Thought a mini-tour of the garden might be nice, to show a bit of what is going on now.
Blooms are still abundant. This nasturtium got a real late start, with the first blooms finally appearing in August.
In addition to the various squash and okra blooms, I found some volunteer peas flowering. Evidently I lost a few of the seeds I tried to gather from the Dwarf Greys I grew in the spring. Only a couple of plants, but those sweet young pods will be a welcome addition to fall salads.
The watermelon patch was a success! Look at this beauty! It measured 31 inches around and weighed in at 16 lbs. We had a little help from something - rabbit? possum? skunk? - not sure what - but a couple of the ripe melons had the most perfectly round holes eaten into them. Maybe fencing the Great Dane out of the melons was a bad idea...
Wonder what I've got here...seriously, I'm not sure. I sowed some seeds for both winter squash and gourds, and I'm sure this must be a squash (tucked in amongst the weeds! I failed seriously in keeping the weeds at bay this year!). But what kind? I thought I had sown Blue Galeux here. And since I haven't grown it before, maybe this IS B.G. But if that's the case, it sure doesn't look like what I was expecting. ID from seasoned squash growers would be welcome!
And the final image is my pride and joy of the fall season. A Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck Squash. I purchased what appeared to be a Butternut squash with an extremely long neck at the Farmer's Market a couple years ago. The man I bought it from referred to it as a "Neck Pumpkin" and claimed it would make the best pumpkin pie. He was absolutely right! It was amazing how much wonderful orange "meat" there was in it, so I saved seed. Didn't get them sown last year, but happily this year I did. I've got 10-12 of them and most of them are just HUGE! I think a couple will join my other fall harvest decorations (dried colored corn, corn stalks, mini-pumpkins, gourds, etc.), and the rest will go into the freezer for soups, pies, etc. for the winter.
