Late Summer - 2017

Summer, Southern Summer, is so long here that it seems to be three seasons, kinda like daffodils coming on early, mid and late. Crickets and cicadas sing their loudest late summer here in the coastal plains of Southeastern NC. It is satisfying bedtime music going on into early morning To cut okra to their accompaniment is quite nice. The okra will be cooked with onions and green peppers for supper tonight.
The past few days have been devoted to cleaning up and clearing out for Fall planting. In went cabbage (Savoy grown from seed), broccoli, lettuce seed, rutabaga, and radish. The beets are up and have been thinned. Carrots are just starting to show. Butternut squashes are starting to harden off. From just one plant we got six nice-enough ones.
Field peas are good this year. Okra carries on no matter the heat or dry weather. It is a generous, easy to care for plant. Roasted it's a great substitute for french fries. Peppers are steady producers this year and after the last hard rain sweet potatoes were exposed. We have a least two.
We planted Contender green beans at home and in the community garden. They are up! It's time to plant turnips, mustard and kale. Whew. That's it for now. Gotta go plant some seeds, right now!

It took about a month for these Contenders to bloom.