A Little Frosty

We had a wee bit of a frost over the past couple nights. I was ready for it and harvested all that was left in the garden a week ago. So anything that is still growing I consider a bonus. Not everything was affected by the light frosts, but the zucchini, summer squash, and basil are finished for the season.

So what is left growing in the garden?

Carrots seem to be doing very well. I usually have a difficult time growing carrots, but these are looking quite good:

The lettuce is loving the cooler temperatures. We had warm temperatures even into September. Some of the earlier lettuce plantings bolted in the heat, but the later transplants seem to be doing ok:

Parsley, both flat leaf Italian and Curly are still growing strong. I have dried some and will harvest and freeze a little more this weekend:

My attempt at growing Pak Choi and Chinese Cabbage wasn’t much of a success. I’ll have to remember to use a row cover next time:

The Heritage Raspberries we planted in the spring seem to have adjusted well in their location and are still producing a few berries. I can’t wait to see how they produce next year:

The green tomatoes that were harvested last week are ripening a little at a time. I am washing and freezing these for now to be used over the winter months for soups, stews, sauce, or salsa:

Believe it or not, the peppers were not affected by the frost and are even still blooming. I may be able to harvest a few Jalapeno peppers this weekend:

I am looking forward to the final garden cleanup this weekend. The lawn and paths in between the garden beds are in need of one more mowing before the winter. I also will be planting garlic once I decide where it should go.

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Harvest Monday: July 26, 2010

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone can share links to their harvest for the week. It’s fun to see what everyone is harvesting from his or her gardens in different areas.

Here in the Garden Spot, the Early Girl Tomatoes are living up to their reputation by ripening the first in the garden. The ones pictured below were allowed to ripen on the vine before harvesting:

Since the danger of Late Blight is near, all other tomatoes will be picked at first blush and placed on a windowsill inside to finish ripening. I know from my devastating Late Blight experience last year that this disease hits fast. Once you detect the tell tail signs, it will be too late to save any tomatoes. I would rather have a few ripen on a windowsill than lose them completely. I will consider them a harvest and include them in Harvest Monday photos once they are red.

Cucumbers pictured above were combined with those left over from last week’s harvest and made into Granny’s Bread & Butter Pickles.

It is a great year for blueberries. We are picking a bowlful every day and eating them by the handful, in our cereal, and as dessert topping:

Almost 5 pounds of Dark Red Norland Potatoes were harvested this week:

Again with Late Blight near, I didn’t hesitate to harvest whatever we could consume in a week. We enjoyed garlic-mashed potatoes, hash brown potatoes and onions, oven fries, and potatoes baked on the grill.

Not pictured are onions, celery, and herbs that are harvested as needed. It is so nice to run out to the garden and pick what is needed to use right away. Some cucumbers also missed their photo opportunity as I gathered them quickly to give away. I definitely overdid it with cucumber plants this year.

We are between lettuce crops now that we have cucumbers and tomatoes for salads. The last of the lettuce harvested several weeks ago and stored in the fridge was composted this week. There wasn’t much left. I am amazed at how long the lettuce stayed fresh in the refrigerator. It will be a while before the new lettuce is large enough for salads.

The melons are growing, the pole beans are flowering, and the peppers are finally forming. I am trying to keep a positive attitude, but the fact that Late Blight is in the vicinity is weighing heavily on my mind. There are 34 tomato plants and 32 feet of potatoes in the garden. All can be lost in a matter of days if Late Blight hits the garden spot.

Be sure to visit Daphne’s Dandelions to see what others are harvesting this week.

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Garlic Harvest

This is my first year growing a large crop of garlic. In the past I have planted a few grocery store bulbs here and there that resulted in some small bulbs. Last fall I dedicated an entire 4x4 Square Foot Garden to Romanian Red and Purple Glazer garlic.

I was unsure when to harvest. I have done my research, but there are conflicting views. Some say when leaves begin to yellow, or when 1-2 leaves turn brown, or even when the tops fall over. The longer you allow the garlic to grow, the larger the bulb. If you harvest too late, the bulb may begin to split apart into individual cloves.

Fellow garden bloggers close to my growing area began posting their garlic harvests a week ago. So I decided to dig one up and see what was happening:

It was beautiful and looked ready to me. I used this bulb to make pesto, it was good sized and the cloves were filled out. The garlic was ready for harvest.

While pulling the garlic I noticed most bulbs were quite large, only a few here or there were a little smaller. I tied them in bunches and hung them in the shed to cure:

Once the bulbs are cured, they will be trimmed and stored in mesh bags. The largest bulbs will be planted in the fall for next years crop.

I am delighted at the success of this garlic crop. I have no idea how much garlic we can consume in year, but I suspect I will be more generous with adding garlic to my cooking.

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Always Learning

I had a few “Whoops!” moments in the garden over the last week.

First and not really surprisingly are a few very overgrown cucumbers:

These were found among the extra plants I planted along the edge of the yard. We have had enough cucumbers this year and I have not been picking them every day like earlier in the season. I’ve made all the pickles we can consume in a year. A few cucumbers are still used for salads. But the last time I brought a batch to work to give away, there were a lot of leftovers. These overgrown cucumbers were added to the compost pile.

The second was my first eggplant that I allowed to over ripen:

The first fruit began forming a few weeks ago. The plants had a difficult time producing as the Japanese beetles were devouring the blossoms as soon as they opened. I watched this fruit form and grow long. Then, I noticed the dark glossy color was gone!

I pulled out the seed package and read that this variety of Japanese Eggplant only grows to 6-inches! I allowed the first one to over ripen thinking that it was going to grow larger. Luckily there are more fruit growing. Below is a comparison of the overripe with one harvested today:

The third was my first two Charantais melons:

The melon patch has two kinds of cantaloupe growing intertwined among each other. The corked skins fooled me. I thought the melons above were Fastbreak and was waiting for them to slip from the vine. Turns out they are Charantais melons and ended up splitting from over ripening. We ate them anyway. They were a little mealy textured.

Hopefully now I will be better at judging the optimum harvest time of these items.

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Harvest Monday: October 3, 2010

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone can share links to their harvest for the week. It’s fun to see what everyone is harvesting from his or her gardens in different areas.

The thermometer read 36˚F/2˚C as the sun rose early Sunday morning. Our first frost is imminent and was predicted to occur early Monday morning, but we escaped frost free. It is just a matter of time now. The weekend was devoted to preparing for the end of the growing season for the year.

Most of the tomato plants were pulled several weeks ago, but the San Marzano tomatoes growing in the Square Foot Gardens (SFG) were still healthy and producing so they were allowed to grow until first frost. This weekend, I harvested most of the large green and partially ripe tomatoes and trimmed the plants down to the ground. I was surprised to end up with 4 paper case sized boxes of tomatoes. I am not sure if all the green tomatoes will ripen, but I am certain some will.

The rest of the peppers were harvested, there were a few Jalapeno, Bells, and Anaheim left:

A few Zucchini, some small Cayenne peppers, and one Carrot that was pulled up to check the size:

The Purple Trionfo Pole Beans that I am trying to save for next year’s seed were pulled and spread out to finish drying in the basement:

Another batch of tomato sauce was made and canned; herbs were snipped, washed, and dried in the microwave or dehydrator; and one more batch of pesto was made and frozen for later use.

I welcome the end of the growing season. The garden has served us very well this year. Weekends have been busy cooking, canning and freezing each weekly harvest. The freezer and pantry shelves are jam-packed with the garden’s bounty to be used over the winter months.  I am looking forward to a break from gardening for a little while. The upcoming weeks will be busy with final cleanup of the garden, raking, shredding, and composting leaves; and stacking wood. Winter will be here before we know it.

Be sure to visit Daphne’s Dandelions to see what others are harvesting this week.

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Succession Planning: Getting the Most Out of the Garden Spot

Last weekend was dedicated to cleaning up the garden a bit and replanting more crops. This year I am trying to keep every spot growing. Once something is pulled from the garden, compost is added to the spot and something else is transplanted or seeded.

The lettuce had bolted and the Swiss chard had overgrown its area and has only been serving to feed the slugs:

Two Swiss chard plants remain and some of the unblemished Swiss chard was harvested. The rest was composted along with the bolted lettuce. New Lettuce and Swiss chard transplants will be planted into the squares where these were pulled. I am just waiting for the seedlings to get a little stronger before hardening them off.

I am growing a couple zucchini plant in a pot this year because I ran out of garden space. They don't look very happy:

I have been harvesting the new potatoes little by little along the edge of the potato patch. Some summer squash and zucchini seedlings will be transplanted to the area of the garden where the new potatoes have been harvested:

 The largest replanting this weekend was the Sugar Snax Carrots which were planted in the 4x4 SFG that the garlic was harvested from last week.

Several weeks ago, while it was too hot to work in the garden, I made carrot seed mats (Granny’s Seed Mat Tutorial at Annie’s Kitchen Garden). These were planted last weekend:

First a generous amount of fresh compost was added to the old garlic bed and mixed in along with a few scoops of Garden Tone fertilizer:

The SFG is 6-inches high but according to the package, Sugar Snax Carrots can grow 10-inches long. I loosened the soil beneath the bed with a garden fork by sinking the tines to the hilt in the soil and wiggling the fork back and forth. The objective is not to mix the native soil in with the SFG soil, just to loosen the soil below so the roots can penetrate easily:

Some of the soil was removed and mixed with vermiculite to cover the carrot seed mats:

 The carrot seed mats were laid out and sprinkled with some soil to hold in place:

 Then covered lightly:

 And watered generously:

There are still maybe 70+ days left to our growing season before the danger of frost threatens and I am going to try to make the most of it. I don’t think I want to try winter gardening just yet, but I will be using frost protection on two 4x4 SFGs in attempt to extend the growing season.

I also plan on overwintering some crops such as scallions, spinach, carrots, and maybe others. In the mean time, seedlings are also being started in soil blocks for herbs such as dill, basil, cilantro, and some cool weather crops that will go in the garden as the summer crops finish up: Spinach, Swiss Chard, Lettuce, and Broccoli. This is much easier to control for me this year since I am growing my own seedlings instead of purchasing transplants.

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Harvest Monday: September 13, 2010

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone can share links to their harvest for the week. It’s fun to see what everyone is harvesting from his or her gardens in different areas.

It’s hard to believe that only two weeks ago the temperatures were in the 90s here in southern Maine. Beginning this weekend, they are more seasonably in the 60s. The summer garden is responding by slowing down production.

I spent most of the weekend making and canning 18 pints of sauce and 14 half-pints of salsa. I also blanched and froze another batch of string beans. I have enough of each preserved now for at least a year. I am feeling very satisfied.

The tomatoes continue to ripen and I anticipate making another batch of tomato sauce next weekend. However the yield harvested each day has dropped tremendously.

The Purple Trionfo and a few Kentucky Wonder pole beans are still producing. From this point on, I will be picking only what is needed for fresh eating. The remainder will be allowed to mature for seed saving. I am hoping to save enough Purple Trionfo seeds for next year. It will be my first seed saving attempt and the Purple Trionfo were grown right next to Kentucky Wonder, so it should be interesting to see what happens.

Here are some of the harvests from the garden spot this week:

I’ll post more about the grapes later this week.

Be sure to visit Daphne’s Dandelions to see what others are harvesting this week.

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