I Have Squash!

No matter how many seasons that I garden, it is always a miracle to me when one day I walk out to the garden and find that the squash blossoms have turned into actual squash, almost overnight.
Noting grows faster than squash and this year the croook neck and acorn squash are coming on strong in spite of the dry, cool weather.

Also this year, I am really encouraged by the fact that I have watermelon, something that has always given me problems in the past. But, the proof is in the pudding, or the melon, as it were. So, we will see how tasty they are.

The Vegetable Garden

Even with the less than desirable conditions that we have had this year in Ohio, it seems like it doesn't take long for the garden to sprout up. Of course this may require daily watering. The green beans are in blossom and beginning to produce, the potato plants are starting to die off and I really need to dig some of the new potatoes.
Zucchini and cucumbers amaze me every year with the rapid way that they can go from blossom to huge almost overnight. And, while the pepper plants are not nearly as tall as they have been in years past, they are full of peppers.

While it is tempting for me to see just what monster zucchini I can produce, I know that it's the young and smaller ones that are the most tender and easiest to work with. I also discovered, after the first year that I grew them, that you don't need 20 zucchini plants. They are prolific producers! The older and bigger they get, the larger the seed area in the center and the harder they become. We use ours to make zucchini bread, sliced for salads, sliced, battered, seasoned and pan-fried, or used in stir fried recipes. So, unless you are going for the prize biggest veggie category at the county fair, it's not a good idea to let them get too big.
Cucumbers are another one that can get away from you in a hurry. Of course they are wonderful in salads and for sandwiches and cucumber and onions. There are also a lot of fairly simple pickle recipes out there. My favorite are freezer pickles, made with cucumbers, onions, celery seed, (sometimes some pepper rings), vinegar and sugar. Packed into containers and frozen, they last for months and are especially good when eaten half frozen and crunchy!

July- The Best Time For Perennials

Mid-summer is the time around here when perennials are at there peak. I wish that they lasted until frost, but unfortunately, most of them don't. These, old fashioned garden phlox are the descendants of one plant which I have separated through the years into around twenty different areas around the property. These are one of the few perennial flowers which, usually, last well into the fall. You can buy these in various shades of pink, red, white and purple, but I have noticed that through the years the ones I have periodically change into various colors on their own. The only problem that I have with these is that they develop a fungus or disease of some sort on the stem and leaves that often turns them brown. I read somewhere that this is a result of too little water as opposed to too much, however it doesn't seem to affect the flowering.

Echinacea or Purple Cone flowers and Shasta Daisies are two more of my favorites. The Shasta Daisies will last for quite a long time, and are very hardy. They will also bloom again if you dead-head them by snipping off the dead blooms.

Muti-floral Yarrow is a nice change from the usual yellow yarrow that I grew for years. It lasts a long time in mid summer, but gets very tall and needs to be staked. It multiplies rapidly and is very easy to devide and transplant.

Autumn Sedum needs very little watering since it has thick stems of a succulent. The flower heads will eventually turn pink and white. These can be dried, and make really nice arrangements.

Raspberry Time

It is definitely raspberry time in Ohio. Many years ago, I started out with two black raspberry bushes that I dig up from my gr. grandmother's abandoned farm, brought them home, and stuck them in the ground without much preparation or thought. They did pretty well.
Years later, I transplanted them, twice, and now, over twenty years later, they are still producing and multiplying. They will produce new small plants every year, either from seeds, scattered by the birds or the wind, or from the shoots that reach the ground and form a new plant.
You have to keep an eye on them, because every day more ripen, and the birds like them too.
While a lot of people have various species of insects that tend to find raspberry bushes, so far, I haven't had any problems. It is a good idea though to wash them carefully and check for any little critters.
Black raspberries, (rubus occidentalis), are native to the eastern part of the U.S. There is another species that is native to states in the west. Obviously these tasty little fruits were a real treat to pioneer families.
They are easy to freeze, but so far, every one I have picked has gone into muffins, cake, and on cereal.