Garden Share Collective - August 2014

Beds 1-3 on July 30th

July was a busy month in the garden. It is the transition month where I rip out the spring crops and put in most of the fall crops. Some of the summer crops start to bear fruit, but some wait until August.

Beds 3-8

Most people think of tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes as their mainstay summer crops, but I can't eat any of the Solanaceae family. Even touching them can make me sick. I also react badly to mushrooms, soy, and dried beans. And mildly to green beans and peas. I can eat small quantities of the latter two, but not much. So my summer harvests might be missing some typical garden crops and it might be more limited in variety, but it still manages to feed me pretty well.

Circle garden a bit out of control, Beds 6-8 in the background

July Completed

• July 1st Watered garden
• July 4th Seeded more fresh eating carrots Bed 7E - Mokum (w), Yaya (e)
• July 5th Staked corn that fell over in a storm
• July 6th Ripped out fava beans. Seeded storage carrots Bed 2E - Bolaro (n), SugarSnax (s)
• July 7th Ripped out peas. Seeded Kentucky Wonder pole beans Bed 3W. Started hardening off lettuce, fall brassicas.
• July 8th Pulled garlic to dry. Pulled half the broccoli and trimmed the larger older leaves off the rest which was left in for side shoot production
• July 9th Planted yellow mustard Bed 4E
• July 10th Transplanted lettuce
• July 12th Watered garden
• July 13th Transplanted fall brassicas bed 3E - Michihili cabbage, Napa cabbage, European cabbage, kohlrabi. Transplanted 5 broccoli Bed 6W. Transplanted 3 fennel Bed 3W.
• July 15th Seeded purple top turnips and beets Bed 2W. Potted up kale to paper pots
• July 17th Pruned gooseberries
• July 21st Watered garden
• July 22nd Thinned and weeded carrots, turnips, and yellow mustard
• July 23rd Pulled first set of Copra onions and started to dry them
• July 25th Put up trellis for fall beans. Netted peaches and apples
• July 26th Watered garden. Found mosaic virus in the celery so pulled it
• July 30th Hardening off kale
• July 31st Pulled most of the rest of the onions to dry - Copra, Redwing, Ailsa Craig
• Hand fertilized the corn and zucchini (the latter is under a row cover for SVB) on a regular basis
• Weeded - lots and lots of weeding
• Striped off any diseased leaves on the beans to try to keep it from spreading
• Kept cucumbers tied up on trellis and off other plants
• Turned runners of melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash back into their beds so they don't take over the whole garden

Harvests

July is a transition month for harvests too as the last of the spring crops are harvested at the beginning of the month and as the month progresses the summer crops start to produce. Spring crops that were finished in July were carrots (enough to keep in the fridge until the fall carrots start to produce), fava beans, cabbage, peas, and lettuce. I did try to keep the lettuce harvest going all summer, but what is growing in the heat is not really worth eating. I'll keep the sucessions up and eventually it will be cool enough to get good lettuce.

Alliums are a big July harvest. I don't always weigh many of them in July as I let them dry and cure. I often weigh them in during the start of August. The garlic was pulled and put in the bike shed to dry. And I made a tarp covered spot over the leaf part of the compost pile to dry the onions. This year they are being pulled in batches as some fell early and some fell over later. My extension service claims they store better if you wait to pick until almost all of the leaves are dry so I'm waiting longer this year to see if it works better. In addition to the storage onions I've been picking sweet onions and bunching onions.

I have some harvests that are year round crops. Broccoli heads are a spring crop but I'll be harvesting side shoots all summer long. At least that is the hope. I did see some side shoot harvests in July. The chard just keeps producing. I'm trying to eat it fresh as I have a tendency to forgo greens in the summer, but I'm trying not to. Beets and turnips I'll sow anytime and they grow well here in spring, summer, and fall. I started to harvest the celery this month and hopefully if the mosaic virus doesn't spread, I'll be harvesting it all through fall.

Then there are the summer crops. Beans, cucumbers, and zucchini. We are well into their season and the first two are coming in strong. I'm not doing a good job of hand pollinating the zucchini though. I had it under cover to keep the squash vine borer out. It seems to have worked in that regard, but I'm not getting many squash. Hopefully August will be better. The borers should be gone by now and the squash is uncovered.

There are lots of herbs to be had in July. The basil has to be picked regularly. I always have a bouquet on my counter for when I need it. When I need them I pick chives, dill, thyme, oregano, rosemary, and parsley. I picked a bit of cilantro, but mostly it has gone to seed. It won't be long until the coriander is harvested (same plant different name). I've also started to collect the seeds of yellow mustard (volunteer from my compost pile) and dill. They won't be cleaned and winnowed until I've finished harvesting them for the year.

For fruit in July we had a really nice haul of gooseberries and a small bit of raspberries and currents.

All in all I picked 93 pounds of vegetables and about 6 pounds of fruit in July which was decent.

Preserving

I made two half pints of gooseberry jam and 10 half pints of dill relish. I froze 8 servings of chard and 19 servings of broccoli. Usually I don't keep up with eating my chard harvests and get big batches of chard to freeze, but except for one time in early July I've been eating chard about two time a week and keeping up. I'm sure I'll get enough frozen though. I can't imagine I'll be good all year long. I froze a bit of basil. And dehydrated some parsley and rosemary. My yearly totals as of the end of July are:

• Spinach: 24 servings
• Chard: 8 serving (need 8 more)
• Kale: 28 servings
• Broccoli: 19 servings
• Chinese cabbage: 7 servings, 4 soup packets
• Rhubarb syrup: 4 half pint jars
• Gooseberry jam: 2 half pint jars
• Dill Relish: 10 half pint jars
• Mizuna Soup: 4 servings

August To Do

• Weed!
• Sow successions of lettuce and turnips
• Sow fall spinach, baby Asian greens, mache, cilantro
• Plant kale and lettuce transplants
• Keep the melons and sweet potato vines out of the paths
• Keep the winter squash under the corn
• Braid onions once they are done drying
• Clean and store garlic
• Enjoy the garden!

This post is part of the Garden Share Collective hosted by Lizzie at Strayed From the Table.