A new year in the garden starts off with a bang

Between this year's constant snow and storms, and work being done (or, worse, not being done) on our entrance deck, I really didn't get around to getting outside to the garden until today. I looked up my plans, and realized that--surprise!--it's March. So I managed to plant most of the cool weather seed crops today. That includes kale, chard, kholrabi, and spinach.

Chard seeds (on the left) and spinach (on the right)

This year I bought most of my seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised by oddities. Still, these are the largest spinach seeds I've ever seen. The chard seeds look large as well, although this is only the second year I've planted chard. 

I kept away from putting out the onions. Because it looks like another storm is on the way.

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.