Today's harvest

[GotGarlic]

We've harvested two tomatoes so far and more will probably ripen this week. We also have lots of little green beans, cubanelle peppers and cucumbers that will be ready in a few days.

Chard is still doing well, although it's a cool-season plant here, so I need to plan something for that soon. We've already picked some basil over the last week, for caprese salad, and woody herbs are perennials here. A couple of weeks ago, I pruned my bay leaves, lemon balm and rosemary and put them out front for people to take for free.

No diseases or bad pests so far, although the Mortgage Lifter tomatoes weren't doing well and had to be pulled. I'm thinking it was the cold/hot/cold temps that took them out. Sad, because I love their flavor.

We have a pot of mesclun on the back porch. I'm going to pick some to have with dinner tonight.

 

[pepperhead212]

Glad your tomatoes are getting ripe, GG! None here yet, but I'm starting to get a bunch of cucumbers and eggplants, and today the okra started producing. Those Wisconsin 58 cucumbers are doing very well. They are a pickling variety, which was new to me, and I picked 3, so far, when they seemed to stop, at about 6", or a little longer, and the seeds were just barely forming:
First Wisconsin 58, on 6-25. 6 inches long, not at all bitter. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The Ichiban eggplants are covered with eggplants, as well as flowers. The other varieties are behind, but the hari has some fruits forming, and flowers all over it!
Two more Ichiban harvested on 6-27 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The Indian green Hari eggplants, starting to form. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

No flowers on the bottle gourds yet, but one variety is above the top of the trellis, with 2 more vines starting. The ones behind didn't grow straight up, but one plant has 6 vines, so far!
One of the bottle gourd vines, past the top of the trellis, 6-27 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And that curry tree is going crazy! I attached that Rooter-pot to the highest stem, to air-layer it, just before putting it outside, and now you can't even see it - it has grown up and around it! And it's just starting to flower - something I leave on for the bees, as that sickeningly sweet smell attracts them.
Curry tree 6-27 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Cluster of flower buds on curry tree, starting to open up, 6-27 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[bbqcoder]

My onions are bulbing.



Brassicas are gorgeous this year due to my use of row cover. Just have kale, cabbage, and broccoli left.



Corn is looking great. Did three plantings, 10 days apart.


Carrots in the foreground. Raspberries in the back. Garlic to the right.

 

[larry_stewart]

BBQ, Your Onions look great. Do you fertilize, if so, with what and how often ? Where do you get your sets from ? Ive got 3 onion beds, one bed looked great, one good, and one poor. The poor ones is in a knowingly bad area of the garden ( due to less sun than other areas, so Im not surprised ). My onions are hit or miss each year.

Pepper, your curry plant looks great. Mine is making a major league comeback, but still no where near yours.

Got my first Kirbie today ( a week or two earlier than usual). String beans first major harvest probably tomorrow. Chard also very harvestable right now. Blueberries, Mulberries and currants kicking in. Falling behind on my Tomato pruning, but I was definitely much better this year than last year.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

pepper, that is a really nice looking pickling cuke. Might I humbly suggest a recipe for making dill pickles? Crock Dill Pickles Eh, who'm I kidding? I'm not humble at all about these. They're really pretty good.

 

[dragnlaw]

This week's quote from National Gardening,

Old Gardeners never die,
they just run out of Thyme.​

 

[larry_stewart]

String bean picking before it gets hot ( about 2 quarts). What I salvaged from one bed of garlic the other day.

Saw evidence of Raccoons digging up the garden looking for worms ( im assuming, since I found a bunch of 1/2 worms). Luckly I have big sturdy cages around my tomatoes or it could have been a disaster.

 

[bbqcoder]

BBQ, Your Onions look great. Do you fertilize, if so, with what and how often ? Where do you get your sets from ? Ive got 3 onion beds, one bed looked great, one good, and one poor.

Thanks. My plants came from Dixondale. I also grew some from seeds that I started in February.

About two weeks after I planted them, I fertilize with a bulb fertilizer such as 15-45-15. Then every 2 weeks after, I used ammonium sulfate which is high nitrogen. The last fertilizer was about three weeks ago since they started to bulb.

 

[larry_stewart]

I get mine from Dixondale too. I think I got the Long Day variety pack this year.

 

[bbqcoder]

I get mine from Dixondale too. I think I got the Long Day variety pack this year.

I organized a group purchase within my community garden and a bunch of people got the long day sampler. For myself, I bought Blush (red), Copra (yellow), Highlander (yellow), and Sterling (white).

I will get Dixondale again next year but will also grow my own seeds. I’ll try a few different things to see if I can get them pencil sized instead of toothpick sized. It’s also fun to have some stuff growing in the winter months.

 

[pepperhead212]

I got 5 cukes from that one county fair plant, with a bunch more to come on it! A bunch more on the others, too.
All from one County Fair! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[bbqcoder]

Great looking cukes!

Here are some garlic that I harvested a few days ago. I got a few this year that look like mutants.


Also my carrots are coming along nicely. They are the size of a fat pencil.

 

[Kathleen]

I got a tiny little green pepper today. That was it...but plants are growing!

 

[pepperhead212]

It's tomato time! I always consider myself lucky to get anything ripe before 7-4, besides cherries. Once they start, it's hard to keep up with them!

In this photo, there are a few Cherry Bombs with the Sunsugars, but they aren't as large asthe ones last year. Matina was the first red one (besides stressed ones); not really large, but not a cherry! I wouldn't have picked those 3 super light ones, but they were sort of stuck around the red ones, and fell off - they'll ripen, since they're blushing. And the smallest black Prime Rib had some BER, since it was sort of growing against a wire (I try to prevent this, but it's hard to see all of them!).
It's starting! The Sunsugar and Cherry Bomb are getting a few more, the first Matina ripening, and the first black Prime Ribs. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I think this is day 67, from the transplant date, so this is about right, given the delay from the cold snap.

 

[GotGarlic]

We seem to have ended up with some kind of short, fat cucumber [emoji38]

Peppers, L-R: Anaheim, cubanelle and Marconi Italian frying peppers.

 

[larry_stewart]

Tomatoes right around the corner, but already got 3 quarts of pickles going, chard readily accessible and making is way into the weekly menu planning along with string beans. Will pick garlic this weekend, make another rhubarb dessert and I think my first zucchini is pickable. Peas just about done, but will plant a second crop a little later on.

 

[larry_stewart]

Pulled the remaining garlic in the bed where I think th drainage is poor along with the raised bed where the garlic looks healthier. The remaining garlic in the poor drainage bed were better than th ones I picked last week, but you can still see the outer part was affected by sitting in over moist soil. The raised bed was perfect. Nice sized garlic, Nice white outer color, firm head with good looking roots. Just tilled in some sand into the waterlogged bed along with regular compost and chicken crap compost ( thats been sitting for a good year). Although Im pretty sure it was water that screwed up that one bed, the soil didnt seem overly or noticeably wet. That being said, Other than the rain storm we got yesterday, I haven't watered that bed since I noticed the problem a week or two ago. Picture of my wife fist holding one of the nicer garlics and the rest drying out on the patio before I hang them in the garage. I will monitor the ones that dont look as nice, If they show signs of not storing well, Ill just dry them in the dehydrator, Better something than nothing.

 

[taxlady]

Home dried garlic granules and garlic powder sounds good to me. A friend of mine used to do that with her "excess" garlic.

 

[larry_stewart]

Home dried garlic granules and garlic powder sounds good to me. A friend of mine used to do that with her "excess" garlic.

I did it to a test batch earlier in the week, and I must say, it rally does maintain its garlicky flavor and punch. Obviously I would prefer the fresh, but if push comes to shove, at least I know Ill have something that Ill use.

 

[taxlady]

I did it to a test batch earlier in the week, and I must say, it rally does maintain its garlicky flavor and punch. Obviously I would prefer the fresh, but if push comes to shove, at least I know Ill have something that Ill use.

There are many good reasons to have garlic powder. It seems to work better in dip. If you want to make a salad dressing that should be able to last for more than a week in the fridge, it keeps better with garlic powder than with fresh garlic. It's useful in a spice mix that you can keep in the cupboard. Garlic powder is really handy when you are pooped out or in a hurry. I spoke with a Chinese chef who says that some dishes require the dried garlic bits - won't work properly with freshly minced garlic.