It’s been a great garden year for us. The only thing we can really complain about is the winter squash and that’s our own fault for planting the first ones in a bad place and the second ones too late.
I’m hoping to plant a few things for fall, but we haven’t got anything planted nor even a place cleared out to plant it.
The prime fall planting place is in the front of the house because it gets the most sunshine as fall of the year arrives. The lower part of that area is full of winter squash, peas, and okra that we hope will be ready to harvest soon so we sure don’t want to pull any of it out.
The only other place is the area where our cabbage was growing.
Our okra has never been this late coming in. The first we planted down at the big garden didn’t do worth a flip so we planted more up here, but the late planting has caused a very late harvest. The winter squash that looks the best was planted late too and I’m worried it won’t have time to fully mature.
We still have squash, zucchini, cucumbers, corn, peppers, and tomatoes coming in about every day. All the potatoes we planted in grow bags still need to be dug or poured out. Our sweet potatoes are looking good but aren’t quite ready yet. The peas in one of the raised beds is getting close to being ready to eat. Our beans are slowing down but still producing. We’ll be canning beans today and I think this will be the last big day of canning beans this year.
Here’s the best planting signs for August 2025.
Taurus: good for all root crops and above ground crops 14, 15
Cancer: best for planting above ground and root crops 18, 19
Scorpio: best for flowers and above ground crops 1, 2, 27, 28, 29
Pisces: good for planting and transplanting above ground crops, trees and shrubbery 10, 11
Last night’s video: The Family History & Stories of Opal Corn Myers 30.
Tipper
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This evening my Amish neighbor stopped by and told me it was 44 degrees this morning! We are in the upper Appalachians in southwest PA on the side of the mountain that’s the highest point in PA
68ºF 3:30 PM 2 Aug 2025. Write that down!
Ed-wow! It’s 78 here so you are a lot cooler than us 🙂
Sadie came through for me, she did manage to ship to some “feel like fall air” down my way. It is 75 degrees today with the same temp for tomorrow, but still very little rain. It feels so good after the last 6-7 weeks of the 90 degrees and above temperatures. Thank you Sadie!
So happy you’re having such a bountiful harvest. You’ll be eating good this winter.
It’s been a strange year for us. Our okra is only knee high and it was the second planting the first of June. I’ve only had a handful of green beans. No red maters yet. Beets never appeared. Corn is looking good. Zucchini, squash, and cucumbers have started producing well in the last week. Onions were puny. Still hopeful! Just a strange year. Typically by now the canner has made many runs.
We received our beautiful Celebrating Appalachia mugs. I can’t drink coffee, but will enjoy something hot in them this winter. Ive tried to like hot tea and just don’t, but I did find a tea type thing from Farmhouse Teas that I like. It’s called harvest berry and if I add a touch of French vanilla creamer it’s like drinking a blueberry pie. It’s the best I can do to like hot tea….Maybe I’ll stick with a cold cup of raw milk!
God bless all y’all! The weather here is like a fall day! Thanking God for a much needed break in the heat!
It’s great that your gardens are doing so well this year. You work very hard in them. I think the netting we put up may save our pumpkin patch. I will let you know as we are keeping a close eye on it. Our apple trees are loaded, but each day I see a squirrel running through the yard with one in its mouth. That’s so frustrating!! It doesn’t take long for them to clean them out. I really enjoyed your reading last evening. Opal’s life is so interesting for sure. I have a niece whose middle name is Opal. It was her grandma’s name and I just love it.
Your garden did extremely well this year even though you didn’t get the winter squash you wanted. Our garden this year only yielded enough to eat and share with family. The extreme heat we experienced made our cucumbers bitter, half runner beans tough and green peppers just about nor existent. We were blessed with delicious tomatoes, three big cabbages, sweet banana peppers, some Yukon yellow potatoes and lots of onions. I also had some beets. All we were blessed with was not enough to can, but I did manage to make a few jars of fermented dill pickles in the refrigerator. I’m thankful for everything we were able to harvest and eat. We enjoyed delicious fresh Cole slaw , numerous tomato sandwiches and several onion, banana pepper, cucumber and tomato salads. I figured it was too hot to can anyway, but very thankful for the small bounty of fresh vegetables we have enjoyed this summer.
My family never tried to plant much for a fall garden when I was growing up if the spring/summer garden had been good. They usually had been, the summers were not as dry as the ones we now have in my neck of the woods and no deer to contend with. We would have a big spot of crowder peas to be picking. We would still be getting a few tomatoes from the old time Rutgers or Marion plants, okree, and green beans if they had taken a “second growth.” The sweet potatoes would not be taken up until October, leave them in the ground as long as possible but get them up before frost. We would take up the peanuts and lay them on top of a tin roof shed to dry before picking them off the vine. About the only thing many would be getting ready to plant would be our “greens” that went by different names- greens, mustard, turnip greens, and for us sallet. Daddy would mix Seven Top, Purple Top and some mustard seeds together and usually just broadcast them out in area prepared for planting. To keep them from being to too thick, he would either mix the seed with dry sand and then later on he punched some small holes in the lid of a mason jar and would shake them out- think of salt shaker. The old timers said sow the greens on or by August 15th if you wanted to have turnips, alright to plant later if you only wanted greens. I don’t reckon that worried very much about the “signs” in order to plant by the 15th.
Thank you for telling what your family used to do. That is very helpful to know about planting the greens. I was just thinking if I should or not for fall. I think I will and try your trick with the sand. Maybe I won’t have to thin them as much that way. Hope you have a blessed and cooler day!
My parents used bran from sifting ground corn or when bran was not available we used the cornmeal. Sand was not readily available unless we sifted it ourselves, unless we bought a ton. In the fall my father sowed all his fields with greens to provide green manure in the Spring. Of course we ate all the greens we wanted and the turnips that survived the winter.
Meg, don’t let me confuse you, Daddy would do one of the other, either mix with sand and broadcast the seed with his hand OR put the seed in his jar with SMALL holes punched in the lid with an ice pick and shake them out. I believe using the jar method would be better if planting your greens in rows.