Sep 20, 2012

The weeds have had full run of the garden for the last 6 weeks or so.  Due to my work schedule and harvesting from the garden I have not had time to keep up on the weeding.  We have had a skunk problem this year.  I have trapped 6 so far.  They like the corn and can do quite a bit of damage if they are left to eat all they want.  The 3rd planting of corn is being harvested right now.

I try to take the first picture from the same location each time.  I am at the northeast corner of the garden looking towards the southwest corner.

We are just waiting for the rest of the potato vines to die back and will start to dig them in a week or two.

4th planting of corn on the left and 3rd planting of corn on the right.  We are picking the 3rd planting now.

 The heads of the sunflowers are mostly formed now.  The small blossoms attached to the seeds are starting to fall off.  The seeds are fully formed.  It is just a matter of waiting for the heads to dry before we harvest.

Sunflowers on the left, pumpkins in the middle, 3rd planting of corn on the right.  We are in the middle of picking the 3rd planting of corn.

The pumpkin vines are dieing back due to squash bugs.  You can see the squash bugs in the picture below.  The pumpkins are turning orange a few weeks earlier than in years past.  They are nice large pumpkins this year and will help in feeding the milk goats.

3rd planting of corn in the center, 4th planting of corn is on the right and is three weeks behind the 3rd. If we can hold out three more weeks without a heavy frost we will be eating it also.  I am not holding my breath, we can get a frost any day now.

I have cut down all of the stocks from 1st and 2nd planting of corn.  These have been fed to the goats.  You can see all seven rows of the sunflowers in this picture.  All of the rows are 75' long and watered by dip lines.  The pickup bed trailer on the left is what we will put the sunflower heads in when we harvest them.  The trailer will be covered with a tarp and the heads with the seeds attached will be fed to the goats for the next 6 months or more depending on how much we get.

The cantaloupe is coming on strong.  We have more melons than we can eat.  The extra are fed to the animals.

Cucumbers on the left, tomatoes / peppers center, Blue Lake bush bean and Blue Lake pole beans on the right.

 The bush beans have all but stopped producing.  The pole beans are going strong and will continue to due so until we get a frost.  By planting both bush and pole beans we get a longer growing season.  The busk beans start to produce long before the pole beans do.  I could plant more bush beans every few weeks to keep the harvest of bush beans going but most everyone prefers to pick the pole beans, easier on the back.  You can see the 3rd planting of corn on the far right and the 4th planting on the far middle. 

Sep 9, 2012

4th planting of corn on the left and 3rd planting of corn on the right

3rd planting of corn on the left, pumpkins in the center, 2nd planting of corn far center (we have harvested this planting already),  sunflowers on the right.

Cantaloupe in the front, watermelon, cucumbers, tomatoes, bush beans, with pole beans in the rear.

Pole beans on the left, bush beans, tomatoes / peppers, cucumbers, watermelons in the center, cantaloupe, then 2nd planting of corn on the far right.

Most of the cucumbers are being picked by friends now.  We ask that they throw the larger cucumbers in between the rows as they find them.  We feed these to the milk goats.

Pole beans (Blue Lake) on the left , bush beans (Blue Lake) in the center, tomatoes on the right.

Many of the watermelon vines died due to being whipped back and forth in a wind storm.  This is one off of the few vines that survived.  It was perfect and very sweet.

Here is the 2012 Mega Garden.  Due to my work schedule this year I do not have as much time to post on the blog so it is mostly pictures.  As time permits I will add comments later.
Here are links to the previous years of the Mega Garden
http://themegagarden2011.blogspot.com/
http://themegagarden2010.blogspot.com/
http://themegagarden2009.blogspot.com/

Aug 23, 2012