Our Hobby Farm Adventures: August 2009

2009 has been a dreadful year to garden here in Iowa. The weather has been unseasonably cool and quite damp. I didnt pull the peas until July. They didnt get pulled because they were done producing, but because I was tired of looking at them and needed to get the cukes in their spot. Now I wish that I would have left the peas where they were as the cukes like warmer weather and they are suffering in the cool weather that we have. The popcorn appears to be ok, which is fun. I got battered and blown over a couple of times in severe storms that we had but has pretty much straigtened right up. The swiss chard has flourished, yum. The pole beans were slow to start put have overtaken their trellis so I have hopes for them. I want lots to freeze and some to pickle. The okra, still on the fence about. I have picked one pod, maybe it is too cold for it this year. Bummer too, I love okra and so badly wanted to pickle some of that too. Will wait and see how it does. The seeds that were labeled Bush Delicata are sprawling so I dont think that they are a bush variety but thats ok since I have them in a seperate area and they are producing some lovely squash. It will be great if we have some tasty winter squash for the cold months. The tomatoes are lagging behind too. Some of the plants I think might have a virus so I am thinking about pulling them. The plants seem to be dying, so maybe they will just be made into green tomato relish. Next year planting spots are going to be rotated. The peppers and eggplant appear to be doing ok. Carters peppers in his 4H garden are doing super! His Giant Marconi and Golden Peppers are huge and very prolific! We really really like the Giant Marconi. They are a sweet pepper and are thick walled. I have used them in taco meat and enchilda casserole. They are supposed to be good grilled too, will have to give that a try, grilled then sliced and put on a grilled brat or pulled pork sandwich, delish! I am looking forward to next year, hopefully a warmer typical Iowa summer.

Tomato and Pepper plants, July 22, 2009.

Strawberry popcorn in front, eggplant (hidden by corn) peppers, tomatoes and then swiss chard, lettuce and herbs hidden by the tomatoes.

Carters flourishing 4H garden, must be from all of the rabbit manure that we put in there. He has marigolds, parsley, golden peppers, basil, giant marconi and tomatoes.

All of these pictures were taken July 22, 2009

Sunday we got up early to head to the farmers swap. We had a few rabbits and a couple of saddles that we wanted to sell. The weather was fairly nice, not as hot as we expected it to be and there was a very nice breeze. However we could see very dark clouds looming on the horizon to the west of us and headed our way. At about 11:30am we decided to head home as everyone else was leaving. Once we were home we got things unloaded, checked the animals and came inside. Matt & I were going to go pick up some groceries, Carter wanted to stay home. For some reason I decided to turn on the TV and just check the weather. Good thing I did as we had a Severe Thunderstorm Warning. Boy, was it severe! The winds were straight line, not sure of the gusts, but the rain was coming down so hard we couldn't even see out the windows. We could hear things hitting the house so headed downstairs and that is when the power went out. The storm blew through and this is what we saw when we looked outside! What a mess!!!