yes! their babies make a little flying string and take the wind to get around, but i always interrupt some of them and put them around the garden. the ones in the porch overhang didn’t leave on their own.
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plums almost ripe, nectarines still hard but red. trailman apples ripe! Whitney almost there. chestnut and braeburn and winter banana have a way to go.
it’s August 6
sumac first seed heads got eaten by something and it’s putting on round two. they’re green, hope they redden up for the fall. raspberries cut back and the new vines are already long, i have to pin them up to the fence. one bunch of grapes fell off, they’re already ok to eat but not ripe. small too. peppers are loaded and I’m waiting until some turn.
tobacco crop is coming in, almost ten bunches curing or drying.
pears, comice are hanging a little finally, harvest delight has 2 on it and they are coloring up. have only had a few figs ripe but they all have many fruit on them. ischia is barren this year again though.
tromboncino have taken over, corn has had its silk and is starting to fatten. the short corn has only a few very small cobs though. sorghum heads are opening. summer squash just starting. a few cukes only.
a handful of tomatoes breaking ripe and brought in for next year’s seeds. the orach is fully in seed, not dry for collection yet but there’s so much it’ll definitely reseed again. the 3 kinds i originally planted seem like this year they had crossed as the red had green leaves here and there and the green had red.
have a potted quince and medlar gotten on a sale that will need planted in fall and some snowbank blackberries, black raspberries, and a currant to plant in along the driveway fence next to the neighbor’s roses like we planned. berries next year for both of us
repotted all the apple and grape seedlings and they are in tree pots until late Sept i think? whenever they drop leaves I’m thinking I’ll put a few in the ground somewhere. or tuck them up against the house foundation and cover the pots some, see if they can do in the ground in spring. not sure yet.
a pawpaw seedling is about 3 inches tall, that’ll have to be protected over winter I’m sure of it. it’s in a tall pot now.
must pull and move those sand cherries. no more experimental bushes by the path. that’s 3 losers in a row.
photo dump:
editing to add!
looking over things, i will have scion and seed this year. last winter i had tragedy after tragedy and wasn’t able to gather or send anything from my garden. but this year i have no parents left, only a mother in law, so no tragedy can be quite as bad.
scion i should have:
Italian plum, lakota plum, toka, schoolhouse, beach
sand cherry seeds or scion (astringent but someone may want these)
apple: ark black, gravenstein, trailman, Whitney
pear: harrow delight (only one or two cuts), one good stick from comice.
grape: multiple himrod.
fig: ischia, genoa white, “big pink” (an unknown variety of common fig from my friend’s tree that is now big enough to get cutting. they are large green figs with sweet insides), florea, Chicago hardy
seeds: my landrace sorghum (variable height, uniformly sweet stalks for syrup, white to red grains), “anji sunflower” (titans, multi headed short ones with large seeds, and Mongolian all mixed together on year 3, drought proof), sand cherry, red corn (a cross of bloody butcher with red popcorn. it makes red red popcorn), tromboncino (second year saving seed), 3rd generation self seeding orach (mix of red and green, leaves the size of my head), landraced candy roaster/banana squash. yarrow. marigold. white hollyhock.
cuttings: gooseberry- white (unknown pale sweet), Invicta. himrod and/or Van Buren. red/white crossed mulberry that’s very productive and rich flavor.
starts/suckers/seedlings: lilac and grape and fig, grape seedlings. black cap raspberry (a big and a small kind. bigger ones make less berries per branch)
just a list to remind myself what I’m looking at later
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August 14
Arctic jay not ripe fully. birds are pecking them so i pulled the top ones off. maybe they’ll get a little better on the counter for a few days?
some himrod have fallen off, they are sweet but so small. i don’t think they are fully ready.
corn has gone bonkers. birds are after it this year and earwigs eating the silks. still, they look like eyeballs and they taste good, my goals for the year.
tobacco is big; collected seed from the biggest leaved plants that i let go to flower, have been pulling an armload to cure every few days
reliance peach all ripe, picked. trailman apple all ripe and picked. Italian plums no, winter apple and chestnut no, Whitney picked and sitting to sweeten up, Van Buren grapes also small and a bit stringent still. first mashed potato/sweet potato squash pulled
gravenstein hanging its one apple
grafts from this year peeling back on their own
sapodilla recovering well and the little one too! lots of water involved.
yacon and, various apple and grape seedlings. a maple in there and maybe a honey locust and raspberries. one I’m not sure what it is. my partner’s babies mostly
winter squash have made it over the top to the ground on the other side in two places. tromboncino are most of the big leaves
mess, mayhem, nonsense, labels?? no
this fall I’ve got the task of making paths like this throughout, somehow.
tomato row very green. jungle month
lastly, olives are still fattening, Meyer lemon is laying them on thick, key lime has its one lime, and the satsumas are alive, if a bit yellow.
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The corn is beautiful- what is it?
How is Yacon? Have you grown it before? I’ve recently become interested in it.
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it started out as bloody butcher, some kind of pink popcorn, and a white sweet corn. i just keep a few of the most popcorn red and a few of the sweet cobs every year for seed, it is an unnameable kind now i guess
edit i also got a bag of ‘short corn’ from somewhere, so always some of them are like 3 feet tall
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Do they end up (what you pictured) as sweet corn or popcorn?
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some of each. usually the real tall ones are all sweet fat corn. anything less tall tends to make the popcorn cobs. i peek before i pick to be sure
the yacon is new this year for me, i don’t know yet. I’m letting one get established in the garden and this other in a pot
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another week gone by.
plums not ready on the Italian tree, still, somehow. last peach picked from reliance today. last Whitney apples picked, earwigs burrowing into the ripest ones. gotta prevent that next year. an early granny.
figs: black Bethlehem wrinkling early not all the way ripe. florea productive already. CH ripe in the side of the house low branches i think i can cover up for winter. white genoa still have latex. vdb getting closer. Olympia not ready.
other apples: some braeburn, grannies, a winter banana and a gravenstein hanging. grafts that took going strong.
pears: comice hanging. harrow delight picked, it had 2 on it. in the fridge right now, not tasted yet.
ONE (1) Minnesota midget melon, palm sized, delicious. several melons out there developing. saved seed from the early guy
nectarines got bird pecked and struggled to make a handful. not very juicy, white flesh. none made it to ripening.
grapes: himrod still fattening up but edible already. Van Buren only had two bunches, one fell and tasted just barely unripe. next year maybe.
pawpaw: 3 alive, several seedlings hanging on
mulberry: good year. need to cut back and prune height
sumac: put on two rounds of berries, birds took both.
gooseberry: did well this year. small in number, maybe I’ll fertilize in spring. grown up over the porch now.
raspberries cut back and attached to the fence to keep it more clear over there.
jujube: one alive
jungle dog
tobacco real tall
harvest baskets lately.
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just another “it’s a damn mess” photo or two.
all side yard apples finished now. peaches too. plums about ready.
edit to add: earwigs chewing on my gravenstein and it was on the ground, fallen. it had a small bruise from bumping into a branch and they chewed it open. gonna cool it off and try it though it’s not ripe. first apple on this young tree.
my favorite variety too.
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Sept 7
all plums ripe all grapes finished. last Whitney picked. Granny Smith almost ready. braeburn picked and eaten immediately. comice still not ready. winter banana still not ready.
figs coming in, a trickle
Susan’s grapes came in this past week so grape jelly canning. cucumbers making plenty, peppers loaded, tomatoes not great this year but enough. 3 pumpkins so far, 6 melons only one was near ripe.
sorghum in milk stage. corn made some popcorn and some sweet, there’s still silks coming on a few.
starting to pull and save seed
tobacco is a mile high
sunflowers took over again.
eggplants have fruit very small still. okra 6 inches tall.
first batch of main potatoes should be ready soon. sweet potatoes flowering and vining nicely. Meyer lemons fattening up. there’s a bitttermelon forming! winter melon and some candy roasters falling off unpollinated sadly.
photos update
going away from Thursday night till Monday night. it’s going to be full of stuff to pick when we get back.
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I love the toads!
They make me think of the ones I got from my Grandma.
Thought I had a picture to share but I will have to remember to take one. 
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i love them! I’ve tried to attract real ones but I’m in town in a arid place, it’s just not happening.
I’ll give a tobacco update for Sept 11
plants are tall, seeds are almost all ready, have collected a lot so far. hanging some to color cure in the shade and others to dry. already a box full of leaves to age! casing with kraken spiced rum, honey, birch syrup this year.
small harvest for the day besides more tobacco, too.
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I’m in the city as well, have pond but no takers.
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this project is bad for me, my math is wrong at all times. I’ll get there
the lid for this cold frame (?) is an old barn window with panes that measures 8’ 5" by 4’ 1"
why is it that size? i don’t know. i have big hinges for the back. and a cool big handle for the front. and hinges for putting on boards to prop it open in summer with a catch hook and all up above. i have built the walls for the bed front and sides, I’m j just trying to keep the dirt from being up against the shed itself, about half a foot out to possibly still catch warm from it
i cannot build that slant into it for the walls to keep the snow from breaking it. but I’m trying
a few more days of cursing and cutting and screwing things together i guess
i did math and made marks. let’s see if this works better
i put up photos of the log and stick bed being built, that thing needs shoring up but has worked. hope this turns out good too
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You have reminded me that I need to ask my husband to help me construct real sides for my cold frame… thanks! 
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well i worked on it yesterday until i stepped on a 4 inch nail that was sticking out of a little piece of wood
i thought something was grabbing my foot and danced like someone in a horror movie with a creature attacking em, then kicked the wood OUT OF MY SHOE AND FOOT in the panic. it went right through. another tetanus shot this week (i step on a nail or two every damn year)
i got some things done-
before the incident.
today i wore my work boots and got almost there. my partner and i can’t lift and hold the window lid, it’s too heavy to hold and attach the hinges and springs etc to the shed so I’m waiting on a helper who’s coming Monday. but i got the bottom done, the raised bed part and the slanted sides
jank corners but i don’t care, it’s solid attached.
the progress today and the barn window top in question.
I’ll need springs to help me lift it during winter, i think- it’s going to have snow on it a bit despite that angle i think.
moved the figs and tropicals into the greenhouse because there’s a few cooler nights coming up. no frost on the forecast but i want to see if they’ll grow and ripen a bit more before the cool nights stop them.
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update on sorghum Oct 1
cutting, since i won’t have time before this weekend when frost arrives. i cut the tops and let them dry head down on the porch in a clean bucket to beat the grains off then winnow
the stems i chop each section so they are short enough pieces to fit into my big slow cooker. I’ll put them in a paper bag and hit em with a rubber mallet a little to crack the stems up, then i slow cook covered with water until there is nothing left but liquid and loose fibers.
then I’ll squeeze and strain it, and cook the liquid down slow, it takes hours, until it’s a thick syrup. i like it very thick so i cook all this down to about a point and a half jar full. it’s enough to last me until next year, i just ran out last month!
I’m the only one that likes the syrup but the grain is really good mixed into any porridge, it’s very sweet. i roast it on low until it’s dry dry, then store it. then boil just like wheat or barley grains.
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