What’s happening in the garden this week: Aug. 25-31

Berry picking, plant topping and a little applesauce preserving

Aug 30, 2024

Raspberries

The raspberry plants are in full production. This is their second round of fruiting since they are an everbearing variety. Earlier in the summer, we had a smaller harvest of fruit born on canes that grew a year ago. Now we’re getting a bigger harvest on this year’s new canes. There’s more than enough raspberries for us and our dog Birdie, who’s renewed her interest in berry picking. She goes out to the bushes each morning and gently tugs at the ripest low-hanging fruit. It’s very cute seeing her at work and enjoying them so much. Our daughter’s dog Opal is visiting this week and she seems to have discovered a taste for raspberries as well. Opal can reach to the top of the bushes so now I try to beat the two of them to the plants each morning to get the best of the day’s pickings.

Apples

Speaking of fruit, we have an old apple tree out in the far field that hasn’t been pruned or otherwise cared for in recent years. Still, high up in the branches, there are dozens of decent sized red apples this summer. It’s the first time we’ve noticed any. A year ago, western Massachusetts and the Hudson Valley suffered a late-spring frost that severely impacted the apple, peach and pear harvest. I’m sure our tree suffered as well. A man who lives near Stockbridge and makes a living caring for apple orchards came by to take a look at our apple tree, as well as a nearby pear that also has fruit on it this month. It seems both trees are healthy and will just need some modest pruning later in the year after dormancy sets in. He didn’t know the apple variety, except to confirm they are red, not green.

Apple sauce

The family across the road has a dozen or more apple trees that are just filled with fruit. I think there are at least three varieties, maybe four. They told us to go ahead to pick whatever we wanted so I went over and picked about a bushel. Some apples were good sized, others small. Some green ones were tart, like a granny smith. A blush red variety was pretty sweet. There was also a small dark maroon variety I’d never seen. Anyway, we quartered and cored the apples, cooked them, then mashed them a bit with an immersion blender before filling 11 pints with delicious apple sauce and sealing the jars. That should keep us going through the winter.

Topping tomatoes

I’ve topped the vines on the tomato plants to stop their growth and force them to focus their energy on all the tomatoes ripening on the vines. There are so many good-sized tomatoes out there that are still green. I’ll pick them at the first sign of color before birds catch sight of them. I just let them ripen on the counter in the kitchen with no loss of flavor.

I’m continuing to regularly water the tomatoes growing in the straw bales, though with the cooler temperatures we’ve been having of late I have skipped a day here and there. The drawback of growing plants in straw bales is that you have to regularly water (daily) and fertilize (weekly) during the summer. The benefit is you can’t over-water and the tomatoes don’t suffer from any of the soil-borne diseases that can affect plants growing in the soil.

Brussels sprouts

My first attempt at growing Brussels sprouts is succeeding, so far at least. There are five plants in the garden and they’re each about waist-high now and starting to bud. I’ve staked and tied them to keep them from toppling over and I think I’ll top them in a couple weeks. According to the University of New Hampshire extension service, which studied the pros and cons of topping, cutting the tip of Brussels sprouts plants in mid-September will increase the yield by forcing the plant to put its energy into developing buds.