I've been pretty lazy this month in terms of blogging, but rest assured, the garden is still producing. I've pulled a total of about 175 tomatoes (have canned a lot of sauce and salsa so far), 10 pounds of green beans, 3 slicing cucumbers (with 2 dozen baby cucs on the vines), and 10 pickling cucs (made 4 pints of refrigerator pickles), to mention a few crops.
The bell peppers have been strange -- I have 4 plants, only 2 of which have yielded some peppers. The others flower, but no peppers. I think I read somewhere that if peppers are exposed to temps below 55, the season is screwed up. We had a number of cool nights in June, so maybe that explains it. The Cayenne peppers are doing great though.
My tomato plants are all aflicted by what looks like early blight (although it's showing up late in the season). Yellow leaves with dark spots, that eventually shrivel up and die. The new growth still looks good (for now), and I'm still getting tomatoes, but this might be the beginning of the end. Walking around town, every garden I've seen with tomatoes has the same thing to varying degrees of severity. It's been a good run with them though, and I'm pretty pleased.
I transplanted my Fall brocolli and cauliflower today. I've been hardening them off this week in some pretty bad heat, and they've handled it pretty well so far. Considering I'll have to shut the garden down early this year to finish the backyard restructuring, I may not get any yield from these, but it's worth a shot.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
It's been a while...
I know it's been a while since the last update, and I have no new photos, but I wanted to post a quick entry to try to bring things up to date.
The tomatoes are coming in heavily now. Pulled almost 60 tomatoes (plus nearly 60 cherry tomatoes) so far. I've canned several pints of sauce and salsa, used some fresh spaghetti and pizza sauce, and used sliced tomatoes for salads and sandwiches. Even the plants in the SWC's, which look awful, are yielding some tomatoes, so maybe that endeavor won't be a total loss after all.
The cucumbers are coming steadily now. Made 3 pints of refrigerator pickles so far, with more to come. Two good sized General Lee slicing cucumbers have been picked as well.
Picked my first two bell peppers this week. Also picked a few carrots, which while fairly small, were good none the less.
The yellow onions were a bit underwhelming. Ended up with about 30 smallish onions from 4 squares (16/square). Definitely usable, but I was hoping for larger onions. They may have been slightly crowded, or it may have been poor quality sets I bought (from Walmart).
The next round of bush beans are well on their way. Probably about 2 weeks away from being knee-deep in beans again.
I think that brings us up to date. I'll try to get some photos taken this weekend for the next post.
The tomatoes are coming in heavily now. Pulled almost 60 tomatoes (plus nearly 60 cherry tomatoes) so far. I've canned several pints of sauce and salsa, used some fresh spaghetti and pizza sauce, and used sliced tomatoes for salads and sandwiches. Even the plants in the SWC's, which look awful, are yielding some tomatoes, so maybe that endeavor won't be a total loss after all.
The cucumbers are coming steadily now. Made 3 pints of refrigerator pickles so far, with more to come. Two good sized General Lee slicing cucumbers have been picked as well.
Picked my first two bell peppers this week. Also picked a few carrots, which while fairly small, were good none the less.
The yellow onions were a bit underwhelming. Ended up with about 30 smallish onions from 4 squares (16/square). Definitely usable, but I was hoping for larger onions. They may have been slightly crowded, or it may have been poor quality sets I bought (from Walmart).
The next round of bush beans are well on their way. Probably about 2 weeks away from being knee-deep in beans again.
I think that brings us up to date. I'll try to get some photos taken this weekend for the next post.
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