Early October Update

A week into October, the harvest keeps on trucking. Here's a tiny Better Boy surrounded by two dozen or so Yellow Pear tomatoes and one or two Sungolds.

The past several weeks have been an extension of summer with high temperatures and very little rain. Boston experienced its second sunniest September in recorded history, and yet we can still fault the weather as we struggle with a mini-drought.

The pepper plant recently set two good-sized peppers while the fall crop of snap peas struggles with the heat. The Kentucky Wonder green beans recent closed up shop, apparently having given up on waiting for me to water. The summer squash, with one last gasp, set fruit this past week.

After weeks of permissive neglect, the garden is moving back to center stage as the threat of frost looms heavy in forthcoming weeks of October. Last year, frost hit on October 15th.

Like a parent who's realized that he's spent a few too many hours in the office while little Rickey spent his time with an increasingly-impatient day care staff, I hope to atone for my weeks of inattention. (We were hoping to make you a strong and independent garden! Is that really such a crime? Who knew you needed water everyday or every third day for that matter? If I'm guilty of anything, it's loving you too much.)

But fear not, Champ. It's nothing but pony rides, moon pies, and blood meal from here on out -- at least for the next week or two until the frost silently swoops down from a clear cold night and squeezes the life out of you. But, in the meantime, have another Cherry Coke. You deserve it!

Weekly Update: Storms Batter Grange (GDD 1455)

More than two inches of rain fell in less than two hours, upsetting the delicate balance of the grange. High winds knocked over three tomato plants and twisted up the peas something fierce.

Weather channel fodder aside, it was a good week actually. The first ripe tomato of the season appeared while the squash plant finally set fruit. The peas set an incredible number of pods enabling the largest harvest of the season.

Like it is . . . The Week that Was
7/26 - Phlox blooms
7/27 - First tomato harvested. Sungold 60 Days
7/28 - First squash appears

All Flowers and No Fruit, Squash Plant Slow Out of Gate

Like any expectant gardener, it's hard not to worry about the lack of fruit set on my summer squash. Oh, sure, give it time they say. She's just a late bloomer. Well, there might be something to that.

As Mr. Miodownik informed a bunch of sleepy-eyed 9th graders during biology, plants, just like mammals, reptiles, and celebrities, need both sexes to produce fruit. (ed. note: apologies to any readers with a background in the hard sciences for the extreme simplification. Yes, celebrities can, and often do, hatch from eggs, much like the lovable Mork did before meeting Mindy.)

Squash plants, being no exception to my generalization, often fail to bear fruit early on because its flowers tend to be of one sex. As the season progresses, male and female flowers appear, the lights go out, and a few glasses of Drambuie later, a vegetable is born.

Writes, Hunter Johnson, Jr. of UC Davis' Extension, "Gardeners often become concerned when many flowers appear early, but fruits fail to set. The reason for this is that all of the early flowers are males. Female flowers develop somewhat later and can be identified by the miniature fruit at the flower base. In hybrid varieties of summer squash, however, the first flowers to appear are usually females, and these will fail to develop unless there are male squash flowers -- and bees -- in the nearby area." Source: UC Davis, "Summer Squash"

Squash Flowers While Neighbors Check Locks on Doors

Started as a late-season transplant only 19 days ago, the squash plant has done its thing despite the cramped quarters and relative shade of the Grange.

Meanwhile, neighbors, fearful of an onslaught of squash, are beginning preparations that will quickly enable them to douse all the lights, lest they give the appearance that anyone's home when I come a-knockin' with a wagon of squash.

Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Weekly Update; Heat Builds, Lettuce Out, Squash, Basil, Marigolds In (GDD 593)

A relatively slow week on the grange. Spring flowers are giving way to the heat of the summer. Perennials are starting to set flower buds while the lawn's growth begins to flag.

6/15

• Peony and Mountain Laurel blooms all but faded.
  

6/16

• Septoria leaf spot battle wears on. Infected foliage removed and a broad spectrum fungicide containing chlorothanil applied.

6/17

• 3 heads of red sails and romaine lettuce removed after one final harvest, leaving 5 heads of Boston bibb and 2 heads each of red sails and romaine.
  
• Squash plant added to the garden where the red sails and romaine once treaded.
• Marigolds interspersed throughout the raised bed.
• Two types of basil planted in containers.
  

Tale of the Tape

• Rudbeckia - 11-12"
• Phlox - 16"
• Echinacea - 18-25"
• Sedum - 24"

• Pepper - 8"
• Sungold - 13"
• Yellow Pear - 13"
• Brandywine - 13"
• Better Boy - 23"
• Peas - 46"