Steepmeadow Blurping Along Nicely

We've been busy enough collecting vegetables that it has been difficult to find time to update the blog. 

It's been cooking hot ('90's) and dry for the last 10 days, and damned if the devil hasn't farted up our nose and set us up for another 10 days of '90's with no rain at all. The wind blew away a miasma of haze from fires out west and in Manitoba and Alberta yesterday.

This heat and dry sets us up for a lot of time watering, and the rain barrels are exhausted in a couple of days. To ration the water, I've been filling the rain barrels and then using the watering can to do the beds. 

Meanwhile, we've been eating fantastic cucumber and dill sandwiches with dill on them and cream-cheese. We actually had a few pleasant visitors to Steepmeadow the other day who lunched on Steepmeadow produce. Rare indeed have been the visitors to Steepmeadow, what with the lockdown and all. 

Tomatoes are just turning over. We're pulling a camo-zucchini a day or so from the squash bed. How a zucchini the size of my arm can blurp up out of nowhere overnight is a mystery. 

There are ripening pumpkins and there are banana peppers and beans. The peas are about done. I dismantled some of the hardscape and moved peppers in containers to the sunny spot. 

We asked for it. Now, it seems, we're going to get it - a tsunami of food. 

Here follow a few photos of the present state of the garden. This must be high season, before any signs of the horror of fall have begun. 

 

A future black swallowtail butterfly 

There are two pumpkins in here, but one is hiding behind leaves.

Dill in the strawberry bed

The post-stake bed where the peas were

We're trying to shelter the lettuce from the harshest mid-day sun by using a row-cover cloth

This bed, with spaghetti squash, yellow squash, and cucumbers was fortified with a sack of manure last year. It seems to be performing swimmingly.

The row of giant sunflowers at the peak of their growth around the deck.