Broccoli, Cucumbers, and Lettuce

Tuesday I finally harvested the last of the broccoli. It was a good run. My plan is to leave the Arcadia plants you see above in to produce side shoots. But this year I had two rows. The other row was Fiesta. I pulled that one to plant a new crop of fall broccoli. I'm hoping this will keep me in broccoli for a longer time. Plus large heads in the fall will be really nice as the side shoots do tend to get stronger in flavor and a bit tougher as time goes on.

So I pulled all the Fiesta plants. One I was really sad to see go. It was the first harvested and the side shoots were already starting to grow well. Fiesta does side shoots well. I just hope Arcadia does too. The description says it does and I'm counting on it.

Tuesday I also put out the fall brassicas for the first time to start hardening off. They only got morning sun, which was filtered by some clouds. It won't take long to harden these off. They are in soil blocks and get planted under a row cover which protects them a lot, so transplant shock is minimal. They just need to make sure they can handle the strength of the sun.

I've been tying up my cucumbers to the trellis. They can climb themselves, but as you see I have a row cover right next to them. That row cover will be removed so I have to make sure they aren't attached.

The other side is also a mess. The dill is in the path (yes there is a path between the cukes and the dill). So I have to keep the cucumbers off of the dill too. They really don't have a lot of room this way but they seem happy enough as long as I'm diligent about tying them up each morning.

And here is the reason I don't want to pull that dill. I have plenty of dill in the rest of the yard. I could yank it out. But I've removed the lettuce sun shade. Now the dill shades it on one side and the onions and beans on the other. It seems to be working. Though the lettuce is growing very slowly.