Flowers are Whitsend's addition to the atmosphere.
Many of our crops require pollinators, which in turn require their own food.
This is an Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly having some nectar, before going off to lay eggs on our parsley, fennel, carrots, dill...
The Opoppeo flowers are ready for harvest. There are only six large compound flowers to go around.
After these are cut, each plant will send out several side shoots of smaller flowers, which should generate enough cut flowers for everyone.
Opopeo flowers make great dried ornaments.
I always leave a couple of flower heads go to seed as the finches like their seeds.
The stalks are over four feet in height, so I can cut flowers to your desired length. As long as they fit in the car.
Here is another flower that I have managed to grow in a corner of the field. Leopard Flowers, or Blackberry lily.Some Fleabane (white) has also gotten into this bed, but I thought the white and orange looked good together.
These plants have not been watered once since the spring, something to consider when planning a low maintenance garden...
I made several attempts to get this photo, but the subjects in question were not cooperative.The assassin bug kept trying to drag away it's dinner...
...and the leaf miner kept trying to crawl away from the assassin bug.
The garlic is finished curing. The hot, dry days of the past few weeks have helped this process along.After they were harvested, the soil was gently brushed out of the roots and the bulbs hung to dry. The roots are left on to allow the moisture to escape evenly.
I hang them out of direct sun (garlic can sunburn) and where the rodents are not likely to get at them (mice chew on everything even if they can't eat it).
Then the garlic is quickly graded by size and a final count is tallied.Then the real inspection begins of the largest bulbs.
I select bulbs for seed based on size, number of cloves per bulb (eg, I prefer to select Fish Lake variety with four cloves as opposed to the typical three cloves).
Most importantly, I look for signs of ill-health or disease.Cloves infected with a virus will produce plants that may spoil the following season.
Molds might kill the clove when it is sown; or it might render the plant less hardy as it grows the next season.
The lower bulb appears to have some mold on it's surface. As long as it is kept in a dry storage, it will probably be fine well into the winter, the mold itself might even clear up.
But it is not suitable for planting. The one on top looks perfect.
Still in the allium family. These onions are nearing harvest date. As the bulb matures, the leaves fall over and eventually brown off.Looking closely at the leaves, you may be able to discern the whitish appearance indicating the presence of leek moth larvae.
I kept row covers on for much of the season. Ideally, these can be taken off by day as the moths are nocturnal. With the unusual amount of work this season, this was not possible, so in a better season, I can expect larger bulbs.
transplanting in clumps of four instead of five might also increase the bulb size, as these plants are very sensitive to shade.
Looks like my best onion harvest ever is on the way. Onions require an even amount of moisture. Too little and their tiny roots dry out, too much all at once and the plant begins to rot. Another crop that has benefited from the hot dry summer. My hope is that the dry conditions continue, to allow these to cure as nicely as the garlic - too much moisture and they might go bad during the curing process.
Anticipating the next round of lettuce....the nursery has been too hot this season to get some decent germination rates. If i had more time, I could use a bucket of cold well at an intake vent to cool down the nursery.
The well water would need replacing regularly, and with so much extra work this season, simply was not something I could keep up with adequately.
On a per unit basis, lettuce is one of the big money makers for small mix produce farms.
Romano beans. Deceptive, they appear to have no beans at all at first glance.
This one bed has turned more pods then two beds of green beans.
I am getting a lot of picking practice this season...
Kidney beans. These are in their final stages of drying out.I have grown two types this season. Dark red kidney beans (which we had last season), and light red kidneys, which are very similar to the light pink we had three years ago.
Once most of the leaves have fallen off, the plants are harvested and hung up to continue drying.After that, the weighing and shucking begins...
Blanching the celery with straw.
Preparations for next year are already underway.
This is buckwheat. It's long tap roots draw phosphorus up from deep in the soil.
Before frost, I run the wheel hoe through and turn the plants back into the soil, where they will decay and leave their nutrients near the surface, where short rooted plants such as cabbage can use the phosphorus nutrient.