Harvest Monday July 2th 2011

After the serious heatwave this week, heading to the garden yesterday morning it felt positively balmy at 85 degrees! I did some overdue weeding of the front of our plot, including pulling an old 6 foot long water pipe from the ground.

We also pulled our zucchini plants because we were not able to get any zucchini due to the pesky rabbits eating any fruit that set. Our bush beans, and now our pole bean have similar problems. I may have to give up on the pole beans altogether if they keep getting attacked so ravenously. We also harvested what was left of the remaining mesclun greens and pulled the rest for the compost pile.

Not everything was terrible though, we took home a nice variety of peppers, some chives a few baby carrots and more!

Here is a look at this weeks harvest:

Carrots: 1.00 oz

Chives: 8.00 oz

Huckleberry: 6.85 oz

Mesclun Greens: 1.50 oz

Mint: 0.35 oz

Oregano: .50 oz

Pepper (Bell): 7.85 oz

Pepper (Gypsy): 5.65 oz

Pepper (Wax): 2.00 oz

Sage: .50 oz

Total for this week: 2.1375 lbs (34.20 oz)

Total for the season: 9.51 lbs (152.20 oz)

If you want to see what other's are harvesting or share in your own bounty visit Daphne's Dandelions the home of Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday July 18th 2011

Another week of heat and humidity did the garden well. Everything is going smoothly except for the pole beans and zucchini both the victims of critters, though the pole beans might have time to recover, it looks doubtful for the zucchini.

This week we had 2 firsts - The first tomato and peppers of the year. We took home a Cherokee Purple that was about to turn red last week which I had accidentally knocked off, but it turned this week and we got to enjoy it. I would have had a 2nd tomato from the same plant this week but the animals got to it before I did. I saw the tomato and Friday afternoon and knew I would be returning to the garden the following day for some work, and thought I could take it home then, but I was wrong. When we got to the garden on Saturday the tomato had 3 nice sized bite/peck marks. Lesson learned I guess! Regardless of the outcomes I have updated the tomato watch sidebar to reflect the first harvested Cherokee Purple (still waiting for a striped roma).

As for the peppers we took home, they look more like last years wax peppers then the cubanelle, jalapeno or bell peppers we are growing this year, so until I know otherwise I will count them as wax peppers. We also pulled the final Kale plant from the spring that was still hanging on.

Here is this weeks Harvest:

Tomato 2.85 oz

Pepper (wax) 3.65 oz

Chives 2.35 oz

Kale 6.10 oz

Mesclun Greens 4.65 oz

Parsley .30 oz

Huckleberry 3.75 oz

Total for the week: 1.478 lbs (23.65 oz)

Total for the season: 7.73 lbs (123.65 oz)

Less greens and more tomato and peppers in the near future I'd imagine, and hopefully some pole beans at some point too!

If you want to see what other's are harvesting or share in your own bounty stop by Daphne's Dandelions the home of Harvest Monday!

Garlic

What can I say. I got a little impatient and Gail and I pulled the garlic up last week. Some of it was weighed as green garlic on Monday, and the rest is hanging and drying in our kitchen.

Overall the Garlic experiment was a great success. Next year I'll try to wait a little longer to pull it up, but it won't be easy!

Tomato and Pepper Watch!

July has been great for the tomato's and pepper in the garden. After a June that featured seemingly endless rains and not many warm days July has been hot and humid!

As a result the tomatoes and peppers have been making their presence known. Here's a few pics I snapped last week:

The cubanelle's pictured above are coming on strong. 3 plants and at least 15 peppers already!

This Cherokee Purple is by far the biggest tomato I have so far. The plant its on is a little weak but this tomato is looking mighty fine!

Lastly, the Striped Roma's aren't nearly as big as the Cherokee's but there are a lot more of them.

It doesn't seem like this years tomato and pepper conditions are as good as last year, but that is fine, I am happy for each and every harvest and the experience of nurturing the plants and enjoying the bounty!

Pest & Critter Control!

We've had an invasion of pests and critters in the Fens lately.

First my bush beans, pole beans, and mini-zucchini got ravaged by some rabbits. The bush beans got it so bad that I pulled them. The pole beans look to be slowly recovering, and so is the zucchini hopefully. Then the tomato plants had white and green aphids as well as some other bugs that were having their way.

It was long past sitting and hoping. We had to take some action!! First off I've been closely inspecting each tomato plant leaf by leaf and wiping the bugs off as I spot them, then Gail brewed up some natural insect protection:

The above is a jar of tea brewed from cayenne pepper, raw onion, and water that we let sit for a few days to really soak in (and get stinky!). We sprayed it on the vulnerable plants last week and the zucchini began to recover. Hopefully the stink will keep the pesky rabbits away!!

What natural pest control methods do you use??

Harvest Monday July 11th 2011

The harvests keep rolling in!! summer is definitely here with some heat and humidity that my peppers and tomatoes have really loved!

This weeks harvest is all about variety. Included in the harvest is the 3 heads of test garlic I mentioned last week that were dry enough for our liking. I also harvested the final 2 heads of Red Cross Butterhead lettuce. One of them is pictured here:

We also got down the basil (see below) and Gail made our first batch of pesto cubes!

This Week's Harvest:

Lettuce (Red Cross Butterhead) 1.056 lbs (16.9 oz)

Chives .55 oz

Walking Onions 2.65 oz

Huckleberry 1.50 oz

Raspberry 1.50 oz

Green Garlic 2.45 oz

Garlic 3.35 oz

Basil 9.75 oz

Total for the week: 2.416 lbs (38.65 oz)

Total for the season: 6.25 lbs (100 oz)

The dry beans and min-zucchini have had some critter issues so we will see if we get a harvest from them. The bush beans were so ravaged that I pulled them before they could anything. It's a constant battle against bugs, critters, and the weather. What's a gardener to do?!

If you want to see what other's are harvesting or share in your own bounty stop by Daphne's Dandelions the home of Harvest Monday!

Testing Garlic

As I mentioned on Monday Gail and I pulled some garlic this week as 'testers' for what is still in the ground. We previously pulled a few weaker stalks and ate he small heads as green garlic, along with some garlic scapes.

We pulled a random sampling of garlic plants and ended up with 3 more heads of green garlic as well as 3 heads of normal garlic - 2 softneck 1 hardneck that are drying out ahead of the main harvest which will come in the next few weeks.

Here is a better look at the garlic that made it home with us on Monday.

These 'spring garlic' heads are just a little smaller then their full size counterparts:

Here are the 3 bigger heads that we pulled:

As you can see the we wrapped the softnecks around the hardneck and are drying them together in our kitchen:

With space limited this is good practice for when we have much more to dry all at once.

All in all the garlic has been fairly successful so far. The cloves were planted a little to close together, so some heads have come out smaller then I would like but overall it is a minor adjustment I can make for next year!

Harvest Monday July 4th 2011

The Garden is starting to take off and kick into the heat of summer. Below is our incredibly fresh harvest as it was harvested today after a hard day of work and the great 4th of July Picnic/Barbecue the Fenway Garden Society threw. Here's what we harvested after some hard sweaty work this morning:

Chives: 4 oz

Mesclun Greens: 2.90 oz

Green Garlic: 1.25 oz

Lettuce (Red Cross Butterhead): 12.65

Total for this week: 1.3 lbs (20.80 oz)

Total for the season: 3.834 lbs (61.35 oz)

We also harvested 3 heads of non-green garlic which I will add to the harvest total once they are dried out.

If you want to see what other's are harvesting or share in your own bounty stop by Daphne's Dandelions the home of Harvest Monday.