A new season - a new name!

Hummingbird Garden

We now have an official name for our community garden.  The votes came in over the winter, and most of us preferred Hummingbird.  There should soon be a sign with our new name.  And the lanscape designer that is working on a plan for our layout will include hummingbirds into a theme.  Watch the garden sign for signs of change!

Flowers

Prairie gardeners are usually pretty efficient with their garden plots.  The season is short and we want to get in as many vegetables as we can manage.  But there's always room for a few flowers between the rows.  Here are a few of my favourite shots.

Fall Fruits

So, it's officially the first day of fall today, but we have still had no frost!  The pace of production has definitely slowed down with the cooler nights and less rain than in August, but many gardens are still producing a few last crops.  I saw Sylvia in her garden yesterday.  Her tomatoes are ripening, finally.  And her melon plants are setting a few late fruit.  She told me that they have had one melon so far - juicy, sweet, and about the size of a golf ball!  She still has a few more like it to harvest.

The August rains were not kind to squashes.  Mine pretty much gave up, hidden under my overgrown corn.  But some managed to get enough sun to set fruit despite the attack of powdery mildew.  Pumpkins are ripening in a few patches, and I suspect some have already been harvested.  

Sunflowers are just reaching their best now, as most of the other crops are being cleaned out of the garden.  This one is Brian's.  The plants are huge - 7 or 8 feet tall, and this one is so big across that it can't hold itself upright.  

Mandan Bride Corn

The frost is holding off still, and my corn seemed to be ripening, so I have been picking a few cobs every few days.  Mandan Bride is a flour corn, not a sweet corn, and I wasn't sure how long it needed to mature.  The husks were starting to turn red so I thought it was worth picking.  

This is the first time I have grown this kind of corn.  The description in the seed catalogue said it would be all colours, including some kernels striped or spotted.  So far it is mostly blue, white and yellow, or dark purple and red when the cobs are more mature and dried.  I haven't tried eating any yet.  I have been waiting for it to dry, then I will try to make corn meal out of it.  

Some of the cobs grew well, and others seem only partly fertilized.  Any ideas why?

What to do with all the Swiss Chard?

Does anyone else find they planted too much of something?  In June I just wanted to get everything in and get it growing.  The dirt looked so empty and the seeds looked so small, I just had to squeeze in a few more.  Then once things start to grow they fill in all the space and start to crowd each other!  

That's what happened with our Swiss Chard.  I planted a whole package, 2 rows closely planted, of Rainbow Chard.  I think every single seed came up, in every possible colour combination - while, pink, yellow, orange, vibrant magenta, and even red with a dark red leaf.  Gorgeous to look at, and delicious to eat, if you don't mind a bit of grit.  But through most of August, the more I picked, the more it grew.  

After a few days of steamed chard for supper, it was time to get creative.  We found this recipe in Laurel's Kitchen:

Chard Cheese Pie

6 cups chard, lightly cooked and well drained

1 onion, chopped and sauteed

2 cups cottage cheese

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup grated cheese

paprika

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Beat together cottage cheese, eggs and salt.  Stir a cup of this mix into the chard, onion and cheese and press into a well-greased 8x8 pan.  Spread the rest of the cottage cheese mix over the top, and sprinkle with paprika.  

Bake for 30 minutes or until set.  Let stand for several minutes before cutting.

Mmmm... Chard is good, but chard with cheese is even better.  Suddenly we were looking forward to the next giant bag of chard again!  By the end of August with all the rain the Chard was starting to get powdery mildew, which was disappointing.  

This week I was able to find a few new leaves with no mildew again, and I think I got enough for one more chard pie.  If the frost holds off and we get a little more warmth I might even be able to get one last picking.  

Does anyone else have good chard recipes?

Bean Harvest

I went to the garden in the sunshine this afternoon when I could count on my bean plants being dry, and look what I found hiding between the leaves! This is my first harvest of snap beans this year. I have one row of each variety. The yellow/purple one is Dragon Tongue, a heritage variety with long, flattish pods that taste buttery when cooked. The green with faint purple stripes is Thibodeau de Comte Beauce. I have not eaten these yet, but they look delicious.

What is everyone else eating from the garden?

Summer storms

Strong winds and rain pummeled the garden on August long weekend! The wind must have come from the south as the corn is all tilting northwards.

I'm not sure onions need quite this much moisture! In all the combination of frequent rains and sunny days without too much heat have been good for the garden. It's just that you can have too much of a good thing.