be two weeks of high temps and
then, maybe just maybe, a cooling of 10 to 15 degrees to normal. But, it
doesn’t look like any frosts are in the September forecast. I am not used to
six months of gardening and admit that I am tired.
On the upside, maybe folks in Quartz Valley will get to pick
some ripe tomatoes for a change!
Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in
newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near Callahan.
Columns from the past can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at
530-467-3515.
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