Welcome garden fans to the August Garden Report. I’m your host, Argyle Schield, and I’ll be showing you three of our finest local gardens. Thanks for tuning in. Let’s get right down to it and check on the first garden, Jones. This compact little beauty started fast and furious in the spring, pumping out the lettuce, the spinach, the carrots, the broccoli, but got bogged down when the summer season started and has been struggling to catch up ever since. In a bold and maybe rash move, this garden’s intrepid manager put all his eggplants in one basket, planting thirteen right here, hoping for a hit. Only five remain and all eyes are on the one that has finally set a small fruit, still far from maturity. Bookies give it an even chance of growing to full size, and a 7 to 4 chance that the other plants will produce anything at all. That’s gotta be tough to take.
Late-planted tomatoes, chard, and basil in Jones are performing anemically. The gardener planted cucumber seeds, the one thing (besides the almost fruitless eggplants) growing vigorously. Though blossoms cover the vines, no little cukes. One day, Mrs. Schield happened upon Jones at midday and was dismayed to discover the entire garden still in shade. In Jones’ three years on the team, towering trees have grown around the perimeter of the field, postponing the time when sunlight finally hits. The big question on everyone’s lips: Will Jones be traded next season for a sunnier plot? Stay tuned!
A Wall of cucumber bean divides a crowd of beans
The lush, green Lorelei is a different story. The first planting of bush beans is producing its second batch, and the second planting, growing where the Noble Broccoli once stood proud and tall, is producing its first. Their flowers, Dragon Tongue wax bean: purple and the Derby green bean: white, dot the knee-high huddle of plants. A four by four foot cucumber vine-covered trellis divides the bean patch into two teams, wax verses green. Excited fans love to lift a leaf high on that little wall of green to reveal a perfect full-grown cucumber on deck, waiting to be picked. More cucumbers in various stages of ripeness await their day.
Like Christmas ornaments, hung on the vine...?
And now folks, look over here at the very vigorous, very lush okra plants. Yes, the gardener planted twice as many as last year, maybe more, he and the missus enjoyed them so much. Now see these healthy plants, standing shoulder to shoulder as they ought but for one small detail: where’s the okra? It’s like he over-enriched the soil with too much nitrogen, great for green but not so good for flowering which is essential for bearing fruit like okra. (I know, I know, okra, like cucumbers and tomatoes and beans, is a vegetable, right? Served for supper that’s what you call it, but growing, anything bearing seeds in variously shaped packages like okra or tomatoes is a fruit. Enough for the biology lesson.) We leave the Lorelei now, with hopes for more okra over the next few weeks, and move on to the crown jewel of this garden empire, Smith.
Lush, verdant okra plants, beautiful to behold...
The word on everyone’s lips is Butternut. These squash vines in Smith already hold 15-20 squash, yet they are still flowering, still producing new fruit. I hope the family is ready for squash after squash all fall and winter. This is a pure planting success, a big score for the team. Some of these non-stop squash vines wind their way through a good-lookin’ gang of leeks. Fielded on a whim, they grow more and more muscular each day, working out in Smith’s fertile soil. Will they grace the board in cock-a-leekie soup at January’s Burns Supper? Another prolific success, tomato vines continue to bloom, continue to reach for the sky, many taller than the gardener himself. These hard hitting chappies are still knocking ’em out of the park, bearing bucket after bucket of their red treasure. Soft-spoken but no less vigorous, Anaheim, Jalapeno, and Pepperocini peppers continue their race to the finish.
Leeks fore, butternut, aft
As we reluctantly begin to walk away from Smith, enthralled by it as we are, notice that most of the corn stalks, having borne their crop and now drying out, are gone, making way for greens: spinach, lettuce, and chard, hopefully ready to eat just as the leaves change color in five or six short weeks.
Thanks for tuning into this broadcast of August Garden Update. I’m your host, Argyle Schield, wishing you deep roots, strong plants, and a heavy harvest.
