Garden Column- By Wendy

Hello garden fellows! How does your garden grow as we enter harvest season? I am presently visiting friends in Port Townsend Washington. Yes, leaving the garden is difficult, but I was able to find some friends who could house and garden sit. Risky, you might say but with my anal preparation – WATERING! – and with the fortunate turn to milder weather, Michael and I were able to leave on the last hot day a week ago. Rest, it’s wonderful.

The Moon is waning and will be New early on the 23rd. My waning phase activities are definitely “passive,” being on vacation. As a reminder to readers, waning or “passive” phase activities are not plant specific, except for the planting of root crops and this should really have been done before mid-August. This is a good time to weed, pull out waning crops, harvest ant process crops.

I’m harvesting tomatoes finally! My garden sitters are putting them in my cool storage. I’ll begin canning when I get back from Washington.

I did one batch of kosher dill pickles using the lacto-bacillus brining method. The cucumbers were larger than I like so I have a three gallon crock going with my second batch using smaller cucumbers. It’s filling fast as all my melons, winter squash and cucumbers are pushing out new babies.

I forgot to mention one crucial component of pickling via fermentation – veggies must be submerged and kept anaerobic; free from direct contact with oxygen. I use ceramic plates or pickling weights to keep veggies submerged. I’ve even used well-cleaned large flat rocks.

My bean crop really started to stall a few weeks back. I was harvesting about three pounds a week and then less than one pound. What!? Turns out the chipmunks and mice were eating the flowers. I was expecting the bush beans to pump out beau coup amounts. The bush beans usually kick in just as the pole beans are slowing down and with about 25% more beans, minus the vermin element.

This is documented evidence of what the little bandits are capable of. The sunflower is growing in a galvanized trough, two feet off the ground, aside the vermin’s salad bar of chard, radishes and kale. The little bastards, aren’t they cute?

Since I am on R ‘n R, I’ll make this short. So, remember y’all, time spent near a creek or walking in the woods helps you feel lighter and makes the world look brighter, which we all could use a dose of these crazy days.