August Garden

Snapshots of our Kansas garden in August...

A morning picking of peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and zinnias.

The volunteer sunflower towering in the corner by the patio.

The Flat Dutch cabbages survived the spring and summer, despite the heat and worms. The strawberry plants have sent out runners and the patch is enlarging. The tomato vines pulled over their stakes and are growing into the yard, and over some cabbages.

Swiss chard was left uncut for several weeks and we harvested five pounds in one cutting. That's heavy for lightweight greens. You know how big a bag of 10 oz. lettuce or spinach is in the grocery?!

Here is part of it washed and waiting to be cooked or refrigerated. Some of us like it warm and salted, others eat it only in berry smoothies where it is undetectable.

The sweet potatoes have filled up their space (where I ruined our regular potato plants). Hopefully we will get a nice amount of pretty orange ones just before frost.

I've been cutting okra 2-3 times a week. It's situated on the edge of our newly expanded garden area this year and unfortunately the grasshoppers are doing their damage. Anywhere our grass grows tall, the pasture bugs abound.

Some fruits and veggies ripening on the vine...

After our two week absence visiting relatives back east, we gathered quite a few piles of produce.

Produce harvested in August: 126 pounds

Tomatoes, summer squash, cantaloupe, okra, and cucumbers as the main weight bearers, though we picked 3 varieties of peppers, turnips, red beets, carrots, and 3 kinds of greens as well.