Gardening toward fall

It is hard to believe that we are in the middle of July already. Doesn't seem possible, but we are. Gardens are having a hard time adjusting to all the moisture, and now it's turned off dry, but at the same time it's hot. We went from a really nice spring to summer heat almost immediately. Checked the temp one day last week and it was right at 90 with heat index of 100 degrees. Man, that's hot.

Tomatoes may not do so well this year. With all the moisture this year, fungus is going to be a problem for most everyone. If your variety of tomato is prone to fungus, it is already showing up. Most of the problems that I'm hearing about are the bottom leaves of the tomato plant turn yellow and then die. It begins right at ground level and then slowly works its way up the plant.

You can spray with a fungicide called Dacinol and it will help, but in my opinion not much. Best time to spray is before the fungus shows up, so it's a little late now. My tomatoes in my tunnels have small, light-colored spots on the leaves. It begins with a few and slowly they are everywhere. I've been mixing Dacinol and BT and spraying them. The Dacinol is for the fungus and the BT is for the worms. I haven't had any trouble with the big green caterpillars, but the small tomato worms are getting a few of my tomatoes. The last time I sprayed I made sure all the tomatoes were covered in spray. The best part about Dacinol and BT is the PHI or preharvest interval from spray to safely picking the fruit for consumption is zero for both of them. So I can spray and pick the same day.

I've also had a few tomatoes that have had blossom end rot. Most of them have been in our new, bigger high tunnel. I'm guessing when we do a soil test this fall it will be deficient in several key elements. Probably be really needing some lime as well. I think I'll take two in the bigger tunnel and one in each of the other two tunnels. It's kind of odd but some of the varieties of tomatoes have the most trouble with blossom end rot.

About now is the time to plant your pumpkin seed. Pumpkins usually take about 110 to 120 days, which if planted now that will make them mature about the end of October. Check the days to maturity on the seed packets. Some will be less and I'm sure some will be more. From now to the end of the month is also a good time to plant your fall crops of squash and such, like butternut squash. It's still a little early for turnips but one could plant them if you want to. Most wait till the middle of August to plant turnips. We are cleaning out some ground in our hill garden so when we get it tilled and ready we will scatter some purple top turnip seed. A little goes a long ways so don't overseed like I never do! Seems like every year my turnips come up thicker than fleas on a coyote.

Marge planted a row of Jade green beans in one of the tunnels. It should make for some good fall beans. My plans are to plant a few beets in the same tunnel. Just enough to have a few to eat. I like them cooked and then sliced with butter on them. Man that sounds good. I also like them pickled.

For the past couple years we have grown a yellow zucchini instead of the green ones. For one thing they are easier to find in the garden. It seems like some of those green zucchini hide and then when they show up they are huge. We've found the yellow zucchini are a bit firmer and not as seedy. They work really well on the grill. Also the larger ones aren't as seedy as the green zucchini.

Our garlic plants are needing dug or pulled. If the ground is soft enough one can simply pull them. After pulling, we trim the stalks down to about 16 inches and then sort for size. We sort off the biggest of the garlic bulbs, and these are for planting later this fall. We sort off the smallest and then the mid-sized ones. I've always wondered what would happen if one planted the whole small bulb rather than a single garlic slip.

We pulled all of our Texas 1015 onions. Most of them had fallen over and the rest were fixing too. Some were commencing to get soft so we sorted them off, and we'll use them first. We pulled some of our Candy onions, and they are ready as well. The first chance we get, we'll pull all of them as well. I fixed a shelf in the shop to lay them out on and let them dry. We have a fan on the 1015's during the day to help circulate the air.

We always waited till the tops on our potatoes were either dead or dying before we dug them. Not sure if that's the best, but that's how we've always done it. We start digging some early to get some new little potatoes. But to get the big ones one has to wait awhile. But then if the weather wants to dry up or continually monsoon, one may have to dig them.

I tried something new a couple weeks ago. Marge was gone one day spending some time with her friends from the university, so I peeled the hide off about a 10-inch zucchini and sliced it in half. I started frying them in our No. 12 Griswold cast iron skillet. I then cut up three big sweet onions and added them to the skillet. Marge had about 1/3 pound of hamburger in the ice box, so I patted it out and started frying it in the same skillet. Seasoned the whole mess with salt and some Greek seasoning. Pretty darn good. Was a little greasy though.

Weather has turned off hot, but coffee still hits the spot in the morning and evening. This morning I had several cups of a Colombia I roasted about a week ago. Sure is good. Then this evening I had a cup of a cappuccino Marge bought me back in the winter. Enjoyed it.