Transitioning

I have begun transitioning to Summer crops now that the Spring ones are finishing. I harvested the last of the lettuce earlier this week. Cut and washed it. We should have enough to last us through the weekend, and then that's it for fresh lettuce for the season. Planted bush beans, carrots and radishes in their place.

Also harvested what side shoots I could from my four broccoli plants and pulled them. Had about another half-bunch worth from the sideshoots. Planted some more bush beans and carrots in their place. My cucumbers have responded very well now that they're getting strong direct sun after being shaded by the broccoli for so long. Also cut the second cauliflower head (which was a bit smaller than the first, but still good), and replanted bush beans in that square.

Here are the peas (which partially blew off the netting during some wind last night), cucs next them, replanted squares where the broccoli were, peppers, carrots and bush beans.


Tomatoes, pole beans, bush beans, cayenne peppers, basil, swiss chard, parsley, cilantro, and not pictured -- carrots and bunching onions.


Tomatoes, bush beans and yellow onions.


This is the former lettuce patch. Now it's tomatoes, bush beans, carrots and radishes.


I have my money on these beefsteaks being the first ones to ripen.


The pole beans have grown past the top of the trellis. The one on the right reached over and is now growing along the top rung of the neighboring trellis.


After all the rainy and cool weather, it's finally starting to feel like June here in NJ. The warm weather crops should perk up now.

Cauliflower!

Harvested the first of my two cauliflower heads. This one measured about 9 inches across and looks great. I could have waited a bit and seen if it got a little bigger, but I was impatient to have at least some cauliflower.


Here are some Ultimate Opener tomatoes. They look to be doing well. Might have a tomato or two by the 4th of July, which would be great!


Bush beans, flowering.


Here's my tangle of determinate tomatoes. Rutgers on the left, Romas on the right. I pruned a bit and that helped make some sense of the mess. Impossible to see, but there are some blooms in there.


Also spotted a ladybug crawling on my pole beans. Tried to get a picture but it was too blurry. I'm glad to have the help controlling my aphids. They seem to love my swiss chard and my peas. They're leaving everything else alone. I've been using a jet of water to wash them away and that seems to be keeping them at bay.

Rain, rain, rain

It's been raining and raining and raining so no new photos to post. But I will summarize what's been happening since my last post.

The tomatoes continue to develop. I have small tomatoes on nearly all the indeterminate varieties now, and blooms on the determinates. I'm afraid though, that planting 2 determinate plants per 18 gal SWC was a mistake. They're starting to look like a big tangled mess. Also, one Ultimate Opener is starting to worry me a bit in that the leaves are curling a bit. I'll have to watch it.

The lettuce seems to be nearly finished. Just harvesting the last of it this week. The unseasonably cool weather has kept it from bolting so I think we'll get a roughly 6-week harvesting period from it, which isn't too bad.

We're getting a steady harvest of sugar snap peas and I picked the first of my Mr. Big peas today. I only have one square of them so the harvest will be rather small, but I'll know better for next year.

Both the bush beans and pole beans are growing quickly. The pole vines are about 4 feet tall now and most of the bush plants have tiny beans hanging from them.

I don't think the peppers enjoy this cool weather much, but they seem to be hanging in there.

Hopefully, this rain will let up soon and I can get some pictures taken for my next post.

It's starting to crank up now

Starting to really get some crops going now. Harvested the first batch of sugar snap peas, three heads of lettuce, the first bunch of broccoli and more spinach. My first square of spinach started to bolt, so I quickly harvested the rest of the square and froze it.

Here's a head of buttercrunch and two heads of heirloom iceberg lettuce (including one freakishly large head). Also the first broccoli of the year. (And my daughter's lunchbox.)


My Ultimate Opener tomato plants have some small, marble-sized tomatos on them now. My Mr. Big Peas have lots of pods with peas starting to form inside. One tiny bell pepper, 1/4" in diameter, is hanging from one of my California Wonder plants. So things are really starting to come in now.

Besides all the harvesting and gazing in awe as the plants are starting to take off, I also tied some larger leaves around my cauliflower heads to blanch them. One of them is about the size of my fist and the other is a bit smaller.

Still battling some aphids on a few plants, but a jet of water from my water bottle seems to be keeping them at bay.

Peas & Pinching Suckers

I spent the weekend pinching the suckers on my tomato plants -- all of which have flowers on them now. Hopefully soon I'll start to see some fruits starting to form.

The peas are just about ready to start being picked.


And the cauliflower heads are beginning to form as well.


I haven't done much else with the garden this past week except water it and scan for pests. I've been busy with another backyard project involving digging out a gravel section and sodding it. This will be the new garden location for next year. A lot of work, but the end result should be fantastic.

June Update

Been busy with other things and haven't updated in a while. But everything is going well with the garden. Still having regular salads and keeping an eye out for pests. Something is still chewing on my cauliflower and now a few broccoli leaves. I haven't caught them in the act yet and have been spraying BT.

Here's a broccoli head with a quarter for scale.


Those are pickling cucumber transplants on the left, which seem to be doing okay despite the shade it gets from the broccoli. On the right are General Lee cucumbers that I direct sowed after the transplants died. They seem to be doing fine also so far.


Tomatos, pole beans, swiss chard, cayenne peppers, basil, parsley, cilantro and spinach.


Tomatoes, cauliflower and onions.


Tomatoes and lettuce.


The peas are starting to flower.


I forgot to get a shot of the SWC's, but they are growing well, too. So, overall, no complaints and things are progressing nicely.