GardenBanter.co.uk - Pickles and such

Swore I wasn't going to make pickles this summer. Liar, liar, pants on
fire. Made four quarts of quick sour pickles yesterday, straight from
SETP. They're in the canning pantry now, waiting for the day when we
open them, two or three weeks from now.

Pretty much cleaned out the cucumber vines and those will be composted
by next week. We've certainly had our share of bugs this year, last
year, hardly any, this year, tons of them. Even though we had two or
three unusual freezes early on. First time in years we've seen snow,
hail, sleet, and rain, all on the same day. You would think all the bugs
would have frozen.

The Hopi lima beans are blooming like crazy but not setting bean pods.
Lots of bees of various sorts working them but very few beans setting.

Eggplant, and sweet chiles are doing well, the fig tree is done for the
year but the kumquat, which bloomed like crazy, doesn't appear to be
setting fruit. The squash and Swiss chard are done, some gone to the
compost barrel, some sent to the dump (full of bug eggs and larvae).
Tomatoes are still producing but they're getting so sprangly (wild
growth) that we had to prune them again yesterday.

Hot as all get out here, heat index running around 105F nearly every
day. Typical Houston area mugginess (is that a real word?).

We hide most of the day in the air conditioning and less to the power
company cash register go Ka-ching every few minutes.

George