SW Washington State Gardening In August

 I imagine that you guys are getting rather sick and tired of garden posts, but I keep posting them because, having moved up here to this property in January, this is my learning year as far as gardening goes.
I've learned that I can buy the most highly recommended soil out there but if it's deficient, it's not going to work for my garden.
I've learned that daily watering is making my bush beans' leaves turn yellow and I have to give them some epsom salts in hopes of having them green up.
I've learned that I am very capable of growing tomatoes from seed and it really isn't that hard. They are thriving and I can post photos that I take from back in my garden area. I refuse to walk over there without Bob going through first to scare off the snakes. He put some of the metal components to our canopy (the one that goes over the trailer) by there and the snakes hang out and absorb the heat. Nasty. Yuck. I do not like snakes. Where there are snakes, I'm not going there. Period. LOL.
Sue me.

I've learned that I love to grow in a greenhouse! I'm on the hunt for a used high tunnel.

Here are some harvest photos as of late.

This is some Persian basil. It's one of my three heaviest producers out of the nine basil varieties that I planted this year.

I'm going to order some pine nuts from Amazon in the next few days because I really need to make some basil. I'm also going to dehydrate a whole bunch of it to use through the winter.

This was part of today's meager harvest. We're phasing out of the greens/lettuces and peas. They are at the end of their production. I pulled the last few green leaf lettuce plants out and tossed them out where the deer and rabbits could snack on them. Next, I'll be getting the spent pea vines cut out and gone. I do plan on a fall crop of peas, for sure.

I didn't plant all that many beets this year. I just tucked them into my Pride & Joy bed here and there and let them grow. They liked being neighbors with the onions, broccoli, peas, lettuce and cabbage. I'll be planting some cauliflower, kale and different cabbages into that bed this fall. I may seed in some carrots just to see what they will do because they didn't work out too hot where I initially wanted to plant them. I think I'll put in some celery.

We went ahead and harvested our biggest cabbage. It weighs between 7-10 pounds. I have 3 other good sized ones out there still. I'm going to give one to my sister and I'll turn the other 2 into more sauerkraut.

Beans and peas. These beans were from those packs of Dollar Tree beans that I picked up. They were 4 for $1.

The livestock came around yesterday. We will not harm these guys. They can come up here and have a safe place to stay during hunting season. We will not allow hunting on our property. Anyhow, Bob tossed some carrots and old lettuce leaves out for the rabbits and these guys thought they would get in on the snack, too.
I want to make it abundantly clear that neither Bob or I are fans of venison.

This is the view of the greenhouse as you pull into the driveway up here. I, realistically, would like to get 2 more of these if I'm not able to find a used high tunnel somewhere.

This is our strawberry bed. We pulled a few gallons of berries out of there this year. We are going to revamp how we net it next year.

The blackberries that grow wild all over this property are starting to turn ripe. I'd like to get 5 gallons put into the freezer. That would be plenty for jam, pies, BBQ sauce and syrup for the next year.

These are the remaining cabbages in my largest raised bed. One is for my sister and the other 2 are for sauerkraut.

Cabbages in the front and broccoli behind them. Behind the broccoli is a mixture of different things.

Some of the Walla Walla Sweet onions are going to seed, which is fine with me because, that way, I won't have to buy any.

I put these 3 cabbages into pots. I'm going plant them where the peas are growing in a few weeks.

The broccoli is still sending out little side shoots. I catch some of them in time to eat them and others go to flower and I toss them out for the deer and rabbits.

This is one of the beets that I picked today. It's a Golden beet and the seeds came from Baker Creek.

The guy that lived up here before us grew tomatoes in this raised bed. We have some volunteers coming up. I doubt we get anything off of them, but it's still cool to watch them grow. I'll leave them be. They aren't hurting anything. If push comes to shove, I'll carefully dig them out and put them into the greenhouse. 

The view of that largest bed from the back. All that greenery will be coming out within the next couple of weeks.

My cucurbits are growing by leaps and bounds. I'm pretty impressed with these. We've left the doors on the greenhouse rolled up so that there is a breeze that goes through. I think we should open the screen doors, too, so that we can get pollinator insects in there, as well.

Every day, I go in there and I keep winding the vines around their respective stakes. They want to reach out and touch their neighbors. I don't really want them to do that, however.

This my Loofah gourd vine. It's so healthy looking!
Again, I don't know if I will have enough time to get it to produce anything, but I'm certainly going to try!

In this pot, I have a Okinawa Pink okra in the back (I was wrong in my last blog post about having 7 okra plants. I don't. I have 9.) I have a Minnesota Midget cantaloupe in the front of it. 

I've never seen okra grow before. This process is utterly fascinating to me. 

Each bloom turns into an okra pod. I've gotten 6 so far.

They aren't very tall but they are producing. I can't ask for more than that.

This is the Siamese bitter melon plant. I'm crossing my fingers that it will produce a fruit!

The cantaloupe is starting to crawl out of the pot.

This is the Kajari and Tigger melon pot. They are thriving.

I have baby cucamelons! I would love to have a bumper crop of these! I bought a starter plant last year and I only was able to harvest 4 off of it. I have several blooms on this one. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be able to put a pint of cucamelon pickles up this year. That would be awesome!

Thanks for touring the garden with me. Tonight, we're harvesting the grow bags of potatoes. I can't wait to see what we get.
I'm off to clean up beans for dinner.