Late summer garden

As things wind down, the coneflowers and phlox reach their glory. The late summer blooms brighten the garden while the asters and goldenrod edge the woods. Each day, I gather up another few handfuls of tomatoes, pick one more zucchini or eggplant, and watch the butternut squash ripen to a pale tan.

Our First Ever Onions!

Yesterday, we picked our first batch of onions! The old tree made a great drying rack.

What's in the harvest?

After the deer trampled and munches their way through the tomatoes, beets, potatoes, cucumbers, and squash, I figured I better salvage what I can. They kindly left the root vegetables (ate the tops of the beets and potatoes), but destroyed the New Girl tomato crop. I wonder why they didn't chomp on the corn? I froze over 8 pounds of the sweet stuff! Next, harvest all the potatoes before they churn them up out of the ground!

Fresh Picks

Our first grape tomatoes have ripened! I also picked the first eggplant, only 5 inches long, but enough to add to the already plentiful zucchini for a little giambotta!

Potato Blight Hits Eliot

John and I spent the weekend digging up the Early Rose and Katahdin potatoes down at the cabin garden. Late blight has struck, so we salvaged most of the crop and have begun a spraying regimen to save the Kennebecs and tomatoes. I pulled the Early Rose at the house as well, although they seemed to have suffered more from wireworm damage and maybe too much moisture in that location. The cabin garden yielded some very interesting potatoes--a family of Mr. Potato Heads. One even reminded me of Wallace from "Wallace & Gromit".

The House Gets a Facelift

The house is looking really nice--no more Band-Aid brown with toothpaste green trim! The crew worked all weekend (since it finally wasn't raining) and got the first complete coat on. What a difference. Even the mailman liked it. He left a note "The house looks great. Nice color!" I'm not sure what to do about the ugly wood front steps. Granite would be nice, but may settle for something a lot less pricey.

Big Bertha Moves

Dad came up for the Eliot Antique Tractor Show on Saturday. But before he signed in and parked the '55 Ford Jubilee, he put it through its paces. Dad twitched three chunks of Big Bertha up the driveway so when we cut the remaining wood, it will already be in place for stacking. That last chunk, about 4 feet high, had the tractor wheels spinning on the damp drive, but he got it up there! (Oh, and the damn kayak--that's John's project that is going to go away soon, before I call 1-800-got-junk! Maine Yard Disease is spreading.)

Callie Lou the non-working farm dog

Yesterday, in a fit a energy, Callie galloped through the garden in a mad dash, doing her version of beserker dog. She stays on the boardwalks most of the time, but her enthusiasm overtook her smarts. Luckily, not much damage was done.
After finally finishing off Ruby's old chew bone, we had to buy Callie a new one. Here she is in the back yard, having a good chomp.

Under Construction

I'm finally getting the house repainted. It's time for that horrible Band-Aid brown and toothpaste green to go away. And like any project with an old house, you are constantly opening another can of worms. I'm having rotted clapboards replaced, a new window to replace the ugly "porthole" (an octagonal eyesore soon to be a cold frame), and maybe some new front steps. Even the chimney is getting a face lift-peeling paint removed and a new coating. This rainy weather is slowing down the painting, but it will look so nice when it's done! The house will be a blue-grey (Lexington Blue), with white trim, and a claret door. Stay tuned!

What's Growing (and what's not)

At the home garden, we're seeing little cucumbers forming, and mini-zucchini. Yesterday, I dug out a few Early Rose new potatoes for our supper--delicious! The tomatoes seem to have stagnated--flowers, bud no fruit forming. And of course, the radishes, peas, and chard are doing well in this cool weather. The spinach needs to be re-seeded and we started another row of lettuce and beets yesterday. I'm watching the tomatoes to be sure we don't get late blight--a disease which can wipe out our crop!

The cabin garden looks much more promising for tomatoes (the New Girl variety), and we've enjoyed some delicious radishes and beet greens. But cutworms decimated the pole beans and lima beans. The winter squash appears to be holding its own. The corn, on the other hand, is spotty at best. And you can definitely see where compost was spread, and where it wasn't! There's a stark difference in the output.