28 August - Thief!

Well, so much for starchy corn deterring the rodents. I believe my crop of "Painted Mountain" fell victim to the raccoon variety of criminal. You can see in the photo how the stalks are leaning a bit, each ear has been carefully peeled open, and stripped of kernels! I'd need to plant an acre of corn to get three measly ears for my fall decorations. At least the pumpkins are still intact (for now), I counted three of a respectable size, and two others.


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16 August - Harvest

Onions!

I've picked most of the onions. Three went to seed before I could pick them (I'll harvest the seed and see what it does) A handful were soggy and rotting, those went into the compost bin. The remainder you see here on the deck, waiting to dry tomorrow in the sun. From the volume in the garden cart, I had about 4.5 bushels including greens. This is from 300 sets. Somewhere in there is a "White Lisbon Bunch Onion" grown from seed, but I mixed it in foolishly.

I may have to make a batch of French onion soup in the near future. Somewhere I have a freezer recipe for it.


Carnation
Dianthus
I've got a few flowers on my carnations, they're growing well for the first year from seed. In the background you can see some phlox.









Maltese Cross
Lychnis chalcedonica
An orange-red perennial flower for full sun. Attractive to bees and butterflies. This is the first blooms on mine started from seed this year. Supposedly one can save the seedheads and store seed to propagate, or divide a mature rootball. I really like the look of these delicate flowers amid my rudbeckia.







Two apples were picked for a trial of ripeness. They're still a bit underripe, but we're getting concerned about the branch being damaged from the weight.

The second apple tree didn't have any fruit. The third had tent caterpillars, and lost some branches.















The peach has been picked and eaten. The skin was rather thick, but the size was very near to a small-ish store peach. It was a little over-ripe (you can see the blemish at the blossom end, the little dark spot is an ant-made hole) It was sweet and juicy. I look forward to more next year, but I'll definitely keep an eye out sooner so they don't become bug food!