Virginia Gardeners

[shelleybean]

What's happening in your garden right now?

Here, I have passed my peak with the beefsteak type tomatoes. I have been canning, making and freezing sauce and drying them and still have several mixing bowls and lasagna pans full of huge tomatoes on the counter. We've had a cooler than normal week and I see a lot of new fruit starting to set so I'll get those toward the end of the summer. I still have some cherries going out there. Very little disease so far, a little early blight.

I have a lot of eggplant on the bushes and I've picked several so far. I expect this to continue into fall.

Peppers, hot and sweet, are doing great. I am letting all the pimentos turn red or gold. Same with the frying peppers.

I got my okra in late and it is just beginning to flower.

All the beans are doing well--snap beans, butter beans and White Acre peas. I hope to stash some of these in the freezer before it's all done.

I had a dozen pickling cucumbers this summer and despite the downy mildew, they are still producing a few. I'll be pulling them out shortly to make room for collards and lettuce. The plants look awful but if I'm still picking even a few, I hate to pull them just yet. I have made many batches of bread and butter pickles and dill pickles this summer. I'm a little relieved to be past the peak with these.

This is the latest I think I've ever and squash in the garden. Between the squash vine borer and the mildew, I usually have to pull them around the Fourth of July. And I did indeed pull the zucchini out the week after the 4th, but the crooknecks are still producing. These will have to come out soon, too, to make room for carrots and beets.

I ran out of room and did not grow sweet potatoes this summer. I ordered slips from Sand Hill but gave them to my sister-in-law because I just didn't have the space at that time.

What is everyone else picking/cooking/preserving at this point?