August 9th-15th, Week 20
RuthAnn’s Weekly Garden Diary
Documenting Progress and Reflections in the Garden
My attempt to document the planting, growth, harvesting, and preserving of our family’s 8000 square feet of garden.
Northeast Iowa Gardening in growing zone 4
Last frost date May15, First frost date September 15
August 9th to August 15th, Week 20
The crickets sing all day now desperate to find a mate and procreate before fall and cooler temps arrive and the garden is best viewed from a distance.
What we harvested this week:
- Enough green beans to make 27 quarts of canned beans plus a few meals of fresh beans.
- 6 quarts of raspberries, flash frozen and then into Ziploc bags and back into the freezer.
- 30 pounds of tomatoes, turned into 14 quarts of pasta sauce and 8 quarts tomato juice.
- A few peppers for cooking needs
- A few carrots to add to a dish here and there.
- A handful of grapes for snacking.
Other Garden Tasks:
Last rows of sweet corn got cut down and fed to the hogs now we wait for the soil to dry out so we can plant buckwheat into that area to keep weeds down and to be ‘green manure’ when we cut it down.
3 inches of rain caused my tomato alley to collapse. The boys helped me set it up and reinforce it with more steel T-posts. The plants were heavily damaged by all the trauma, but I’ll call it a ‘good pruning’ and harvest every tomato with thankfulness. When plants get stressed, they will break down their sugars and mature faster in an effort to reproduce before they die. This means that the rain, the stress of falling, and then many dreary and wet days in a row has allowed the blight to progress rapidly. I was previously holding the blight at bay with my homemade peroxide spray (here) but now I am going to let it run its course because it will help ripen any green tomatoes before our looming September 15 frost date.
The potatoes I planted late June are struggling too, I lost about half of them to soft rot and now the Colorado potato beetles are relentless, (due to the plant being stressed) and the boys are picking off hundreds of bugs each day. I am thankful for the 150 pounds of potatoes we harvested from our early planted potatoes in case the late crop doesn’t bushel.
Weeds that pop up in late summer go to seed so quickly and need to be removed as soon as I see them or I risk them dropping hundreds of seeds into my garden for me to deal with next spring. The shortening of the day’s triggers survival instincts in many weed species, causing them to shift from vegetative growth to reproductive growth. I am happy to report that the buckwheat has been doing an excellent job at creating a shade canopy and suppressing weeds where we planted it.
Reflections
Best viewed from a distance, this is what accurately describes my August Garden. Gone is the desire to put seeds into the ground and grow things in pretty rows and patterns, in its place is the desire to harvest, gather and preserve what we have grown. Just like some weeds are triggered to put efforts into reproduction by the shorter days of August so I seem to be triggered to fill jars and shelves with food. After 27 years of living very closely with nature in this climate my habits are deeply rooted and there is a certain slant to the sun and a sound and feel of the atmosphere that makes me want to rush to the basement and line up jars of food and count them too.
From past experiences I know I need to capitalize on this instinct now because all too soon the days turn cold and all I’ll want to do is cuddle up on my sheepskin with a good book or my knitting.
7 Responses
Hi RuthAnn!
I enjoy your videos so very much!
Are there places that I could purchase some of the T shirts you’ve worn?
Specifically the one that says:
Home Maker, “maker” in italics, placing emphasis on what we do!!
Have a wonderful day. Blessings in you and your delightful family. 🙏❤️🙏
Anne Gent
Good afternoon Ruthann. I am leaving a comment to tell you how much I enjoy watching you and your family work on your homestead. You have inspired me, even at 75 to get out and enjoy gardening again. Thank you for sharing your life and family with us. God bless you always.
You are absolutely right. Here in NE Ohio our days too are getting shorter. My tomatoes are very slow at ripening. The green beans are doing extremely well. I have enjoyed reading about your gardening adventures. Oh and we gave that tomato blight here too.
I can relate to so many of these thoughts. Our last frost date is a few weeks after yours, so I’m slowly creeping in to “squirrel season” when I try to “squirrel away” as much food as possible. We’re already noticing the earlier sunsets and the cooler starts to the day.
I always enjoy your news letters. Thank you for sharing your life with all of us. I live in a rural area in E TN and have harvested almost 50 lbs of tomatoes from just four plants. Those in the raised beds did the best. I’ve started some fall crops in containers that will be ready for the garden shortly. I experiment with new things each year. Gardening is definitely good for the soul. I always feel so proud when I can my bounty and share some with my neighbors. I LOVE your outside kitchen!
Being thankful for the provisions God gives us year by year… I have learned to put up everything the season has provided. Good thing too as this Spring was exteme in it’s oscillation of temperatures and we had no fruit on any of our 29 fruit trees. So last years abundance will carry us though the winter. Thankful for your teachings ❣️ God Bless you and your family.❤️🙏❤️
Am ever so grateful for your goodness and willingness to share your knowledge. All the glory to Him!