As the dog days of summer wind down, we’re harvesting, drying, freezing, and canning the rewards from all this season’s effort. Here’s some inspiration to keep you going through hot weather and all that summer throws at us.
Spaghetti squash vines are starting to die back, which means these will be ready to harvest when that happens. These yard long beans are the length of my arm. Our Marina di Chioggia squash plants are sprawling across the pathway and into a flower patch. They grow toward the sun, so plant them near the edge of the bed to conserve bed space. Cucumbers grow behind them. This is our biggest Marina di Chioggia squash, about 1 foot across. Miniature white cucumbers are prolific this yearThis dragon fly visits this garden stake every day. Milkweed is keeping the Monarchs happy this time of year…and the milkweed bugs. We leave them alone, since they eat the milkweed seeds (helps prevent a milkweed take-over).Our first ripe Aleppo pepper is ready to dry in the solar food dehydratorRipened fish peppers after the harvest. These are our favorite spicy pepper to grow (we use instead of jalapeño).
Enjoy these dog days of summer and everything you’ve grown this year. There’s still time to preserve what you’ve grown (we’ll be canning tomatoes soon). Find recipes for your favorites on the Gardenerd blog. Just search the veggie in question + “recipe”.
Estudio EA