Dayton "Dirt' August 14, 2009

Even though many of us are wondering “where did the summer go?” there is still plenty of summer left as autumn does not officially start until the autumnal equinox in late September.

Those of us with vegetable gardens are enjoying a bountiful harvest of heat-loving vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn, cucumbers, squash, beans, melons and so on. Sometimes the harvest becomes too bountiful in that there is too much food to use as fresh vegetables.

I still remember my grandparents and parents making ketchup with excess tomatoes, freezing beans, corn, and medium hot peppers. My mother would core the peppers and then stack about a one half dozen inside one another and place them in a freezer bag before freezing.

When using the peppers for a meal to make stuffed peppers, she would thaw the stacked peppers just enough to get them apart to stuff them. Waiting too long for the peppers to thaw would result in mushy peppers caused from the freezing.

I always marveled at the taste of the peppers as it was hard to tell if they were frozen or fresh from the garden!

Sometimes my parents would boil jars and vegetables for canning in the kitchen but it made the whole house hot and humid.

Later, we used an old cast iron stove in the back yard and fed it with seasoned wood. Now I know why years ago summer kitchens were in vogue.

In about 10 days to two weeks, start checking your lawn for grub damage, especially if you did not do anything to kill them earlier. Digging by skunks, crows or a discoloration in patches of the lawn can indicate grubs. Check to see if the turf pulls up easily where upon you should see several of the root-eating critters. If you do see them spread Dylox on your lawn and water it in as it will kill the grubs within one to two weeks after application.

Dylox breaks down quickly so do not apply it until you know you have a problem. The quick breakdown of Dylox is an advantage as this trait makes it very unlikely that it would contaminate ground water like Diazinon did.

Except for the two recent hot spells, august has been moist and cool making for a good growing season.

Our garden mums are almost ready with the early blooming varieties starting to show color and I expect them to be ready for sale around August 20th.

Hope to see you soon.

Tom