Peas!

The snap peas have done very well. The plants are now up above the support (that means they are more than five feet high) and producing. Here's today's quart:

Plus I'm still getting raspberries. This is much later than I usually get significant amounts of raspberries. It's now too dark to pick them in the evening---in the past, that meant I was home too late. But now I'm working at home, so I can take off a few minutes and pick them during the day. Wonder how long the pollinators will continue to be active.

Also got some figs. If this year is any indication, next year's fig crop should be quite large. We can only hope.

Hot peppers and cooler weather

It had to come. But we had a remarkable run of hot weather in mid-September this year, and that kept the hot-weather crops producing. I'm still getting tomatoes, for example. But the past couple of days have been cooler, and I'm beginning to think it's the end of most things.

Still, it's been nice while it lasted. Lots of hot peppers, for example. Enough tomatoes for tomato sauce for the winter. And I'm still getting enough raspberries for my cereal every other day. I do like raspberries.

Not everything has worked out, and I need to make a full accounting soon. But enough that I have to think of this as a successful year, even after the cool start.

Update: Here's the picture--over 1 lb of hot (but not so hot) peppers. They went into the dryer.

Beneficial nematodes have arrived!

This worked the last time I had an invasion of Japanese beetles. Here's the picture:

The tub has 10 million of the little worms. You mix them with water and spray them in the areas of the garden that the beetle grubs might be. They eat the grubs.

In other garden news, I now have the late August tomatoes. This comes from roasting tomatoes and putting them through the food mill for sauce. I won't get as much as two years ago, but it's definitely enough that I don't have to worry about some of them going bad on the vine. And much better than last year's disaster. Speaking of which, I haven't seen any raccoons. That may definitively solve the mystery. I wonder why they moved out, though. Do they know something I don't know?

We're also getting lots of green beans, which is not so useful right now as we've been traveling. But at least it's a good crop. I made a small batch of dilled pickled green beans (and one jar of pickled mild hot peppers).

Tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers

Here we have a nice harvest:

Although the angle makes it look like less than it is. That's a quart of cherry tomatoes, about the same amount of "cocktail tomatoes," only one large tomato, three cucumbers, and a whole bunch of mildly hot peppers. Now that I've grown those peppers, I have to figure out what to do with them. I suppose I could try drying them.

Also notice the half cup of raspberries. I'm definitely getting the raspberries, although I think I have gotten more at this time of year.

I got a package today from the garden store, and I was excited. I had ordered beneficial nematodes. Alas, it had the other parts of my order, but not the little worms. It makes me feel good just to think about the nematodes munching their way through those Japanese beetle larvae.

Gardeners get their joy where they can.

Planting peas is bittersweet

I realized that we are now in the time period for planting fall peas, so I got out the trellis, planted the little dried up pea seeds. It felt just a little sad because it means that we've reached the stage where we are looking at the fall and the end of the garden. Even though we've just begun to get the tomatoes,we know what the future has in store for us. 

On a more cheerful note, it looks like at least some of the zucchini plants survived the squash borer. Also, I learned something new--squash can be slightly pregnant. What the linked article doesn't tell is how to get the pollinators to the plants. We have plenty of bees---I see them around the raspberry bushes all the time, and we have no problem getting raspberries. So why don't the bees find the squash flowers? Maybe I should erect a sign?

Onions and the year's tomato rant

The onions had fallen down (mostly, but what's with the 5% or so with flowers?) So it was time to pull them up.

That's about 60 onions, probably my best year ever. We'll see how well I can dry them. For the next two weeks, I hope for no or little rain.

Meanwhile, I was getting antsy about the tomatoes. This happens every year. The tomato flowers appear, the fruit sets...and I wait for what seems like far too long. This year was definitely longer than usual. I even checked my garden records, and, sure enough, the early tomatoes are usually ripening by early July. So I was getting a bit annoyed--I saw beautiful fruit set on all eight plants, but all green and appearing to stay that way. It was time for a rant on the blog.

Then I went out this evening, and,  yes, they are ripening. Oddly enough, the one early tomato I planted is only just starting to ripen, along with other varieties, while a Krim's Black I picked up at Home Depot because I had trouble starting plants looks almost ready to pick. But the reddening fruit just kind of took the wind out of my rant.

Beans are already sprouting

It's always very gratifying to see how fast the beans sprout. I usually plant them in the spot where I've harvested the garlic. Less than a week, and the plants have pushed up and are a couple of inches high.

I'm still picking raspberries! And picking Japanese beetles off the raspberry plants. Just wait till the fall when I set those beneficial nematodes on the beetle grubs.

Garlic, anybody?

Early July, and time to pull up the garlic. That's over 30 heads there, and there are some others because the garlic seems to have spread, and no matter how much I pull it up each year, a few bulbs survive in the pachysandra. The trick now is to dry it---leaving it outside  but putting in a place where it won't get wet in a thunderstorm.

And here's some beautiful swiss chard.

This has already provided for some veggies at a number of meals. It is gradually bolting, but there are still five or so plants, and they are growing nicely. Must look up some recipes.

One small cucumber now forming, and a few mild poblano chili peppers round out the vegetable side of things. On the fruit side, I've got enough raspberries that I'm thinking of making jam. Also some champagne currants, but not a lot of them.

Oh no! Japanese beetles are back

I got rid of those guys some years ago with beneficial nematodes. Guess I'll have to order some more.

But at least the Japanese beetles don't eat the raspberries. I got 30 oz (volume) or about 1 lb 5 oz (weight) in one night.

Birds got the blueberries; Raspberries have started; and we are now eating kholrabis

Looks like I put the whole message in the title. Yes, each year I start letting the blueberries ripen and I get some. And just when I think I'm safe, I come out and discover that the birds have taken...not all the blue ones, just those that are perfectly ripe. And that's the end of the blueberries, since the birds will now carefully manage to harvest them as they ripen, leaving none for me.

And so much for the cat.

This does look like an excellent year for the kholrabis. I even planted them in two "shifts" so they wouldn't all get big at once. We had some tonight roasted, and they were good.

As for the raspberries, I'm picking about a cup a day now. Not bad.

Three berry day

Not a lot, but unusual to get strawberries, blueberries and raspberries all in the same day.

Taking stock

Spring things are finishing up. So here's what I got:

The lettuce is coming in. There is too much of it, despite my best efforts. Here's a nice head:

I tried planting some in April, and I do see small lettuce plants. I don't know how well these will do once it gets hot.

I got some swiss chard and spinach. But the plants---especially the spinach---didn't grow as much I thought they might. I got less than half a pound of spinach from a five foot row...didn't really seem very much. Still, it was nice to grow it.

And in this case I picked the outer leaves. It looks like the plants are now growing new leaves, so this might not be the end.

The kale hasn't grown as much as it did in years past. Hoping for the first harvest next week. Maybe thinning out and hotter weather will help.

Kholrabis are coming along just fine, thank you. Looking forward to a few of them very soon.

Strawberries did produce, for about a week at a rate of almost 1 quart per day. I am afraid I may have lost most of the end of the harvest to the torrential rains starting this weekend. But I see a few blueberries...no birds yet.

The broccoli rabi was a complete bust.

Now it's time to turn to the tomatoes (plants are starting to grow), cucumbers (still very small), squash (also very small) and similar things. What we mainly need is some sunny weather.

A taste of success

(About a quart of strawberries.)

Thoughts about cats

I've been noticing a black and white cat hanging out in the garden lately. It doesn't stick around when I come out, but it will run away, and sometime's I've seen it out the window. Seeing the cat now makes me feel a little guilty.

I had cats visiting the garden when we first moved here 12-13 years ago. I remember surprising a cat just at the moment of catching and killing a chipmunk. At that time, I tried to keep them out, mainly because of what they left behind. I remember a variety of things, including moth balls, designed to keep the cats at least away from the plants.

Now I see the cat and I think: "Good. That will keep the rabbits, squirrels and birds away."

I don't feel guilty about the rabbits and squirrels. They deserve being chased away by the cats. But then I caught myself hoping the cat would keep away the bird that feed on the blueberries. Nothing else has worked, but maybe the cat will do the job.

And that's why I feel guilty. Because cats kill birds.  And I don't want to support that. I just want some way to be able to eat the blueberries that I grow.

In which I learn about strawberries

Since I was at the farmer's market, I asked the strawberry seller whether his were late. He confirmed that, indeed, they were coming in about two weeks late, although a couple of days of 80 degree weather should help a lot.

Then I came home to work in the garden. And found the first ripe strawberries. And they were good.

It's been cold this year

How do I know? First, there's the broccoli rabi. Here's a picture:

That hori knife is stocking about 12" out of the ground. These plants are supposed to be 2-3 feet high by now. Not quite. The Gardenweb discussion I found when I got curious said that unusually cool spring weather can bring this result: stunted plants and tiny clusters of buds that flower too early.

Also, the strawberries are still just forming, and quite a way from being ripe. Last year, the first strawberries showed up on May 4, and the next week I picked several quarters. So they may be as much as a month late this year.

First fruits (or first spinach, at least)

Yes, here we have baby spinach and baby lettuce. Otherwise known as the remains of the thinning. Made a nice base for a salad.

Meanwhile, I have been cultivating the garden to get rid of weeds. I haven't done a job this thorough in quite a few years.

Here's what the spinach looked like before I thinned it.

The lettuce is behind it. I've also got small kholrabi and kale growing, and a first for this year, swiss chard and broccoli rabi. 

Oh, and those dormant onion plants seem to be taking off.

Back, and the miracle of germination continues

I left the garden for two weeks. When I got back, some good things showing.

The picture shows spinach and lettuce, on the left. Not bad (although I might have expected some more growth in over a month, I think). The swiss chard and brocollini are on the right. They haven't germinated as well, especially the swiss chard. But there seems to be enough to be useful. Onions in the middle, and those dormant plants seem to be picking up steam.

In the back you can see the kale and kholrabi, with lots of seedlings of both.

Still, it seemed to take longer to germinate and grow than I expected. The spinach and lettuce had better hurry up. In another month or so, I'll need some room in those rows for squash and cucumbers.

Finally, some germination

I've been impatient this year...but really. It said on the seed packet that the spinach would germinate in 7-12 days. It's now been almost three weeks, and, yes, I finally see something peaking up. Also some Kale (but not Kholrabi or anything else I planted, go figure).

The relatively cold weather we've been having might have something to do with it, although it hasn't been that cold. Still, at least something's gotten started.

Calendar!

Here's a new feature. You can see what happened in the Chief Weeder's garden on this calendar:




Let's see how this works!

Starting another season

Had some snow on a trip to New York a week ago Friday (March 8) and I'm hoping that's it for winter. Because I've started planting. The garden is relatively weed-free, thanks to my new toy, the cultivator.

Here's a view of the garden. Not much to see, but there is garlic over on the left-hand side, if you look carefully.

I've already put in some early plants:

Swiss chard
Broccolini
Spinach
Lettuce
Kale
Kholrabi

The spinach and lettuce are in a row that will eventually go to cucumbers and squash--hoping the leaf vegetables are ready early enough. Swiss chard and broccolini  are  new this year.

I also put in the onions. This year I'm trying them from plants.

I assume the idea is that they will awaken from dormancy when they get wet. I watered them, and am now waiting for rain. It was supposed to rain this weekend. What happened?