The Great Pea Structure

Ha! It's been a while. The tomatoes are just about finished, and I'm well into fall crops at this point.

My big thing is peas. Last year I tried fall peas for the first time. It worked, but the string trellis between two plastic poles was not exactly sturdy. So this year I put my construction skills to work, using plumbing pipe. Here's a picture:


Did it work? Well, so far it's survived a hurricane, tons of rain, and the peas are now one-third of the way up. And no sign of any problems. Did I mention that there are some pea pods showing? This looks good.

Meanwhile, I've planted Kale and Kholrabi for the fall. With less sunshine these will grow more slowly---we'll see what we get.

The grape vine suddenly started growing a lot in August. I put up some trellises for it to grow on, but I can see it has the potential to take over that back wall. Look for some grapes next year!

Lots of Tomatoes (among other things)

First, onions and garlic harvested a few weeks ago. I decided to try drying some of the garlic in braids, which is something I've read about. It worked, but I didn't do display quality here:

Better luck next year, I guess.

I also pulled up the onions and set them to dry. Of course, it rained on them a couple of times. We'll see how they cured. They are now in the basement and won't be used immediately because we have plenty of fresh ones from the CSA.

More pickles came:



Some of these were destined for dill pickles. I made two types this year: with and without a quarter teaspoon of hot pepper flakes. Lots of fresh dill in each jar. (Unfortunately, not fromthe garden, as the dill didn't do well in the front).

And then, the tomatoes. Wouldn't you know it: I am learning about more things that can go wrong with tomatoes. Like yellow shoulders which is apparently likely due to low potassium. Can't do anything about it now, I'll have to wait for next spring. They still make good sauce though, using my new technique (a food mill).

Since excessive heat may also cause this, I've taken to letting the tomatoes ripen inside (another Internet suggestion). Fortunately, we have an extra room which is ideal for this:

Oh yes, we have this year's variety of cherry tomatoes---"chocolate cherry." Mine don't look like the picture, however, and they seem to keep the green shoulders:
It's a little hard to see, but there are two little sweet peppers on the side. This is a pepper variety I picked up at the last minute at Home Depot. Haven't tried them yet.

Needed: Cucumber ideas

Well, I wanted cucumbers. And I got them. A lot of them. They keep appearing---every time I go outside to look at the plants, I see a couple more that I missed.

Only problem is that I don't need that many. And, for making pickles, I should pick a bunch at once. Since the Alibi cucumbers aren't producing a lot yet, I'm not ready to do this (not to mention that I don't have time to make pickles right now.)

So I'm looking for recipes. Did you know you could grill cucumbers?

Tomatoes!

Yes, they are starting to turn red! I think this may be the earliest we've had tomatoes. Also, I figured out how to stake them (I hope) so that the cages will remain upright. This involves pegs which are apparently designed for trees, but as long as it works, right?

Now to find cucumber recipies. Too many all of a sudden. Too bad the main cucumber eater isn't here.

Garlic time

I pulled up the garlic. There's a lot because the extra garlic in the back---which I didn't plant, it "naturalized" got included in the harvest. And there were a lot of bulbs back there. I did this once before some years ago, but I must have missed one or two. At least we'll have a lot of garlic, plus I'll try to save more for planting this year. Also, I tried braiding some garlic bulbs this year. We'll see how they come out.

Cucumbers are maturing at the rate of one every other day or so. Khlolrabi and Kale are still good.

I checked my records, and the earliest I've ever had a ripe tomato was July 16.The plants are completely out of control, and several have pushed over their cages. The usually happens in August.

Oh, and I think the birds have been getting to the raspberries. Not sure I begrudge them at this point, because we got a huge amount before they came in. Still, I wouldn't have minded more...

First cucumber

Plus lots and lots of raspberries. If this keeps up I may have to look up how to make raspberry jam.

Unfortunately, I think the birds are getting most of the rest of the blueberries. Grr.

Kholrabi and kale, ready to pick

Of course, just when we have too many of other types of vegetables. Still, nice to see that I can grow them. We'll see how the kholrabi tastes tomorrow.

And we now have ripe raspberries. Yay!

Growing...

I suppose it's not bad to go away for a few days at this point. Aside from weeding (always needed) there isn't much to do. Everything survived my being away. In fact, there are now small tomatoes, and kholrabis are getting large enough to pick. (I have to figure out how big I can let them get). The blueberries are still there, at least the ones underneath the netting---and so far, the less ripe ones not netted. I'm not sure when we should pick them, but it will be soon.

The main thing right now, I think, is to keep everything watered. There's been no rain, and it's been very hot.

Berries---coming soon

First: I finished the planting with peppers. Four plants (three varieties) of mildly hot peppers, including Mariachi, Joe Parker, and Ancho Chile, as well as two sweet peppers (found at Home Depot, which has a surprisingly broad selection of pepper plants). Also three different types of summer squash.

And then...the berries. I picked ripe raspberry today, although that looks quite early. I don't think there will be any significant raspberries for a couple of weeks. Also, the blueberries are beginning to turn blue. This year, I promise to be patient and let them ripen for a week or so after they turn blue. Provided the birds don't interfere. The ABD's* are deployed.

*ABD's are anti bird devices. In my experience they work early on, but the birds eventually catch on.

What happens when kholrabi plants start to grow?

You get little tiny kholrabis! Although I now see that I should have planted a longer row and thinned them better. (It's hard to do any thinning when you get so few germinations).

Now, kholrabis are supposed to be a cool weather crop, so I still don't know if they will grow large enough to eat. But I'm hoping...

And it's time for herbs

Got the tomatoes in on Thursday. The garden is starting to look pretty full, but there's still room for the cucumbers and squash. Unfortunately, the Israeli squash seeds I bought this year didn't germinate very well. I only have one plant! Cucumbers and peppers are still small and still inside.

A couple of years ago, I started working on the 5'x5' planter near the kitchen door. The idea is to make a permanent herb garden. This year I got it filled with earth (easier to work with than the foot and half down it used to be. And today we went to the farmers market. We now have:

1. Bay (will it survive the winter?)
2. Rosemary
3. St. Johns' Wart (looked interesting)
4. Oregano
5. Thyme
6. Basil, of course
7. Chives, planted in a clay pot so they won't spread.

A couple of weeks ago I planted some dill and parsley seed, and I saw seedlings today!

It looks like it might make sense to plant a bush of some kind in the back. I'm not sure what would not be too big, but would create a nice background for the herbs. Maybe lavender?

And I planted two more tomato plants in a corner of the garden I might not have used. If all goes well this year, we should have a lot of tomatoes.

Strawberries

Well, strawberry plants. I just put eight of them into new 4x8 raised bed in the back. 9 Junebearing and 7 Everbearing (l made a mistake at the store). I even mulched them with straw--how about that?

Today was the second day of the tomatoes introduction to the outside. I'm trying to do the hardening off thing because I got such poor results last year from my seedlings. Not that these tomato plants, at 8" to 12" tall, are seedlings any more.

Springing up

Lots has been going on, and I've neglected to write. Let's see:

1. I got the topsoil in the planter that is going to be an herb garden and also in the new 4x8 raised bed in the back. Next step: plants for both. It'll be strawberries in the back, but I'm still open to suggestions in the front. I know I want Rosemary, and space for annual herbs (parsley and dill are both popular here). I'm going to plant mint in a separate pot I'll keep next to the planter. As for others, I'm not sure. We'll see what other interest plants I can find in the farmers' market.

2. Planted tomatoes. I waited this year until late March, figuring that was pretty late to start them. Little did I know...they've been big enough to plant for a couple of weeks already! I started peppers, too. The older seeds took longer to germinate, and didn't do so as evenly, but they did start. Looks like three varieties of mildly hot peppers this year. Also cucumbers, which are growing, and squash. But only one of the 9 squash seeds I planted has germinated so far. Did I mention that the squash is Israeli?

3. There are a few little Kholrabi plants and Kale plants. Very bad germination. I know that's partially because I planted them too early, but still...I always have this problem. One piece of good news is that nothing has eaten the plants yet. Last year the d-n rabbits had already done in my Kale.

4. The onions are all up I realize that I could have planted more (that is, I had room for more). As it is, I should have 40-50 of them this summer, which is twice what I've had before.

This weekend: buying plants and starting to harden off the tomatoes.

Onions and kale and stuff

I may have jumped the gun this year by putting in the onions early in March. But hey, Whites had the sets, so I figured it must be OK. Not much action until now, when I see a few plants starting to poke up, so maybe there's not much point in putting them in early.

About a week later---maybe second week in March---I put in a couple of short rows of Kale and Kholrabi. Same thing as with the onions---no action until today, when I saw a few seedlings coming up in one of the rows. Again, maybe too early?

Back to the Garden

It's that time of year. Well, actually I already did some planning and ordered seeds. But the real work began this weekend:

1. I put in about 50 onion sets. Is is a little early? White's was carrying them on Friday and I figured it must be time.

2. I cleared the large branch that fell from the maple on one of those windy days in January.

3. I finally put in the rabbit fence on the last part of the south wall that didn't have it. Rabbits seem to have been getting in that way, so I am hopeful. But they do seem to be resourceful.