The beautiful bounty and hot, hot weather

It is August and everything is fruiting. I can't keep up with the harvest. It is a lot of fun watching everything grow. We have been trying to either freeze, dry or can the extras so we can have our home grown veggies during the winter. Here are some pictures of the bountiful harvest.



The new hot, humid weather has been a god sent but also a menace causing some issues with powdery mildew. Giving the squash a good trimming (leaves with the mildew) to help with air circulation and a mixture of milk and water sprayed on the rest should help clear things up in a jiffy. Things look a little raggedy during the hot day but they get a little more perky with the coolness of the evening. I did lose one tomatoe to late blight but I'm keeping a close eye on the rest and so far so good. The mystery plant growing in the carrots we figured out to be a very large spagetti squash. It is pictured above the big white sqaush. It suddenly started to grow out of the row of carrots. Must have been a seed in the compost.
The herbs are taking off now. I have been drying most in them but have thrown some of it in the freezer. The dehydrator helps a lot to get alot of the herbs dried at once. I have found that it is best to dry only one type at a time though. It smells so good in the house when we are drying them.

The flowers are loving this hot, humid weather. Some of the sunflowers are taking off. I will leave off her with a few more pictures of the garden. Please check the slide presentation for 2009 garden and see all the various pictures of the garden. It is a lot of hard work but done with love.