Garden Blogger's Death Day - July Edition

It's the last day of July and that brings with it Garden Blogger's Death Day hosted by Kate from Gardening Without Skills.

This month was a killer. Literally. I feel like a store going out of business for "Everything Must Go!" It began earlier this week when we got back from vacation and I ripped out all of the beans and vining cucumbers and put them in the fire pit.
This was how the fire pit looked when I was done with everything this morning.

I pulled all of the tomatoes in every bed, the okra which never produced, the cantaloupe that never produced and the bush cucumbers which had died.

The main garden looks very empty at this point, doesn't it.

I gave the lima beans on the trellis back there the good college try, but the bugs have come back to it like flies to a dead horse, so it will be pulled as soon as I get down there with some scissors to cut the trellis down. The eggplants there in the back seem to be chugging along in spite of their leaves which are riddled with holes from a myriad of bugs.

It's time for the fall garden, friends! I think I'll direct sow most of it since I have plenty of time and space. I'm also thinking about another round of cucumbers on that back trellis and a round of beans behind the eggplant. Hmmm...peas on the trellis in the foreground of the picture? I've never been successful at them, but I've got the space to try it!

This month was a real killer, but hope springs anew in the fall.

Saving the Limas and Fears Reestablished

I've officially made the attempt at saving the limas. It rained HARD last night and I was hopeful, as you suggested, that a good water blast would push them off. There were less this morning, so I hit the remainder with some insecticidal soap and there were fewer of them there this afternoon. I don't know if the vines will recover, but I'm all for giving them three more weeks of TLC to decide what they're going to do before I throw my hands up.

I attempted to get a family picture taken during this year's vacation, but we just couldn't contain those children without straight jackets. One was always running off after a shell or a rock or just grains of sand. We did manage an entire week at the beach without getting fried, however, so I count this as a success.
Of all of the things we did on vacation, both children, oddly enough, were enamoured with the lighthouses that line the Outer Banks. We saw the Bodie Island lighthouse, which was shrouded in cloth and scaffolding for repair, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the Currituck Lighthouse pictured below.

There was an entrance fee to climb this lighthouse and we all stood dutifully in line, bought our tickets and climbed to the first landing. Half way up to that first landing (there are 9 total) my heart started pounding in my ears, my stomach sank, I started to sweat and then came the welling tears for no reason whatsoever.

Then I realized.....I'm terrified of open, plank staircases.

It's just ridiculous. I always was nervous on them and avoided them as a kid and even remember going to the back door of a neighbor's house so as not to have to climb their slotted front steps. My old day care sitter also has backless stairs to her front door and they make me pause, but never panic.

I must say, I freaked slap out with no warning. I watched the boy, girl and man make their way to the second landing and stammered out something about waiting there for them while I tried to contain the tears that were looming on the brink. I gathered my nerves while I read the entire storyboard on that first landing because I knew I had to get down the same steps I just came up. I held my breath, hugged the wall and refused to look at the steps as I descended. Then I allowed myself the luxury of panicking over the boy and girl who made it up and down without a peep of trepidation or whine of lethargy and begged to climb Hatteras the next day.

I suppose old, irrational fears stick deep.

The morning comes early. May your have sweet lima living and not staircase of terror dreams.

MAN, was I terrifed. I can't get over it. For no good reason and no moderate trepidation beforehand. It hit me like cans tumbling from an ill stacked shelf. It was just ridiculous, and I keep playing my reaction over and over in my head and still find it ridiculous. I'm obsessing, obviously.

Harvest Monday and a Rescue Mission

Since my neighbors have been harvesting while I was gone last week, the yellow pear tomatoes I harvested yesterday are my only Harvest Monday picture, but boy don't they look good! I can't believe there were so many and moreover that they didn't go bad on the vine. I'll snack on those for lunch today.

Be sure to stop by Daphne's to see what everyone else has harvested this week.

I've decided to try to save the limas. I know, but I really had such high hopes for them. As you can see, they're just totally infested with these little boogers: It's just too much to knock off into a cup, so I think I'm going to have to spray, but I don't know what's going to sink through that hard shell of theirs, or if that's even a factor. The leaves themselves are pretty yellowed and mottled, but I'm hoping that's just because they've not gotten the water they should. I'm going to cut off some of the more offending branches and hope for the best. I really want those limas.

I took out the bush beans today to make room for the cabbages and the broccoli. The tomatoes will likely come out this evening when it cools off. Looks like I'll get to sit down today with my graph paper and really make a good map. I'm thinking rutabaga. I tried some last year, but it never bulbed up. Wonder if I should try again....

If you know what can kill those crazy triangle bugs, let me know.

The Absentee Gardener Has Returned

Over the last week we've been in Kill Devil Hills, NC enjoying the beaches and sights of the Outer Banks. It was a fantastic vacation. We visited three out of the five lighthouses in the area and the boy and girl both climbed the one at Currituck and the boy climbed the Cape Hatteras lighthouse without a moment's fuss of whine. The girl cried buckets because she wasn't tall enough for the Hatteras climb. I didn't make either climb...but more on that later.

My big question is for any of you from that area is regarding the Wright Brother's National Monument and where the first flight took place. All throughout our elementary schooling we read and were taught that the first flight took place in Kitty Hawk, NC, but the location of the monument and flight markers is actually in Kill Devil Hills. Kitty Hawk is only a hop, skip and a jump away, but the place certainly is KDH and not Kitty Hawk. Anyone know the story here?

The garden suffered...actually, the entire summer garden with the exception of the sweet potatoes is coming out tomorrow. All of the remaining tomatoes have BER, the cucumbers look to have contracted wilt or the like, but I'm mostly sad about those lima beans that I had waited so long for. Those triangle like brown bugs completely infested it while we were gone and sucked the life out of the plants. I'm sad, but I think I may still have time to put some more cucumbers and beans in before the first frost. I'll also have the room to try the broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage from seed directly in the garden instead of from transplants. I need to get my garlic order in before it's too late as well. A lot will be happening in the garden this next week, but the results will take some time. It's just been too darn hot this summer. I'm glad last summer (June was mild) was my first real summer garden. If it was this year, I'd be discouraged. Besides the mad zucchini rush, however.

Good thing is that I picked a colander full of yellow pear tomatoes today and I'll get the joy of planning out a summer/fall garden at the same time! Another good thing is that all of your orders placed for Keychains for a Cause will go out tomorrow!! Thank you for placing those orders and being patient while we were gone.

The morning comes early. Sweet garden planning dreams.

Cucumbers and Zombies

Woohoo! I finally got enough cucumbers to make a batch of bread and butter pickles. The few cooler days we had over July 4 weekend really helped the cucumbers along. There were fewer bees in the area, so I can only deduce that it was the extreme heat that was making them grow all funny. I'm assuming the pollination just didn't take as well in the heat, but you can see now we had a pretty good turn out now.
I made the batch of bread and butter pickles yesterday and I'm hoping that with my second planting of cucumbers this fall, that I'll get enough to do some dill pickles. I have decided that the wide mouth jars are the way to go when doing things like pickles.

In the search to keep the kids occupied this summer, yesterday we went to the library and saw a clown who did a fantastic show and then did face painting. I didn't realize it at the time, but this wasn't just a cheek painting, this was a full faced painting. The girl was a butterfly and the boy was done up like a green Tw0-Face. They had a blast, but the paint rubbed off on their hands and subsequently everything else...except for their faces. This is after two scrubbings and then a third scrubbing in the bathtub and they still have that green glow of the undead around their eyes.

I tried baby oil as well, but there's a hit of it still there this morning, especially on the girl, although she did just walk in here and say, "Look Mom! Zombie Children!!"

We're going to another library today to see a magic show....let the disapproving stares and mumbled comments begin!

Crossing Your Beans

General question here....

I've always heard that when you cross pollinate things like squash, it isn't visible until the seeds from that crop are planted themselves.

Correct?

Reason I'm asking is that I just picked a bunch of bush beans that most certainly were NOT Dragon Tongue beans, yet showed some of the coloration on the outside of the bean as well as on the bean seeds as well.

I know they were not Dragon Tongue because they were planted about 3 weeks after the Dragon Tongue beans, are in a different bed (although located within 10 feet), and I used all of the DT beans when I planted them the first time.

It was just darn odd, I tell you, which prompts the question do bean crosses present themselves in the same generation?

Harvest Monday!

Every Monday, Daphne hosts Harvest Monday! Hop on over to her blog to see what everyone is harvesting this week. This was the week of the tomato for me. The yellow pears are coming in daily and I don't mind one bit. They're just my favorite.

Because of the nice weather around the fourth of July, the cucumbers were actually pollenated correctly and aren't so woppy this week.

Here's what I pulled today. I had to break down and put some tomatoes in the fridge even though I hate to do that. Most of this will wind up in a salad I'm bringing to a girlfriend's house tomorrow.

I tried, tried, tried to remember to take a picture of a roasted garden veggie dish from the other day, but by the time I remembered to grab my camera, we had eaten it all.
It obviously wasn't good at all. ;)

On a side note, thank you to everyone who has ordered key chains! The first batch went out in the mail this morning and you should be getting them shortly. I added the newest design today. It's another breast cancer design, but this one is white with tiny pink ribbons.

If you haven't checked out the Keychains for a Cause page, I encourage you to please come on over and see what it's about!

And while you're at it, stop by Daphne's to see what everyone else is harvesting!

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.