We're not sure yet whether the 2020 garden will give us many tomatoes. Be that as it may, we will have pumpkins. The weather has been just too dry and too hot for tomatoes. Blossom-end rot seems to be occurring in pandemic proportions this year. At the same time, you wouldn't believe how many apples there are on the two trees we have left — and on the ground under them.
There are a couple of varieties of these big winter squashes out there not only growing but looking ripe already. We'll make pumpkin soup, pumpkin buns, pumpkin pies, pumpkin cakes, pumpkin enchilada sauce, and pumpkin tajines.
We had pretty good crops of several varieties of green beans in July. We've had great basil, planted in pots on the front deck where we can easily pick a few leaves to include in lunchtime dishes on the spur of the moment.
We live at the top of a hill. The soil is very dry up here unless we get soaking rains at regular intervals. Most of the water that falls from the clouds runs off pretty fast and flows down into the valley. Gardeners who live down in the river valley have an easier time of it. Our soil looked so good when it was tilled up last spring, but soil is not enough. Il faut de l'eau. There has been very little this summer. Still, maybe we'll get a lot of tomatoes in September. That would be a nice surprise.
This season we have the opposite, a great abundance of greenhouse tomatoes and just one pumpkin plant, the rabbits took care of the rest!!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you need a big greenhouse for growing pumpkins!
DeleteWhat about collards? Can't remember whether you plant those in early fall.
ReplyDeleteWe're growing chard this year. It's doing well, thank you.
DeleteGreat looking pumpkins!
ReplyDeleteI hope they continue to ripen and don't fall victim to rot. They look beautiful right now.
DeleteBeautiful pumpkins and hope for tomatoes later in September....
ReplyDeleteYesterday Walt was able to make a pot of tomato sauce using tomatoes from the garden — with a lot of trimming. Still, we got something. We had a rain shower overnight, but the 10-day weather forecast shows us staying too dry.
DeleteSo envious of everyone's pumpkin crops. Ours (two years running now) only produce male flowers. I assume it is the heat this variety is not suited to. We used to use them as the container for fondue - blue cheese fondue baked in a pumpkin - divine.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds good. I don't think I've ever made a blue cheese fondue.
DeleteI thought tomatoes liked heat, but then I haven't grown them for years and years. Maybe it depends on the variety. Pumpkin enchilada sauce sounds great!
ReplyDeleteSee below my comment to Chris. The pumpkin enchilada sauce is very good. I'll post a recipe when I make some.
DeleteYup; tomatoes like some heat, but not too much. Les potirons sont beaux.
ReplyDeleteI think I remember that when temperatures get into the 90s, tomatoes sometimes stop setting fruit or even flowering. Ours seem to have done that in August. But the worst problem is blossom-end rot, ruining most of the fruit.
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