10 foot sunflowers

The Lordly Sunflowers Towering over their Subjects



10 foot height, but just now thinking about forming flowers.



The first yellow flower just burst open today
 

Good Eats through the Summer


     Funny year this year.  The snow didn't go away until the first of May and the last frost, although a light frost, was on the 4th of June.  Except for two hot weeks in mid-July, the weather has been spring-like with lows in the 40's F, and highs in the 60's to low 70'sF.  That's been extremely good for the cool weather leafy crops like cabbage, broccoli, lettuce and spinach.  Not so great for warm weather crops like tomatoes and corn. 

one cabbage that survived the chicken invasion

     I'm not complaining, mind you.  We've certainly enjoyed the salads, cucumbers and cole slaw; the cooked cabbage, broccoli, spinach and carrots.  These have all been prolific this year.
     By the way, my concoction of garlic, cayenne pepper, and dishsoap marinated in water has kept the cabbage moths at bay.  No worms in our cabbage.  The trick is to spray it early, and after every rain or heavy dew.

Early Bantam sweetcorn, not so early

     We haven't had any corn or tomatoes yet, but we have immature cobs on the corn, and several orange and one almost red tomato.  With temperatures predicted to go into the 80'sF for the next week or two, I can already taste that butter-soaked corn on the cob and those tomato sandwiches.



14 inch diameter pumpkin, more on the way

     Remind me not to plant Buttercup squash again.  I meant to try Butternut, but ended up with Buttercup.  Too watery and tasteless for me, but the chickens seem to like them. 
     On the left is my biggest pumpkin so far, but they're still growing.  There are several green ones almost this big, with 2 months to go til Halloween.  Even if we get an early frost, we'll still have several nice ones.

     We've also been eating our red and Yukon gold potatoes.  The yield isn't as great as it could have been, but plenty for us.  We still have about 15 more hills yet to dig.  Yesterday I dug up the first two hills of Kennebec potatoes, and the yield was much better.  About 4 pounds to a hill and they're still growing.  There's about 50 or 60 hills of Kennebec yet to dig this fall, so we should have a good winter supply.

Tiger Lilies finally in Bloom

     Finally, for Amber's sister Kathy who was waiting for the tiger lilies to bloom last week, but had to return home to Texas last Sunday, here they are.  (Orange ones in the center)