Peas and Cukes

I'm having trouble with my lettuce. It is hot out. It has been well into the 80Fs for quite a while, with occasional heat waves into the 90Fs. Before the last heat wave I picked lots of lettuce, which I've finally finished eating. We are about to have yet another heat wave. I picked a couple of bolting "heads". I hesitate to call them heads since they really aren't large enough yet. It is probably enough lettuce for just one salad. None of the rest is really doing all that well. It is growing very slowly. The new seed that I put out won't come up (except Red Sails). So my succession planting has really stalled.

The best of the lot of lettuce for this heat so far seems to be Red Sails. It has out performed all the others. But after weeks without a break in the heat, even it is having problems. The little seedlings just sit there asking me why I planted them during the summer. They are on strike and demanding cooler weather before growing again. Black Seeded Simpson has been the overall worst performer. I don't think I'll grow it again. I've been told crispheads grow better in the summer than other lettuce, but I hate crisphead lettuce. I'll have to do some research before I buy my seed next year. Also I'm going to have to branch out with salad greens and grow a few other kinds of green. My best green so far in the heat is my Fun Jen (frilly boc choi). It doesn't hold up well to cooking, but it quite tasty in a salad.

And despite the heat, my peas have germinated and are poking out of the soil. My current peas are still producing weirdly enough and are even starting to send up side shoots. They are starting to get some yellow leaves, so I'm guessing they won't last all that long. This has been the weirdest variety of pea. It is supposed to be Dwarf Grey Sugar, which is a dwarf snowpea. The package said it was supposed to get about 2 1/2 feet tall. Well it has topped 5 feet and is still growing. I had to add to its trellis so it wouldn't fall down, but sadly I did that a little too late, so it is tipped over a bit. It is also supposed to be a snowpea. And it is fine in that capacity, but it gets sweeter if you let the peas develop a little and they seem to work as a snap pea too. Very strange. I wonder if their seed got mixed up.

The heat has been a boon for my cukes. I clipped off the tops of the two that have made it to the top of the trellis. Their response to this has been to freak out and send out lots of potential cukes. If you look at the photo, one node has four little cukes growing and the other has three. This is happening all the way up and down the stem. Plus it is sending out side branches. I expect to be inundated with pickles soon. And speaking of pickles. I ate the first ones yesterday at dinner. They were wonderful. A little sour though, so I'll add a little more sugar to the pickle mixture next time. Cold pickles are the perfect summertime treat.

Comfrey is Planted

Yesterday was a very busy day in the garden. My favorite part was picking the harvest. I had lots of raspberries, in fact, too many to eat on my breakfast cereal. I'll have to think about how I'm going to store them. I'll probably just freeze the extras right now since it is easy. When I get enough I'll do something more fun like ice cream.

I picked the mustard because it was bolting. I've had real trouble growing this giant red mustard. There is nothing giant about it in my garden. Of the five plants that I've put in over the weeks, three of them have wilted and died. One bolted. If you notice that one it really isn't that big. One is still hanging on, but I'm not optimistic. Its too bad. I really like the sharp flavor of the leaves. They are too strong to eat straight in this hot weather, but are good mixed into things to provide a little bite.

After the harvest, it was down to work. My Russian comfrey showed up yesterday afternoon. I've been hemming and hawing a lot about planting this. It is really a nice plant for its ability to fertilize other plants. Its roots go way down and bring up valuable minerals. I've been wanting to grow it for mulch for a while now. Currently I buy straw for mulch, but it would be nice to create at least some of my own. At the very least it is fabulous on the compost pile. Comfrey's flaw is that it tends to be invasive. It will seed itself everywhere and once the roots are there (remember they can go way down into the soil), it can be impossible to get them out again. So do I really want an invasive plant in the garden? Well I bought the blocking 14 variety that doesn't set seed. This should at least remedy one problem with it. I'll have to keep a close eye on it though to make sure it doesn't spread too far.

I decided to put it in the weird corner of the garden. I found it very hard to work in the corner since it is so sharp an angle. Before I just threw some dwarf iris there, so I wouldn't have to take care of it. Since the maple roots invade that spot, not a lot of things like to grow there. I figured that might help keep the comfrey in check. Pulling up all the iris was a chore. It hadn't been touched in about eight years. It was just a mass of iris tuber that I had to cut through to pull it out. But now you can see the after photo of my three comfrey plants. I know it looked prettier before, but hopefully they will start growing.

Then I had to compost it all. My friendly lawnmower guy left a huge pile of grass yesterday too. So I hacked up the iris tubers and I snipped all the leaves into bits to help them decay and mixed them with the grass and leaves. I'm thinking I need a machete for my next garden tool. It would have been useful. Just put it all on a block and whack it to death. I now have three compost piles (four if you count the plastic one in the garden). I can't get the vision of the Count from Sesame Street out of my head. "One compost pile; two compost piles; three compost piles; hahaha." You'd think with my kids being 19 and 21 I would have forgotten that show already. But it is programmed into my brain now.

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day July 2008

Wow what to pick for bloom day? There are too many things in bloom. In the veggie garden we have: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beans, peas, giant red mustard (sadly), summer squash, cucumbers, and pumpkins. In the herb garden the following are blooming: thyme, oregano, feverfew, coriander, dill, parsley, sage, lemon balm, and chamomile.

A few days ago I posted about the mushrooms that had come up. The day after my ghost pipes finally showed up. They missed that page, but seem appropriate here. They aren't technically flowers, but boy they sure look like ghostly white flowers from some fairy's garden.

On to showy flowers as you probably expect from bloom day. I have lilies and several different daylilies. The one on the left is beautiful and I don't remember planting it at all. I think the fairies that planted my ghost pipes, planted these at the same time. It was really weird. I have Stella D'Oro in the front of them. When they bloomed I expected them to be more of the same. My first thought was that my Stella mutated, but of course that isn't it. I don't remember buying more daylilies. I usually just divide the ones I have. The one on the right is my favorite daylily, Hyperion. I love it best because of its scent. Anything with a wonderful scent is worth growing in my book.

I also have three varieties of coreopsis. I remember Moonbeam is the yellow one, but the two pink varieties, I don't remember at all. I really love the one in the photo. I planted it this year and I didn't expect it to be so tall and leggy. I wish I had known that it needed staking before it flopped all over the coreopsis in the front. One of the reasons I love this coreopsis so much, is not because of the beautiful flowers but because it attracts all sorts of bees. Bees love this plant. I've seen two different kinds of metallic green bees on it and all sorts of interesting wasps.

All my hostas are flowering too. Some of their flowers are frankly boring, but some are quite stunning.

Then to my echinachea. I've tried to grow this plant for years, without any luck. I tried to buy plants. I tried to grow them from seed. The plants would never flower and they would die before the year was through. I don't know why they are so hard here. They are supposed to be an easy plant. But I wanted them. They scream old New England farmhouse to me, because of course all the old farmhouses have them in their gardens. A couple of years ago I gave up. I plopped a dwarf iris where the plants were and decided to forget about them. Last year I noticed at the edge of the iris a plant that looked like an echinachea. I wasn't positive. It didn't flower, but I didn't pull it out either. This year I have two plants growing, one on either side of the iris. They are both blooming. Their blooms seem stunted and a little twisted, but there are blooms. Will they eventually be happy? Or are they fighting some terrible disease and that is why I can never grow them here? I've had the same trouble with rudbeckia, but they are finally going to bloom here too.

I certainly have other flowers, but really so much blooms in July the page would take forever to load if I put up photos of them all. I listed my veggie garden flowers already, so I'll just list some more bloomers here: snapdragons, cosmos, marigolds, mallow, balloonflower, ox-eyed daisy, forgetmenot, rose, and dalia.

Harvests, Insanity and a Rose for Remembrance

Today had some great harvests. The best was the chamomile. I've been picking it for weeks now, but today there were so many blossoms. I brought them inside to dry on the windowsill (below you can see they are sitting next to Lono, the Hawaiian god of fertility and agriculture). I tried drying them in the dehydrator for the first batch, but they didn't dry all the way through. When I checked them in their glass jar, they had a funky smell, not the wonderful fragrance of the flowers. Now I'm very worried about how to tell if they are really dry or not. I don't want to destroy another patch, and I have four batches sitting on my windowsills.

Squash was also in abundance today, one zucchini and two yellow straightnecks. Previously I've only gotten two yellow squash at all from this plant, now it gives me two in one day. I sort of expected the zucchini to do this. That one zucchini plant had three female blossoms open yesterday, but today only one seemed of a good size to pick. I'm sure I'll get more tomorrow.

I have started the dreaded summer zucchini glut. I ate one zucchini yesterday for lunch and had all three squash today for lunch. Really they don't have many calories. A medium one has only around 30 calories. You can eat a truckload and not gain weight. And let me tell you, it feels like I've eaten a truckload of zucchini. I wish I had counted the zucchinis from this plant. I think I've been getting about 2-3 each week for about a month, but now it seems to be getting crazier and the squash are getting larger. The one I picked today was 7" long yesterday before it was pollinated and 9" when I picked it this morning. Maybe it is just a temporary glut, but if it keeps up, I'm going to have to start annoying my neighbors and hand them out. I'll be known as the poor zucchini lady that isn't willing to throw out her zucchinis so tries to pawn them off on unsuspecting strangers to keep from having to eat them all herself. And I planted a succession crop of zucchini. What was I thinking? I need therapy for my love/hate relationship with them.

Well lets put potential insanity aside and get back to the garden. While picking the dreaded zucchini I noticed a pair of cucumber beetles mating in a squash blossom. I wanted to get them out and drown them, but there was a honey bee, also enjoying herself in there. In fact she seemed quite drunk on the nectar. While I was waiting for her to finish imbibing and leave, another bee joined her. Sigh I'm having some pretty strange parties in my garden, and I'm the cops that have to break it all up. But break it up I did. I picked the blossom and held it upside down a little bit away from the other squash blossoms, until both bees left. Yes weird gardener strikes again. I just stood in the garden for a good 3 minutes waiting for the bees to fly away so I could kill cucumbers beetles. The cucumber beetles were obviously having a good time, since they had not stopped their sexual escapades at all until their unexpected cold bath. Sorry beetles, but you are not welcome at my parties. Invited guests only.

Then it was to the roses for some more uninvited guests. I found some Flower Longhorns deforming my roses. They were summarily uninvited. Now unlike most of you in gardening blogland, I don't really do roses. I don't like hard to grow plants that I can't eat. But once upon a time, before she moved away, I had a gardening friend (technically I still have her for a friend, but it is not the same when she lives 2000 miles away). Yes someone I could talk gardening with and she liked it, and I might add, didn't want to change the subject. She loves roses. She talked me into one. "Hey," she said, "David Austin has some new roses out and they don't get nasty diseases like the others. They are very easy to grow and smell good." She got me with the talk of the scent of roses. But easy to care for? Not. Really it is a rose. I put it in my fruit garden because it makes rose hips. Not that I use rose hips, but at least it fits with the concept. It has full day sun. It has good air circulation. It gets sick if I don't spray it. This is the first year that I've sprayed it. I used the same sprays as the veggie garden, aspirin, worm casting tea, and Serenade. It is much happier this year. And oh yeah I fed it for the first time in years. It probably likes that too. It is amazing that this rose hasn't died off yet considering how I treat it. But still I'm at least a little attached to this rose, despite the neglect. It smells nice and it reminds me of Debbie.

My Current Favorite Tool

I think I'm a bit different from most gardeners. I can go into a garden store and buy nothing. I love to look at the plants. I could do that for days, but I don't need to bring them home. I'm also not much of a tool hound. Having more tools means more tools that I have to keep track of. Most of mine are hand-me-downs from my husband's grandma Lea and some are in terrible shape.

My life is so much simpler if I just have a few. I also don't have much of an attachment to them and frankly rarely use tools. Hands are so much more fun (well unless you have to dig). Carol loves her hoes. Mine are just tools. My kids used to take them to the backyard and loose them in the woods. They were supposed to put them back when they were done, but they rarely did. It really didn't bother me much. Most were old and dying as it was. Digging in the woods seemed like good childhood fun to me. When I needed them I would make them start hunting, but I was never upset. One of them however has been permanently lost in the woods. It was the one tool I wouldn't let them use for a long time. I agonized over buying it. It was my compost fork.

A good compost fork is worth its weight in gold. All I had before was a garden fork, which is used to turn soil. It came to me old and bent. It still works, but the wooden part of the handle has fallen off. The problem with a garden fork is twofold. It is very heavy, which means it is sturdy enough to dig rocks out of the garden, but uses a ton of energy when you are turning compost, and it tines are too wide and sticks get stuck in them - especially in the bent part. Now that I am getting lots of grass cuttings, and making a lot of compost again, I need a good fork to turn over my compost.

My favorite (sadly soon to be closed down) garden store had an OK compost fork,but not great. Mahonies, the biggest of our local gardening stores, only had a long handled pitchfork, and it was heavier than my garden fork. So it was time to turn to online sources. I tend to like the tools that Johnny's has. They are very well made. The compost fork that I ordered from them is wonderful, light and sturdy. It has no wooden parts at all. It is mostly metal with a plastic handle. And it is green, so it looks nice in the woods. Turning over the two compost piles this morning was a breeze compared to last week. It's my new favorite tool. Of course now that I've bought it, watch me finally find where my kids buried my old one. I know it is out there somewhere.

Random News

Blooming news

Lots of my second round of dill (dill that germinated late or dill that was eaten to the ground by my swallowtails then grew back) was starting to flower this morning. I will have more than enough seed from the first round of dill plants that have been flowering for a while. So I harvested it and some chilies. I made it into more pickle juice in anticipation. It turned out to be way more than I thought, so I just dumped the rest into a freezer bag. I haven't a clue if it freezes well or not, but it can't hurt. I have nothing else to do with it right now.

I had other blossoms starting up today too. The first eggplant blossom opened up. Hopefully it will set. My yard long bean was also in flower this morning. I wish I had a photo. I went out later to take the picture, but alas, it must not flower during the heat of the day. It was all closed up. If you remember from way back when, I complained that my yard long beans haven't grown and weren't climbing the trellis like my other pole beans. And indeed they still aren't growing. The little plants really have no right to flower now. How is their bean going to grow? The plants are only about 6-8" high. Even if my yard long beans only get to a foot long, they would be dragging in the dirt.

My other beans are doing just fine. I have to pinch them out when they get past the end of the bean poles. They have been sending out lots of side shoots from the bottom that are starting to wind their way up the pole. I actually picked the first five beans today. They are covered in blooms. Soon I'll be inundated with them.

Insect News

The "moth" that was wondering what it was, is not a moth. It is a netwing beetle. Thanks WhatsThisBug.com. So I looked it up. It is a pollen and nectar eating beetle. So it is unlikely to be bad for the garden.

During the last couple of days I've been seeing black swallowtails in my garden. Are these my baby black swallowtails? I'd like to think so. I hope I'm not picking dill with swallowtail eggs on it. I don't see any, but then I've never seen any and haven't a clue as to what they look like.

I have green bees in the garden. Ok I had one green bee in the garden and had trouble getting a photo of it. It wouldn't stand still long enough for me. But his back is beautiful metallic green. I've also seen some blue bees in the garden, but haven't been able to photograph one.

I was very worried about the bees earlier this year. I really hadn't seen many except bumble bees. But now they are out in force. Where I had only seen one honeybee by the middle of June. Now I see them everywhere - on the mallows, on the coreposis, on the cilantro. Though I still find that my zucchini does better if I hand pollinate it and the only yellow squash I've gotten was from hand pollination. So I've taken to it again despite the bees. The positive aspect is that I can pick all the male blooms and eat them if I like.

Miscellaneous News

My carrots have come up. Their germination is a little spotty, but not too bad. I may have to sow more seed in a week, but maybe more will come up before then.

I planted some Sugar Snap Peas and Mammoth Melting Peas behind my carrots. I'm hoping they grow fast before the fall. I've never tried growing fall peas. At 70 and 75 days until harvest, it will be well into late September before I get any. We usually don't have our first frost until the end of October or the beginning of November, so I'm hoping I can get a month and a half of peas before the frost kills the blossoms.

Moths and Mushrooms

Last night I was buzzed by a female peach borer, which I promptly killed even though I have no peaches. This moth is just huge. He is a little scary too since he looks so much like a wasp - actually a hornet since no 2" long insect could be a measly wasp. It was probably quite amusing if you were watching me catch the thing in a tiny little fishing net. He barely fit. Luckily for me he didn't want to leave the garden so he gave me plenty of chances.

The moths have definitely invaded my garden. The orange and black striped moth that I saw yesterday and still can't identify (maybe a lichen moth?), has brought his buddies with him. I counted three sleeping in the garden this morning. I really think I ought to be killing them. They are moths and moths do produce larva that eat plants. But I can't bring myself to do it unless I know it is really destructive. I've found lots of webworms in my garden, and most of them lived to tell about it. They really don't seem to do much damage.

The other thing I have a lot of in the garden right now are mushrooms. The above photo on the right is the one that all the squirrels love to eat, so I'm guessing it isn't too poisonous. The others they won't touch at all. Some year I ought to learn something about mushrooms, but not today. We have started to dry out recently so I'm guessing they won't last long.

My Golden Tomato

Yesterday was the day that all kitchen gardeners dream about. Drum roll please --- the first tomato of the season in all its golden goodness. I picked it but didn't eat it right away, I had to look at it for a while, but not too long of course. Yummy. I gave my daughter the second one.

Ok so it isn't a big beefsteak tomato or an heirloom, but it was the best tomato variety I've ever tried. It was pit against about 30 others in a personal taste test last year and this little gem won. It not only tasted great, but it is an early tomato at 55 days, or so it says. I planted it on May 17th and the first one picked on July 9th. So by my reckoning it took 53. Way to go Sungold. I'm also told that it resists cold better than most tomatoes so it is often the last tomato in the fall still producing. Whats not to like about it? Ok it's not an heirloom, and you can't save the seeds and expect yummy goodness the next year. You do have to buy them each year.

Also if you notice the bowl, I picked four cukes yesterday. I picked four more today. So my first pickle jar is full and tomorrow will be time to start on the second. Sadly I didn't think ahead. I saved the one glass jar, which actually used to have pickles in it. But I should have saved lots more. Who knows how many pickle jars I'll finish before my cukes bite the dust? So I'm stuck with plastic until I find more glass.

While I was picking my zucchini today, I noticed an insect on the row cover. My immediate instinct when I saw it was to kill it. It is a pretty enough insect. I swear I used to know what it was, but can't remember anymore. I tried to find it in my books, but no luck. So it lives. I don't want to touch it unless it is a pest. Does anyone in blogland know what it is?

It Was Bound to Happen

Every year like clockwork in July, the borers come. I saw one earlier this year but caught it in a fish net and killed it. Yes a fish net. I don't have a butterfly net and this was left over from my water gardening days. Hey it worked. Anyway that borer left no eggs behind. I was lucky. My luck has run out.

I lifted up the row cover on my pumpkins to pick the male blossoms for lunch. Yes that row cover that was supposed to keep the borers out, kept one in. One of the pumpkin vines had lifted up the row cover and the borer very happily walked right in. I actually have two vines. One of which is not growing very fast. I decided I only had time to try to save one, so riped up the little one. I checked the plant over. Maybe the borer hadn't laid any eggs.

All along the main stem at every leaf node was an egg. Whimper. A single borer can lay over a hundred eggs and she got right to the main part of the plant. I tried to find borer eggs on the vine that was left, but couldn't. They like to lay the eggs underneath and picking up the stem might break it. In addition it is starting to root at every leaf node, so I really don't want to rip it out of the ground. Those extra roots may save its life later. I must have looked silly with my butt in the air and face to the ground trying to peer under the pumpkin vine. I didn't see any. Maybe the borer follows the vine of one plant as she lays her eggs. I'm hoping. I'm also going to keep that row cover tighter to the ground. But if they do follow the vine laying eggs then likely I'll find another trapped in there later. My only consolation is that if they are trapped in there I get to have my revenge on them.

I will keep a close eye on the vine in a week. They take a week or two to hatch. If I find them I'll dig them out of the vine and destroy them. Then patch the vine back up with some old rags.

And what did I do with the vine I pulled out that is infected? Well people tell you to burn them. I don't have a good place to burn them anymore. Some years I put them in the trash. Today I finished constructing a compost pile. I buried the vine in the center where it will get to about 160 degrees. In about 5 days or so I'll turn it again and make sure it ends up in the middle. I'll keep the pile hot. I'm hoping it kills the eggs. At the very least its food source will be decomposed so it will have nothing to eat.

The good news is that the second seeding of my cucumber and zucchini has germinated. They will be kept totally under a row cover until the borers are gone in August. I was a little worried about my cucumbers. There were only 15 seeds in the packet when I bought them and there were only 6 left for this sowing. I put them a foot apart, two seeds to growing spot. If they had elected not to germinate I would be out of luck with cucumbers. But five of them germinated and I'll cut the weaker of the two extra out later.

Things to remember for next year: only grow borer resistant squash (butternut and resistant zucchini), don't give in to pumpkins - too much angst; buy a larger packet of cucumber seed.

Frozen Basil and Summer Pickles

Wow you have to love summer when you have a veggie garden at least here in the north. The garden is just bursting at the seams now. I went out to pick the morning harvest and it was pretty big. Part of that is the weather. We are about to get a three day heat wave so I picked all the lettuce that was big enough. Hopefully the rest will survive as it is still young.

My raspberries have just started to produce. I picked a total of three berries. I see evidence that the birds got one before me. Usually they don't give me too much trouble. I'm willing to share if they don't eat too much. The chipmunks can be annoying with the low lying berries. They will strip those branches but they can't climb the plants well, so the higher ones are all for me. I plan to have raspberries on my cereal every morning.

My Sungold tomatoes have just started to turn color. They aren't ready to pick yet, but I'm anticipating. My eggplants have put out a total of one bud today. This is the first bud I've seen, so maybe I'll get an eggplant after all. Just maybe. I'm still not getting my hopes up on that one. My first little beans are starting to form. They are about 1/4" long, but I expect them to grow fast. Especially with the 90 degree temps we are supposed to have for the next couple of days.

Some of the basil trying to share a bed with my pumpkins was getting a bit crowded, so I picked two whole plants. I have lots more. I washed and dried the leaves, then froze them on a cookie sheet. Now they are all in a baggie in the freezer. I've never stored basil this way before, but it seemed like the easiest way. Some people say to blanch it so it won't turn black, but I didn't bother. The frozen basil is beautifully green. However I know as soon as it defrosts, it will immediately turn black and lose it structure. So this is only for sauces and soups. It is supposed to still taste like summer basil even if it will look bad defrosted, which is what I'm going for. That and ease. No pureeing, no blanching, no adding oil. Just wash and freeze. My kind of preserving.

The direct seeded cucumbers had their first full size cukes ready (pickling cukes, technically gherkins, I pick at about 3 1/2 " or so). I picked four today and I suspect I'll pick more and more as they ramp up. They have already started sending out long side shoots. The transplanted ones haven't yet. I'm hoping they aren't permanently stunted. And since I picked enough to start pickling, I had to pick some seasonings. I picked two super chilis to make the pickles spicy. I usually let them get red and dry them. They are similar to cayennes, though pretty ornamentals since they hold their peppers upright. The other addition is of course dill. I didn't touch my flowering dill. I ended up picking enough dill for two batches of pickling juice so I made two. I'll eventually use the other one.

Refrigerator pickles

• 4 cucumbers or however many fit in the jar
  
• onion (not a full one just some slices)
• orange pepper, couple of slices (ok use red if you like, but I had orange)
• 2 hot peppers (used Super Chili)
  
• 1 clove garlic sliced
• 1 slice fresh ginger
  
• 1c vinegar
• 3/4c water
  
• 3T sugar
  
• T salt
• dill sprigs, lots, however much you want, I'm guessing I used hmm 1/3c?
  
• t dill seed (mine is from last year's crop)

Just a few of each of the following or pickling spice, but I just make my own since I have most of the things in it anyway.

• whole mustard seed (though I seem to be out so just added a little powdered mustard)
  
• whole cloves
• whole allspice
• small bit of cinnamon bark
• bay leaf crumbled
• peppercorns
• coriander (yup from last year's crop)
• mace not ground (optional, but I have some from when I traveled a while back, everyone wanted to give me fresh nutmeg since it was in season and the trees were everywhere)
  

Actually a lot of the spices are optional. I add it if I have it. If you want it sweeter, add more sugar. If you want it saltier, add more salt. It always turns out differently. But to finish off. Put it all in a clean glass jar and shake until all the salt and sugar is dissolved. Yup I don't cook it at all if I'm doing refrigerator pickles. They turn out very crispy this way. They are ready in about a little over a week if the cukes are whole, or three days if you slice them in some way. I'll keep adding to the jar until it is full with pickles (make sure the pickles are always covered), then let them sit while I start another jar. Yummy. I love summer pickles.

Succession Crops

I often put in seed for succession crops for my lettuce and herbs. My lettuce will be seeded anytime I pull out a head. I put some lettuce seed in last week and it never came up. It was most likely eaten by slugs. So I'll try again today. A couple of weeks ago I put in some cilantro seed since all of my current plants are (dare I say it?) blooming their socks off. The new cilantro already has its first true leaf. I'll have to keep seeding since they bolt so easily. My dill is also blooming. I do have some plants that germinated late, so I have makings for dill pickles, but today I sowed some more seed.

My other succession cropping is my Asian greens. These I don't direct seed. I have two reasons for this. One, the slugs would destroy any plant that attempted to germinate - slugs really love boc choi. Two I don't have that much space in that section of the garden, so the extra two to three weeks of being in a 12-pack really helps out. Most of their life in the 12 pack they live outside. I only bring them inside at night (slug protection) and excessive heat. I have a spot to bury the 12-pack in the dirt and mulch so it doesn't heat up during the day.

Today one little 12-pack went into the garden, 19 days after the last one. I didn't use all of the plants. I only planted 8: 1 giant red mustard, 2 tatsoi, 2 boc choi, 3 fun jen (frilly boc choi). The three arugula plants in the pack and the two in the garden met their fate in the compost pile. I couldn't even stand picking the leaves the second time. They smell so bad to me. I wonder if I have some weird arugula hating gene. I'll soon sow a new pack and this time I'll add some more mizuna (which still is going strong from previous plantings) and Chinese cabbage for a fall cabbage crop.

My harvest was pretty good today. I picked quite a few peas, basil, squash blossoms, a whole huge mizuna plant, and tons of flowers (daisies, cosmos, snapdragons, mallow, both pink and pale yellow coreopsis, parsley, dill, feverfew, and some weed I let bloom but looks like a white aster) for a huge unkempt bouquet for the table. I really like the parsley flowers in my bouquets, but the dill is a little too light and airy and gets squished by the other plants. It is a striking flower in the garden, but doesn't seem to play well with the others.

Chores

Since I have no pretty pictures of what I did today (really how many pictures does one need of turning over a compost pile?), I give you a photo of an Eastern Pondhawk. Several of them were flitting about my garden yesterday, just playing.

I wasn't playing today however. I had chores to do in the garden. I've been trying to find a day to spray my garden - especially the tomatoes - earlier this week, but every day we get thunderstorms in the afternoon and it just pours. The spray would not be too useful and would all just get washed off. Yesterday I could have done it but I was off eating barbecue at a friend's house for the 4th of July. So I sprayed today and gave my tomatoes a good drink of eggshell tea. I'm crossing my fingers. We still have a good chance of rain this afternoon, but I'm hoping.

My other big chore is to turn the compost pile. I've been turning it about once a week and it is still getting pretty hot. It was doing better this week though. Last week I had it uncovered and all the rains really made it too wet (which causes it to get anaerobic and smelly), so I covered it with some old plastic. Now it is so much better. The bottom still is a little waterlogged, but there is nothing I can do about that since it is sitting on the ground. And when it rains, it rains. At least I don't have to water my compost piles right now.

There was not too much to pick today. I picked peas as always and some basil. I brought in another batch of chamomile flowers to dry. I also picked a few pumpkin blossoms for lunch since the pumpkins are flowering under their row covers. Only male blossoms so far. However totally forgot to cook them up at lunch time as I was on a zucchini eating binge. I hope they keep until tomorrow. If not there is always more.

Overcome by Carrot Envy

I have been having carrot envy. I didn't plant any this spring and I keep seeing carrot harvests on other peoples blogs. Is coveting your neighbor's carrots wrong? I figure it certainly isn't wrong to want to pull out little gold nuggets from the soil, so I needed to rectify the situation

A couple of weeks ago I bought some carrots seed on sale at the garden center. Big Top and Danvers was what was left on the racks, so those are the varieties that I bought. Danvers said it was good in clay soil. Hmm clay soil, I have that. Though my soil does have a lot of organic matter, so it is not too bad.

I figured I would wait until the middle of July to plant them and have nice fall carrots. My early peas ought to be mostly done by then, and maybe the coriander in front of the peas would have set seed. I would have a nice place for them. It sounds good doesn't it. But my peas keep going. They won't stop even though I'm secretly wanting them to die. They give me way too many peas. I really don't need so much. And my coveting of other people's carrots has gotten out of hand. So I pulled 2/3s of my peas. I left the late seeded peas since I still want a few.

Then I dug. And sifted it with my garden fork. And got rid of roots and rocks. Carrots don't like to hit objects in the soil when they grow. They like nice fluffy soil, not my clay - despite what the Danvers seed packet said. I'm also a little worried about growing the carrots where the peas where growing. The pea roots have lots of little nodules on them, better known as nitrogen. Carrots don't really like that much nitrogen. So I tried to get most of the roots out of the bed. My compost pile is well fed today.

My beds are four feet wide. I made four rows. One row for Big Top a large late carrot, two rows for Danvers and one row that I haven't planted yet for my fall peas. I've ordered some tall snowpeas and put in a trellis for them. I usually plant double rows of peas, but this time I'm going to make a single row. I have too much trouble finding the dang peas when I pick. One row will be so much easier.

As you can see in the photo, I covered the soil with burlap (it is dark brown because it is left over from a costume I made for my son years ago). Carrot seed takes a long time to germinate and they are not always reliable. I've never used burlap before, but some bloggers claim it makes the seed germinate better. I'm all for that. With the really heavy rains the seed needs some protection and the burlap will keep the soil from crusting over.

Go Barbecue Something

Garden Update

This morning was so beautiful. The air is much crisper than before. I haven't really enjoyed the dripping summer humidity. It is nice to get a break. The garden made me happy too. My first straight neck yellow squash was finally ready. It was the twin that I hand pollinated. Sadly it looks like only one of the twins lived up to their potential. The other never set, but couldn't fall off like most of the unset squash since its twin was rapidly growing. This squash is not a crookneck, but it's little twin made it grow that way.

My herbs are growing well. I have to keep pinching the blossoms off of my basil and it keeps getting bigger and bigger. I harvest it for my salads and for my farmer's market tomatoes. I'm thinking it is almost time to start drying it for the winter. The dill is in full flower. I'm going to have a ton of dill seed. I'm also going to have a ton of coriander. Right now I still have way too many coriander plants. The other plants are fighting for sun space since they shot up.

My beans have just started to blossom. I'm growing Fortex and Kentucky Wonder and they are both in full bloom. If only I knew which one was which. One of them is almost to the top of the bean tower. The other is only halfway up. Though they both opened their first blossoms today, despite their respective sizes. My foot long beans are another matter. They have just been sitting there. They have not started vining yet. They produced a couple of leaves than just stopped. They have always been a little yellow. I'm not sure if that is normal for them or not. I don't usually fertilize beans. Why bother? But I may have to break out the fertilizer if they don't start doing something.

An Ounce of Prevention

The vine borers haven't yet laid any eggs, but unless pigs start to fly, I know they are coming. So today I'm planting a new crop of zucchini and cucumbers. They will be grown for at least a month under row covers. The UMass extension site claims that the vine borers attack in Massachusetts only in July. So if I can start them off for a month under cover, they should be up and almost producing around the time the old plants bite the dust. And sometime in mid August I can remove the row covers. That is the theory anyway. I'm not sure if it really will work or not.

My other cucurbit experiment is going well. I've alway direct seeded my cucurbits since they really do not like to be transplanted, but so many people say they start them indoors, even some farms do it that way. So maybe there is something to giving them an early start.

So I planted two cucumbers on April 24th in paper pots. They were transplanted out into the garden on May 16th after being hardened off (about 3 weeks). They started producing cucumbers on June 12th (49 days I'm thinking). One of these plants seems to set three cucumbers at a time. Then while they are growing, and until I pick all the set cucumbers off the vine, all the other potential cucumbers fall off. The second plant does the same thing, but only sets one at a time. So already with two plants being treated the same, I'm getting three times as many cukes from one of them.

My other group of three cucumbers were direct seeded on May 13th (three plants on the left, the two on the right were transplanted). They popped out of the ground on May 24th. They are just starting to set cucumbers now. So far that is 51 days, but it will probably take a few more before they reach pickable size. However these plants are so much larger than the transplanted cukes (except the one in the middle it is the same size as the others). Of course all you gals know that size doesn't matter. Performance does. And we still don't know if the direct seeded ones will out produce the others.

I have to confess, either way I will from now on plant at least two transplanted cukes. I have loved having cucumbers in my salad almost everyday.

Foods that I Hate

As I have said before, I grow things in my garden that I don't like to eat. But when I planted arugula I expected to like it. I don't ever remember eating it before, but I figured I had at some point in my life. I don't ever remember eating greens in salad that I hated, except maybe some of the really bitter ones. But I would have remembered this taste. It is earthy and maybe a little bit nutty. And I absolutely hate it. There is no way I could learn to love this plant.

Why am I growing something I've never eaten before? Well I'm growing a few things I've never eaten before - lots of Asian greens. I bought them from Pinetree and their packets are around a dollar, so trying a new green is really very easy, and doesn't cost much. It would cost more to buy it in the grocery store even if I only ate it once. The other greens I've tried, I have loved. I love the tatsoi, fun jen (my frilly boc choi), giant red mustard, and mizuna. All really yummy so my experiment was well worth it. Also it is fun to try new things. In my boring years I grow my tried and true crops, but some years you just have to expand your horizons.

Here is an update on my other veggies that I dislike, yet am still growing, on purpose mind you. My eggplant still doesn't have any blossoms. The hail really hurt it. As I write this a storm is coming north toward me that has had 1" hail. I'm really hoping it avoids me. It really bruises the fruit that already exists and just shreds the leaves. My other disliked veggie, zucchini, has had lots of bruised fruit this week from that hail. I'm hoping the rest doesn't need surgery after I pick it. But the really good news on the zucchini front is that I found a way to make it that I really look forward to. Melissa said she eats it like spaghetti squash, with tomato sauce. So I tried sautéeing with a little olive oil, then right at the end I sprinkle cheddar cheese on it. Then I top it with spaghetti sauce. Yummy. Thanks Melissa.

Exciting Cabbage

Gardeners get excited about the silliest things. Today I was ecstatic because I picked my Chinese cabbage. Non gardeners just wouldn't understand the joy of harvesting something you have been watching and babying for months. These do not like growing here. We have too many pests. I've fought off flea beetles, cabbage maggot, cabbage butterflies and slugs. But finally I have my own Chinese cabbage. I envision Chinese and Thai food and lots of oriental salad. Ok some oriental salad, it really isn't that big.

He is a couple of weeks later maturing than the other plants in the bed. His other Asian green friends that were planted at the same time are long gone. Only the mizuna remains there to keep it company. I have two other Chinese cabbage plants that were planted a few weeks later. I don't hold high hopes for them since it is so late in the season and we have been getting some hot weather. I think they will bolt before they head up, but you never know. The one I picked had much of his outer leaves shredded by the slugs. I cut them away until I found the yummy blanched heart. It is not very tightly headed. The weather has just been too hot for it to grow perfectly, but it will do quite well for me.

I had other harvests for the day that weren't quite as exciting. I picked a bowl of snowpeas, a cucumber, a bunching onion (yes just one for my salad, they are only a 1/4 inch wide and I'm thinning them out a bit), one leaf of giant red mustard (yes just one leaf, again for my salad), basil, Thai basil and some more chamomile.

Garden Overview

It is the first of July and I thought it would be nice to see my garden as it has grown this year. Sadly I only started taking photos of it in May, so there will only be two months. But frankly not much happened in April anyway.

May 8th

May 16th

May 22nd

May 28th

June 5th

June 14th

June 21st

June 30th

I wish I had a real overview. Currently the peas and cilantro block the rest of the middle row and the snapdragons and cosmos block the right hand row. But short of climbing up on the roof I can't do any better. The current view is out of my dining room window.