Sept 26

The first picture says it all. We started picking watermelon this week. The picture is of two of them that were picked this last Wednesday. I picked another one for dinner today along with several cantaloupes and a couple of honeydews.

The tomatoes have not been watered for over thee weeks and it is starting to pay off. They are ripening at a fast pace now. We have at least another week of good weather, maybe two. This will make the difference for the melons and tomatoes.

We have started to pick the third planting of corn for supper. This Friday we will pick the remaining ears. No sign of ear worms. I have had some signs of raccoons.

The late planting of sugar snap peas are doing great. They are covered with blossoms.

The potatoes are just waiting for the vines to die down so we can dig them. Last year we did this in mid October and finished up on Halloween. I am still watering them.

Sept 20

I am almost a week late posting these pictures.

We had another light frost on the morning of Saturday, Sep 18th. It didn't do much damage, just nipped the squash and pumpkins a bit more. The weather looks good for the next week so we might get some watermelons after all.

Sept 12

I am a couple of weeks late posting these pictures.

We had a light frost Saturday morning, Sep 11th. It just nipped the tops of some of the squash plants. The cucumbers had the most damage.

The squash bugs continue to do their damage.

Sept 5

The neighbours harvested the second planting of corn yesterday. Very few ear worms on this planting. We had some for dinner today and it was the best corn ever.

The squash is continuing to die off due to squash bugs. I posted a picture at the bottom of this post that shows how bad it is. Most of the bugs in the picture are immature.

We have had more wind this summer then I can remember having in the 11 years that we have been here. The nice thing about the drip is that I can water even if it is windy. The irrigation water amount is down to about 6000 gallons a day. I need to take advantage of every gallon.

I dug some Yukon Gold potatoes for dinner today and they were near perfect. The vines of all the potatoes are dying off. I noticed that they were starting to dig spuds in Idaho this week when I was up there on Thursday. This seems early and I will try to hold off until October if I can to dig ours.

The honeydew melons look to be almost ripe and the small tentacle vine on the watermelons are starting to dry up. I have several watermelons that are in the 20 lbs range. This is a complete turn around from last year.

The tomatoes are still green. They have not had water for a week now and they don't seem to mind one bit.

Aug 29

The squash are taking over the garden, that is the ones that haven't been killed by the squash bugs yet. I always think that I should have planted them closer together until this time of year, and I realize why I give them so much room.

The tomatoes are producing green tomatoes now. It will be a race to see if any of them ripen before the first frost. That first frost can happen any day now. We just keep our fingers crossed. I have cut the watering to almost nothing to try and stress the plants and speed up the ripening.

The second planting of corn looks great and is about 6 days from picking. No sign of ear worms yet.

The melons look great. I think that we will be eating watermelon out of the garden this year. The honeydew are loaded and the cantaloupe are not far behind them. This is a complete turnaround from last year. I posted some pictures of them at the bottom of this post.

We hauled the extra goats to the auction last week so I have lost my weed eaters. This time of year the weeds have full run of the garden. I just have to much on my plate to keep up with them.

The potato plants are dieing back, but the spuds are some of the best, if not the best we have ever grown. The extra water seems to have paid off.

Speaking of water, the irrigation water is almost next to nothing. I have been renting an extra water share and thought about letting it go this year, but I am glad I keep it. I still have enough water, but some items are only getting watered every other day such as the potatoes. The drip system is the only way that I could maintain a garden this large with as little water as is available this time of year.

The pepper plants are loaded. We are just waiting for the tomatoes to ripen before we pick any peppers.

The beans have been high producers this year. The plants are about worn out.

Aug 22

These pictures were taken right at dusk. I even used the flash on some of them.

We picked the first planting of corn this last week. It did not ripen as evenly as it should have. I am assuming that it has something to do with the wind a few weeks earlier. The ear worms are bad this year. Some ears had as many as 4 worms. The later planting should have less of a problem with the worms.

It looks as if we might get some melons this year. The watermelons are even looking promising.

The tomato plants are some of the best I have ever grown, the only problem is that I do not have many tomatoes. This seems to be a problem for most of the town

Aug 15

We bottled 55 quarts of beans this week from the first picking.

The first planting of corn is ready to pick. We had some for dinner today and it is a toss up as to which it better, the first new potatoes or the first of the corn of the season.

The tomato plants look great but they do not have many tomatoes yet. It is too hot for the fruit to set. Most years we end up with tons of green tomatoes when the first frost hits.

The pepper plants are doing well and love the hot weather. Cucumbers are loaded and it looks to be a great year for them. The cantaloupes and honeydews are also loaded with blossoms. The watermelon vines are starting to put on some growth.