Fall is here!

Thought I would post something as I've been looking through various recipes in which to use my Armenian cucumbers and snake gourds.  Speaking of the Armenians, I finally used up the 8.2-lb giant in some Phuket curry and Asian style marinated cucumbers.  I now have 4 pretty big Armenians that I need to use and am thinking half of them will be curried (but this time a yellow coconut curry) with the snake gourds (3 waiting and 4 in the garden getting bigger every day)!  Although the Armenians did get some damage from the aphids, they stood up to the aphids and the heat really well.  The aphids really didn't bother the snake gourds all that much and they seemed to love the heat.  I have lots of seeds that I harvested from the giant Armenian and will save more from the 4 that I have waiting.  The snake gourd I will have to let a couple of them get way past eating condition to save the seeds apparently as they need to be almost rotten for the seeds to be viable.

We've been eating on the beans pretty well and really haven't had enough to freeze or can, unless we just don't eat them.  The yard long beans give a nice portion with just 4-5 beans!  I have to make a note that the yard long beans really don't seem to like the heat as they have been doing much better with the cooler temps.  

It rained pretty good here today, my rain gauge said 1.2 inches!  My tomato, pepper and eggplant starts have been out on my potting/puttering bench for most of the week and are doing pretty good.  When things dry up I guess it'll be time to clear the garden of spent plants and put the starts out along with potatoes, carrots, rutabagas, parsnips, radishes (I like the daikon), onions and parsley.  I also need to plant some lettuce and all the brassicas I can get out there.  Oh, and peas!!  I'm thinking to plant cover crops of some type of beans which should do okay until about November or middle of December unless we get some cold weather.

I have really been pleased with the kales, mustard and lima beans.  I picked a nice amount of lima beans in two days and hope they will set another crop before it's time to pull them up.  The kale and mustard should make it through the winter.  I want to plant some arugula too.

I also need to screen compost bin #2 to add to the finished compost bucket and get that spread over the beds.  Then we can leave #1 to settle and finish while we are filling up #2 again.  All in all, I think the two compost bins have been a good investment especially with the help of the black soldier flies!!  The resulting compost is rich, black and spongy and has a nice fungal smell.  The garden will love it!

Well, that's enough for now!  Toodles!

Deb