Harvest Monday, 23 June 2014

I harvested some lettuce before our hot spell. And the first kohlrabi.

But after our hot spell I had to harvest all of the second sowing because some were starting to bolt. I tossed what was bitter and this is what I was left with. I gave half to my townhouse mates and kept the rest. I'll be eating this for the next couple of weeks. And if my townhouse mates need more I'll give them some more. But it couldn't stay in the ground any longer. I also harvested a bit of the third sowing. The deertongue is just not holding well. It gets bitter really fast. So that came out too. I think I won't plant any more of that one.

I did learn something when pulling the plants. There were lots of earwigs in the plants, while the Chinese cabbage had very few. So it wasn't the cold weather that kept them down in the Chinese cabbage patch. It was the biochar. Or more probably the ash from the biochar. I need to find someone that burns wood over the winter and has clean ash that I can have. It kept the earwigs out long enough to harvest my heads without too much damage. Now I don't mind the earwigs in the lettuce too much. They freak me out, but earwigs are omnivores. They may love to eat Napa cabbage, but they don't eat the lettuce much if at all. Instead they eat the aphids. I almost never have aphid problems in my lettuce.

The first harvest of snap peas came out of the garden along with some chocolate mint cilantro.

Also first harvest of carrots came out. Then more carrots and peas. The carrots are Mokum and Yaya. I've grown Mokum for years, but Yaya is new. I learned a couple of things. Mokum is a touch faster than the Yayas. They are both just as nice this time of the year. Many carrot varieties are bitter this time of the year, but these are not. And Mokum has more carrot flavor than Yaya. Yaya is a bit flavorless. They might get better when they are older. I'll have to find out.

The other thing I learned is to not plant my carrots the year after a two sisters bed (corn and squash). I have nematodes in the garden and as you can see above some of the carrots didn't grow long and straight. Even more than you see here were distorted as some were just tossed. Nematodes are the reason. The Yayas seem a bit more affected, but I don't have a good sample yet. I know better. One year I put carrots after tomatoes (when I still grew tomatoes). The addage that carrots love tomatoes is just because the nematodes go for the tomatoes when they are grown together. If you put carrots after tomatoes, there are so many nematodes in the soil they all get stunted and deformed. I know from past experience to put carrots after something in the cabbage family (preferably mustard). But when I made up my rotations last year I didn't take that into account. Whoops!

My strawberries were very disappointing this year. But now it is time for the raspberries. I won't get many as a lot of the small patch died back over the last two years. I found out they are in the rain shadow of the house, so weren't getting enough water. I put in a soaker hose this year and they are doing so well now. I hope they spread back to the areas that died off before. Raspberries are usually such weeds.

And the big harvest this week was the Chinese cabbage, both Napa and Michihili. That is over 17 pounds. It was a good year for them. Better than usual. I even got one of the Michihilis to head up this year (the long head). I think this is because it was not close to the brick path. I ought to switch these to the far end in the future and put the kohlrabi near the path. I've done it the other way so long that I never thought to switch it. But I put in an extra Michihili this year and that is where it fit in. I've used the same layout for so long that I never even thought to change how it was done. But now I know.

All in all it was a great harvest week. But as you can tell it was a pretty good learning week as well. I've been gardening for decades, but I always seem to learn new things every year. Or relearn sometimes.

• Carrots: 1.27 lbs
• Greens: 9.75 lbs
• Asian Greens: 18.21 lbs
• Herbs: 0.45 lbs
• Peas: 1.73 lbs
• Weekly Total: 31.41 lbs
• Yearly Total: 88.75 lbs
• Yearly Tally: $-206.32

• Fruit
• Strawberries: 0.09 lbs
• Rhubarb: 0.15 lbs
• Raspberries: 0.05 lbs
• Weekly total: .29 lbs
• Yearly total: 3.12 lbs

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.