The Modern Victory Garden

Tonight I was on my own to pick the bush green bean patch.   Lately, my daughter has been helping me with the picking chores but tonight she had another commitment.   I picked them much faster working alone (since I was not chatting the whole time!) but it sure was a lot less fun without her company.   The mid-week harvest of beans weighed in at 5 and 1/2 lbs total.                                 

The weather has gone from unbearably hot to almost chilly in just a few short days.   I actually closed up the green house last night because the nighttime temps were forecasted to dip down to the low 50's.   I have Mini Bell peppers and Early Jalapeño peppers growing in the greenhouse.   The fruits are really growing and some of the Mini Bell peppers are starting to ripen, so night time lows below 58 is not good news.    In fact, the Early Jalapeño peppers are just really beginning to form.                                 

Hopefully the weather will soon equalize out to a moderate but warmer level.   Despite the chillier weather, the tomatoes are giving me some nice clusters of ripe tomatoes and the pace is picking up a bit in the number and frequency of tomatoes that are ripening.   Still only harvesting one or two at a time for the moment, but it looks like that is about to start changing - particularly if the weather warms up a bit.                                        

The largest of the pumpkins has gotten very big and is starting to change color already!                                       

Seeing a pumpkin starting to turn orange, combined with the dramatic cool down we have experienced in the past two days, definitely is hinting that fall is not far off.   It really heightens my sense of urgency to get the summer crops in and preserved as much as possible.   Luckily, it appears a lot of the late comer crops are making good progress.   The pickling cucumbers may eventually give me a reasonable sized harvest - judging by the amount of flowers and immature fruit on the vines.   In addition, I noticed this evening that the first runner beans are starting to form!   These are Sunset runner beans.                        

I also have the second wave of strawberries coming on my ever bearers (Ozark Beauty).                                                 

So, it appears that things are continuing to progress on a reasonable time table but I must confess that I will feel much calmer once I am up to my elbows in tomatoes in the kitchen!    Hopefully that will be fairly soon.