Too Hot & Humid & Harvests

Geez, we sure are having some hot & humid weather here! Way too humid to go out and work in the garden. Yesterday I went to the plots and harvested the last head of broccoli, the first two heads of cauliflower and a few onions that had flopped over. By 9AM it was too hot and humid for me to work....so, I went home.

"The Italian" and I had grand expectations of going to the plots at 6AM this morning to do some much needed work and pick some raspberries. The plots look like a jungle! Well, that didn't happen. Instead I went to the store and then spent a couple of hours pulling weeds in the perennial beds along the side of the house while they were still in the shade. I have no idea when I will get around to tackling the bed out front! It's totally overgrown and truthfully embarrassing. It will only take about an hour to do. Maybe I'll get to it one night this week after work since we really need to go to the plots tonight.

The last head of the Spring Broccoli & some side shoots

 

Nunzio "The Inspector General" checking out of first two beautiful heads of Cauliflower.These two are "Minuteman". They weighed in at 1 lb. 7 oz. each. I think they are the nicest heads I've ever grown!

 

Speaking of Nunzio.....he sure is getting big!

He had a blast yesterday playing with some toys I hung from the fan!

 

We've been getting some wonderful sweet Sungold tomatoes!

Most of them get eaten before they can be weighed or photographed.

 

The Onions are starting....and it looks like it's going to be a great year!

These are a few of the Walla Walla Onions. My largest so far has been 8.5 oz. I know they aren't as big as Granny has grown......but, they are great for me! I planted three varieties of storage onions; Copra, Candy & Red Wing. A few of the Copra onions have been harvested. Only a few of the onions have been weighed so far. I planted 370 onions total. I guess there won't be a shortage of onions this year!

 

Tomorrow will be Harvest Monday over at Daphne's Dandelions. Hop on over there and see what's happening in gardens around the globe!

 

 

Harvest Monday....... July 1, 2013 & Harvest Totals to Date

We had two big harvests this week, a lot of the Broccoli and the Garlic. Some of you may have seen my Big Broccoli Harvest here. Well that wasn't all of it for the week. I harvested a few heads earlier in the week and a few more on Sunday. Sorry, no pics of those.

Sunday I went to the plots and pulled the remaining peas. The peas in the home garden were pulled last week. It's just too hot for the peas and they were about finished. After I finished with the peas. I thought that I better check the garlic. Well, it was ready to be pulled. I pulled all the garlic and brought it home.

Since we are in constant threat of thunderstorms lately, I had to put it under the covered part of the back porch. Now I can barely get out the back door!

38 Heads of Music (Hardneck Variety)

 

and.... 

 a total of 56 heads of Silverskin (Softneck Variety)

more of the Silverskin

 

The garlic heads are a good size and I'm quite pleased with the harvest. I think we will have enough for us and my son's household. Later this week I will hang the garlic and let it cure for storage.

 

Since I have been a bit busy and haven't participated in Harvest Monday this year, I thought I would post my year to date weighed harvest totals.

  



Baby Choi - 3.25 lbs.
Asparagus - 3.3 lbs.
Strawberries - 20.8 lbs
Broccoli - 16.8 lbs.
Garlic - 94 Heads (will be weighed once they are cured)
Greens & Lettuce - 3 lbs. (I haven't been weighing most of these)
Onions - 8 oz,
Peas - 11.2 lbs.
Peppers - 1 oz. (1 hot pepper)
Spinach - 5 lbs
Tomatoes - 3 Sungolds (not weighed)

Year to date Total - 62.45 lbs.

 

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in gardens around the globe!

Garden Update......busy, busy, busy!!!

Spring is just around the corner! We were blessed with two nice warm days over the weekend. Do you believe it was 62 on Saturday and the mid 50's on Sunday?? So....I went over to the plots to get some work done. This is the best weather for doing this type of work.

I took down 4 of the 5 trellises and laid them on the beds where they will be this year. I forgot the drill-driver both days. So, I couldn't move the last one. I also turned over about half of one of the big beds. I am pleased to report that there are lots of worms!!!

I turned over the one end of this bed where the broccoli will be planted. The garlic is at the other end of this bed.

  

I removed most of the straw from the garlic bed.

 

The bed in the middle was also turned over. This is where I will plant some cauliflower. The two end beds is where the asparagus is planted. No signs of grow yet.

 

As you can see (click on any picture to enlarge), the top of the soil is quite dry for this time of the year.

The raspberries were pruned. I totally forgot to cut them back in the late fall!

I added some additional bunny protection to the fencing. It was too low and we had a bunny living in the garden last year. I managed to get about half of the perimeter finished. Hopefully I will be able to finish it next weekend.

  

There is one full table of starts in the basement. I am in the process of pre-sprouting the peppers and eggplant. By the end of the week, there will be another table going!

 

The greens and lettuce and doing well and......

 

I think it's time to thin the celery!

 

How's your garden prepping coming along???

We're Back and Safe!

We finally made it home a few days ago from our extended vacation due to Sandy! We had a wonderful time! We were stranded in a lovely hotel on the beach in Florida for several days once we got back to the USA. By the time we got home, the power was back on. All of the frozen stores from the garden are OK since I always keep blocks of ice in the freezers downstairs.

We were very lucky that the storm didn't damage the house. It's just a big mess out there. Some of our city is still without power and a lot of traffic lights are still out. The damage around here is very bad. I watched a video on-line from our local TV station while we were stranded and couldn't believe the damage. It was taken one block from our home! Maybe I will have some time today to go out and about and take some photos of the damage almost one week after the storm.

Now, I need to get caught up on my work! Thank heavens I can work from home! I hope all of you are safe and sound!

First Frost/Freeze!

When I left work today it felt quite chilly. I really didn't think anything of it since the radio said it was going to get down to 36 tonight. Then I decided to call Dora from the Community Garden. It's a good thing I did! She wanted to know if I was on my way to the garden since we were getting a freeze tonight. What??? Oh, that's right, I work near Philly and it's a half zone warmer!!

Since daylight ends much earlier then I would like this time of year, I went straight to the garden. Dora was so kind and left me a sweatshirt and containers to harvest the last of the summer veggies.

Hot & Spice Peppers and a couple of small Eggplant

Sweet Peppers

I do have some celery plants in the home garden. But, I think they will be just fine.

Have you had your first frost or freeze yet???

Harvest Monday................07/23/2012

Although the harvests are getting better, I am still about 2 weeks behind last year with some of the crops. It's been a very strange year. Some crops were early and some crops seem to be taking forever. The tomatoes for instance have been loaded with fruit for some time now and I am only harvesting a few at a time. Now that we have been getting rain on a regular basis and the temps have dropped out of heat wave range, I'm sure they will start ripening much quicker.

Last Monday after I posted my Harvest Monday post, I pulled most of the spring carrots.

Monday's Carrot Harvest

Monday's Plot Harvest

We are loving these Red Seed Asparagus Beans!

Tuesday's Plot & Home Garden Harvest

Thursday's Plot & Home Garden Harvest

Friday's Home Garden Harvest

Saturday's Plot Harvest

Sunday's Plot Harvest

These are Purple Viking Potatoes

They are pretty cool looking aren't they? 

Look at this big Red Pontiac Potato

I went to the plots on Sunday to get some purple and red potatoes for roasted potatoes. We were having company for dinner and I thought it would look nice to have a variety of potatoes. I really wanted just a couple of smaller reds and I got this big MaMa and another one that was almost as big. I can't wait to dig those potatoes once the ground dries out a bit!

Sunday's Home Garden Harvest

We sure are enjoying the Sungold tomatoes. They are wonderful! 

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday and see what's going on in gardens around the globe!

The Home Garden Mid-July

The Home Garden is starting to look much better the past couple of days since our nice rain on Sunday evening. It's still not up to par...but, all in all it is doing surprisingly well.

This is the Left Cold Frame Bed

It is filled mostly with dry beans now. There are a couple of Celery plants hiding in the back and some bare spots in the front. I'm going to sow some lettuce in the empty spaces soon.

This is the Right Cold Frame Bed

I pulled almost all of the Spring Carrots from this bed on Monday. There are still a few tiny ones left around the edges. There is also some huge Lacinto Kale in this bed still going strong.

This Kale was planted out last September!

This is Bed #1

There are a couple of cabbages left in this bed. I sure wish they would head up so I can harvest them. I sowed some Little Marvel Peas in this bed a couple of days ago. Hopefully, we will get a nice fall crop as I was not happy with my Spring Shelling Peas.

At the other end of Bed 1 there are a few Celery Plants, a couple of Dry beans and some newly planted Pepper Plants. "The Italian" brought me home 7 pepper plants last night. He got them for free and are varieties that he wants. I guess, it's better late then never for him to decide he wants a particular variety of anything besides tomatoes in the garden! Most of this bed will be sown with Spinach at the end of the season to overwinter. That's the only way I have been successful with spinach.

Bed #2 

There are 4 tomatoes planted in this bed.

3 known varieties and 1 unknown variety. There is a lot of that going on with my tomatoes this year! 

This is what is left of the carrots that were growing in between the tomatoes. Some bunny thought it was a Bunny Buffet!

The Sungold tomatoes are coming on like gangbusters! Boy, they are a wonderfully sweet tomato! Thanks Dave!

These are Paul Robeson tomatoes. Seed compliments of Jeff. These babies are huge and boy are they great tasting! Come on and get ripe already!

Bed #3

This is where most of the garlic was planted. Now there are dry beans and slicing cucumbers growing for "The Italian". 

These cucs are finally putting out a few a day. As you can see, the earlier leaves dried up and were spotted. The plants looks great now!

The Fall Broccoli, Cauliflower & Cabbage starts are undercover on the back porch. They are about 2-3 weeks old. Something was nibbling on them, so they were given a good dusting of DE and covered with a shade cloth. I hope this works.

My Dwarf Carmine Jewel Cherry Tree is growing very very well. Truthfully, I'm very surprised how much it has grown.

The Herb Garden is not looking great. It's usually overgrown and nice and green. The drought has been a bit tough on it.

The back part of the Herb Garden is very sparse too. The Spaghetti Squash are starting to take off and  

climb along the fence in both directions.

The Sage Bush is the only thing in the Herb Garden that is looking great.

We also have one some what pretty flower pot right now.

My flower pots are not nearly as nice as they have been in the past.

The State of the Plots Mid-July Part 2

In the previous post "The State of the Plots Part 1", I went through Beds #1-4. In this post we will go through Beds # 5-8 and Plot 102.

Click on any picture to enlarge

This is Bed #5

In the front of Bed #5 are French Cantaloupe. I lost one plant so far and it looks like another one is on it's way out.

Behind the cantaloupe in Bed #5 are some more Pickling Cucumbers. They are struggling along just like the other cucs and just starting to produce.

The next in Bed #5 are two Small Sugar Pumpkin plants. They are very happy right now. Let's hope that it stays that way!

Following the pumpkins are a few leeks which I forgot to take pics of. They are struggling with this weather. Next are the cabbage. There are a couple of Savoy, Tet Noire and Red Acre. All of the heads are small and I have yet to harvest one. They were planted late.

This is where the spring Broccoli was planted. I sowed some Great Northern Dry Beans here and covered them with straw. These are starting to pop up too.

The Sweet Peppers are next in this bed. They are also much much smaller then the plants last year. I'm sure we will have enough to get us through the winter. At the end of this bed are two Zucchini plants which I failed to take a picture of. One was sown 2 weeks ahead of the other and are doing well.

Bed #6

The Raspberries and Blackberries are planted in this bed. They transplanted well. Hopefully we will get a late harvest of Raspberries. The Blackberries have some fruit and new shoots on them. Their harvest will be very very small as they were cut way back to transplant.

Due to the small size of the Blackberry transplants I was able to plant celery, onions and Purple Pole Beans in this bed. Next year I don't think there will be much space for any additional crops. The celery is really suffering due to our extreme heat and lack of rain this year. The onions are also very small.

The Purple Pole Beans are doing well and hopefully will start producing soon.

Bed #7 is the Strawberry Bed.

The transplanted strawberries are much much smaller then the roots I put in at the far end.

This is where the Strawberries transition from the transplants to the new roots. Boy, what a difference! They are even the same variety. Hopefully we will have a bumper crop of strawberries next year!

Bed #8 is divided in to 3 parts. 

There is Asparagus at this end. In the front I sowed some late peas where the Favas were planted. I also covered them with straw to hold moisture in so they would germinate.

In the middle of Bed #8 there are 4 Celery plants and onions. As you can see all of the celery is really struggling with this weather. It's a good thing I planted way more then we need to get us through the year.

The onions are so so small in comparison to last year. I really don't know if we will have enough for the year.

There are a few good size onions. But these are Walla Walla onions and they should be twice this size. I'm going to dice them up and freeze them.

The far end of Bed #8 is planted with another variety of Asparagus. I also sowed some peas here.

Last but not least is Plot #102.

Patti & I pulled all of the tall weeds in about 1 1/2 hours. Yesterday, I weed whacked the rest down. Now, we just need to get it tilled. Then we will put up the fencing we have accumulated and start planting fall crops!