In the Garden ~ Second Week of August

 It might be 103 degrees outside, but we are busy, busy, busy putting in the autumn garden, dreaming of cooler weather and beautiful, changing leaves.  We were able to get all the seeds in that were on 

the docket last week.  The cabbages have even already sprouted!  I am looking forward to the first autumn garden hardest in a week or two when we thin the seedlings and enjoy the thinned sprouts sprinkled on top of the night's supper.

I read that it wasn't too late to plant some fast-growing varieties of beans and cucumbers in our area, so we purchased a few more summer seed packets and lived on the wild side.  The seeds (below) went into the ground last night.  I hope so badly that we can enjoy a nice harvest of these beauties before a frost gets them.  It's hard to believe it will ever frost here with this constant extreme heat, but I keep reminding myself that it will happen in time.

The black beauty zucchinis are doing quite well, now that we adjusted their water to what they needed. We have really enjoyed this variety.

Our first batch of corn came out of the garden this week.  We used the three sisters method and grew pole beans up the stalks.  Several hidden pods were revealed in the final corn harvest.

While we wait for our porch to be done (along with the rest of the house), the corn stalks wait patiently in a garden corner, ready to become part of the outside entryway autumn decoration. 

We pulled the rest of the chard out, along with some of the kale that's been infested with little white bugs (I must research a remedy for those buggers).  

My, the chickens love it when old plants are wheeled out of the garden.  It doesn't get much better than bug-infested kale, in their opinion.

This week's autumn planting includes sugar snap and sugar ann peas, French breakfast radishes (they are so yummy pickled!), onions (Bianca di Maggio and Noordollandse Bloedrode), and 3 types of lettuce (Brune D'hiver butterhead, May Queen butterhead, and Marvel of Four Seasons).  I really like butterhead lettuce.  Maybe because of the "butter" part of their name.  Also because I adore their texture and making lettuce wraps out of them.  Next week, we plant kohlrabi and some more peas!  What have you been up to in the garden these days?