Goodbye August

Harvest & Assessment of the Growing Season

Shifting Seasons

As I mentioned in last week’s post, we’ve had cool nights here that signal the coming of Fall. This past week has brought cooler days as well, though it will heat back up for this holiday weekend (Labor Day in the U.S.). The 2024 Farmer’s Almanac was released today, which means we have the winter weather forecast. Verdict: cold and snowy.

I love the Farmer’s Almanac. And I do pay attention to their weather forecast, as it’s very often right.

Harvest

Tomatoes and beans continue to be the most prolific garden items. We’re bringing in bowls & baskets of them daily. Mainly cherry tomatoes from volunteer plants, which can be sliced and dehydrated/ sun dried or frozen. I also saw someone online today “raw packing” tomatoes with a water bath canning method, which looks pretty cool. Have any of you used that method before? The green & purple string beans are being used for dinner or blanched and frozen.

Tomatoes and beans, this year’s garden winners

The corn is coming along with healthy-looking ears, but we always pick it too soon so we’ll need to exercise patience if we want sweet, tender corn on the cob.

Quite a ways to go yet for the corn.

The pears have been harvested and they are yummy. We’ve just been eating them sliced and fresh, but if anyone knows of a great pear recipe, then I’m game to give it a try! We’re harvesting the elderberries as they ripen. Sadly, not a fruit we can eat as we pick; they have to be processed or they’ll cause gastrointestinal distress. I’m freezing them in small batches until I have enough to process for jam and cordial. The berries have to be either used right away or frozen until ready for use, since they start to ferment within hours of being picked. At least that’s what I’ve read; it’s the first year we’ve had elderberries.

Still waiting on the pumpkins and hot peppers. They have a pretty good chance yet. The larger varietals of grapes are very nearly ready. And while most of the greens have bolted, we still have some loose leaf lettuce that’s producing well.

Pumpkin, hot peppers, Concord grapes

Some favorite blooms this week are nasturtium (finally!), cosmos (of course), and purple asters (which will be in their full glory by Michaelmas¹).

Spicy nasturtium, lovely cosmo, native aster aka Michaelmas daisy

This year’s main garden failures are zucchini & summer squash (courgette), melons, cucumbers, eggplant (aubergine), potatoes, and sweet peppers. The blueberries literally went to the birds. The peaches succumbed to fungal disease. So, some really big fails. But, hey, those tomatoes, right?!

Youngest kid helping with the harvest.

Hive Update

The bees are looking better this week, after some recent run-ins with poison. In their search for flowers, a large number of our foragers came in contact with pesticides or other garden chemicals². It’s sadly a common occurrence, and not the first year it’s happened to our bees. But this year has been the worst. The affected bees seem confused & twitchy. They can’t fly, so they crawl & stumble all over the ground. If they go for water, they drown. And they die with their proboscis sticking out.

Phillip is feeding them now, to supplement the dwindling forage. And we have extra water sources available for them in the yard, with pebbles or straw for them to climb on so they don’t drown. We have 2 hives, both with young & vigorous homegrown queens, which will hopefully increase their chances of survival this winter.

Busy hive entrance

Hello, September

This wraps up a record 5 posts this month! Each Thursday in August, and it’s a pattern I’d like to continue as we enter the cooler months.

How’s your garden as September arrives? Which plants have done well for you, and which have not cooperated this season? What do you think of the weather forecast for your state from the Almanac map?

Happy Labor Day!

—Erin, in Michigan

1. Michaelmas is the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, September 29. I wrote about it in this blog post.

2. For information on garden chemicals to avoid & what to use instead: Bee-safe gardening tips