Garden Clean-up and another Harvest

Yesterday afternoon I took advantage of the mild weather and started some "garden clean-up" in the kitchen garden. This job always takes me longer then I think that it will. I started by taking out all of the winter squash vines. That turned out to be a bit of a tricky job since many of the vines had climbed up the inside of the deer fence. It took me quite a while to unravel and cut all of the tendrils off to release the vines. The fence is much happier now and is no longer sagging under the weight of those vines and fruit.

Once I got the squash area cleaned up I turned my attention to the Sweet Potatoes. I decided it was time to empty the grow bags and see if anything was actually growing in there! This is the "before" picture of my "Georgia Jet" Sweet Potato. Considering what a cold and wet Summer it was for the most part, I am truly amazed by how much growth the plant produced. This single slip grew to cover most of the grow bag surface with healthy green/purple leaves.

And here is the "before" picture of the "Beauregard" Sweet Potato. It didn't grow quite as large as the "Georgia Jet" plant did. The holes in the leaves were not caused by disease or insects but by finches. Yes, Gold Finches! For some reason they liked nibbling on the green foliage and this grow bag was located very close to a bird feeder.

The big reveal.............there was something growing inside those bags! On the left is pictured the red/orange tubers of the "Beauregard" and on the right the hot pink colored "Georgie Jet" tubers. Not surprisingly, the larger "Georgia Jet" plant produced a bigger crop of tubers.

Fortunately, we aren't depending on this harvest to survive the Winter! My "Georgia Jet" plant harvest was 1 lbs. 6.2 oz.

The "Beauregard" harvest was only 11.0 oz.

And here is the total harvest after getting washed and trimmed.  As you can see the "Georgia Jet" actually produced on fairly big, fat tuber. All the rest were fairly long but skinny. However, I think we can get at least one meal of diced and baked Sweet Potatoes out of this.

Besides Sweet Potatoes, I also harvested my Pepper "crop". Crop is probably too strong a word here! Each of my 2 pepper plants produced exactly 1 pepper! The poor plants had to contend with cold weather and getting completely smothered by the Winter Squash vines. Pictured above, my one "Lilac" pepper. It weighted 1.4 oz.

I also had one lovely "Gypsy" pepper too. It weighted 3.0 oz.

I did have to add this picture. I must have worked outside for close to two hours. And during that entire time Tom-Cat slept nearby in his cat bed. He didn't even open an eye. Not exactly the best garden helper today!

I also had to show the picture, below. I know that it isn't of very good quality. But the exciting part is the bird on the right side of the tray. I know, you can only see the back half of the bird. But it's an Evening Grosbeak! We thought that all of our Evening Grosbeaks had left for the Winter weeks ago. But suddenly, I looked up today and there was this handsome guy. I am guessing he is just stopping by on his way South but it was great to get one more sighting this year. Happy travels sir. We will see you next Spring.

Vegetable Garden Update

As August draws to a close, the vegetable garden is bursting with foliage, flowers, and produce. My two varieties of morning glories are really peaking now. The tower of "Mixed Colors" morning glory is completely covered. I am finally seeing a nice mix, every day, of all three colors after having had only white blooms for some time.

The "Heavenly Blue" morning glory is just starting its show. I am now getting 10+ blooms a day of this amazing, electric blue color.

The onions have had a super year. The tops are beginning to fall over on their own; although a few have been pulled over by the squash! I really should knock over all of the tops and let them start to cure while the weather is still warm and dry.

I think the "Prince" yellow storage onions are even larger this year then they were last year.

And the "Red Bull" have done just as well.

It's difficult to tell what kind of success I am having - or not having - with the two sweet potato plants. The "Georgia Jet" plant, pictured below, has completely filled its black grow bag. The foliage seems healthy and remarkable lush for the mostly cool Summer that we have had. I just don't know what I will find beneath the soil!

I have one nice "Gypsy" sweet pepper on my plant. It didn't enjoy this cold Summer and I am sure it also didn't care to be smothered by the Winter Squash and Morning Glory vines either!

The tomatoes continue to grow but I still am not seeing any color hinting that ripening is on the horizon. My "Black Krim" are attaining a nice size.

And the "Black Prince" look good too. They have an interesting blocky shape.

The winter squash are trying to take over the whole garden! It amazes me every year how much growth they put out. This year it's all the more incredible since I only have 4 plants total, instead of the usual 8.

My new rooster had been trapped in a sea of squash leaves - he doesn't look happy.

Right now I have three "Marina di Chioggia" squash growing on the vines. They are attaining a pretty good size too. I would guess they might be in the 10 pound range. This is a new variety for me and it has been fun watching how the squash matures. As you can see below, in its "mid-stage" it is a very pretty medium green and the outer skin is still fairly smooth.

As it ages it is getting more and more "warty" and the skin is getting darker and darker. Stay tuned!

You have to pull up the leaves on the two "Delicata" plants to even see the young squash. I think that I now have a half-dozen set and growing. If September favors us with sunny and dry weather I hope to be able to harvest a dozen or more.

The vegetable garden. A lush sea of green!



Vegetable Garden Inventory 2011

I realized that I haven't taken the time to put in writing my complete garden inventories. Now that I am finally done with all of my planting, it's time! Today I will list everything growing in my vegetable garden up at the house and next Tuesday I will inventory everything growing down in the Big Garden.

Seed

• (2) "Marina di Chioggia" Winter Squash - Seed Savers Exchange
• (1) "Delicata" Winter Squash -

Purchased Plants

• (16) "Red Bull" Red Onions - Hayhurst
• (18) "Prince" Yellow Storage Onion - Hayhurst
• (1) "Black Krim" Tomato - Log House Plants
• (1) "Azoychka" Tomato - Mountain View Farm
• (1) "Peron Sparyless OG" Tomato - Hayhurst
• (1) "Black Prince" Tomato -
• (1) "Black Plum" Tomato -
• (1) "Santa Clara Canner" Tomato -
• (1) "Super Sweet 100" Tomato -
• (1) "Georgia Jet" Sweet Potato - Mountain View Farm
• (1)"Beauregard" Sweet Potato - Mountain View Farm
• (1) " Lilac" Sweet Pepper - Mountain View Farm
• (1) "Gypsy" Sweet Pepper - Hayhurst
• (1) "Delicata" Winter Squash -
• (2) "Heavenly Blue" Morning Glory - Log House Plants
• (4) "Mixed Colors" Morning Glory - Log House Plants

As of today, August 2nd, all of the tomato plants are setting fruit. None of the tomatoes are anywhere near to ripening, but it is still exciting to see all of the little green orbs at last. The "Black Plum" plant has also hit the top of the second tier of its cage. The other six plants aren't far behind.

Here is a truss of tiny "Black Plum" tomatoes.

The sweet potatoes look like they are doing well..but who knows what is going on down in the soil! The foliage is dark green and healthy on both plants, thought the "Georgia Jet" seems to be a little more vigorous.

The onions continue to thrive. Here are the "Red Bull".

And here are the "Prince". Rain or shine, the onions have grown well all year.

My four plants of "Mixed Color" morning glory have completely covered the tower. It has taken them a while to start blooming but I am finally now seeing 6-10 blooms every morning.

The "Gypsy" pepper has set two fruit though the one on the left doesn't look too good. It also has quite a few bloom still on the plant so hopefully I will have more peppers set in the next few weeks.

Here is a female blossom on the "Marina di Chioggia" winter squash. It opened this morning along with two male blooms. I didn't want to take any chances to before work I took one of the male blooms and pollinated this female bloom. Then tonight, in case the bees hadn't been at work on the second male bloom, I cut it and pollinated the female again. In a few days I should know if I was successful or not.

My two "Delicata" winter squash are just starting to fall over and crawl. I honestly don't think that there is enough time for the vines to grow, bloom, set fruit and mature now that it is August. But I am willing to watch and keep my fingers crossed. It is one of my all-time favorite varieties.

All in all I am pleased with the progress of this garden. The full sun that it receives each day makes such a difference in the plants grown here. Even with a wet and cold Spring, they seem to have mostly caught up.

A Rainy July Day

This morning I awoke to the sound of the gutter gently running. By the time my alarm went of, the rain was drumming quite hard on the rooftop. So much for a chance of showers! By the end of the day we had .25 inches of rain in the rain gauge. That is very unusual for our "normal" Mediterranean dry Summers that we have here. But this year's weather has certainly been anything but normal. The rainfall did allow me to skip out on watering for a day which was nice. It also turned the soil a beautiful dark color which really made all of the different shades of green in the vegetable bed pop. The contast of the two colors was striking to me.

As you can see, the tomato plants have just exploded the last few weeks. It is now on my "to-do" list to add the second tier to the cages. I have lots of blooms now on the plants but so far only one variety had set any fruit.

The onions are also doing really well. The bulbs are starting to expand now that the days are starting to slowly decrease in length. This is a plant of "Prince" a yellow storage onion.

And this is "Red Bull". You can clearly see it is a red onion.

I don't have any idea how my two Sweet Potato varieties are performing. The plants have definitely perked up since the weather has warmed up. They are now constantly putting out new leaf growth. I do love the rich purple color of the new leaves. They slowly mature to green.

My two plants of "Marina di Chioggia" Winter Squash that I started from seed have now tipped over and are starting to crawl. Soon it will be hard to see any dirt through all of the leaves and vines.

And a pretty bloom from one of my four plants of "Pastel Mix" Morning Glory. The plants are growing like crazy but so far I am a bit disappointed with the color mix. The label promised a mix of pink, purple & white but so far it has been white, white & white!

The Vegetable Garden Update

It's time for a vegetable garden update. Things are progressing here, just rather slowly. The very wet and cold month of June certainly allowed all of the plants to settle in to their new home but hasn't exactly encouraged much growth. However, we have finally seen some warmer temperatures this last week and the plants are responding!

I can finally see some major growth in the tomato plants. It seems that for the longest time they were just sitting there, moping. But now many of the plants have reached the top of the first tier of their cage and are also filling out some too. They aren't as full and robust as I would like but I think that they are on their way.

I can report the first set tomato fruit of the year. The "Azoychka" tomato has two fruits already and loads of blooms yet to open. It is not surprising that this variety, originally from Russia, is doing so well despite the cold Spring weather.

The onions are still the star of the vegetable bed. Planted in early April, these two varieties have slowly and consistently been growing and thriving. Both "Prince" & "Red Bull" are Northern Onions, meaning they are day-light sensitive. Now that we have passed the longest day of the year ( wahhh!) the onions will quickly switch gears and put most of their energy into bulb growth instead of leaf growth.

The amazing thing about this change is how quickly you can see it happening after the Summer Solstice. I bet by next week the ground around these "Red Bull" Onions will be cracking as the bulbs begin their rapid expansion.

I grew this yellow storage onion "Prince" last year and I loved it. It grew very well for me and stored amazingly. In fact I still have some in storage. I pulled one out to use for dinner within the last week and it was still in perfect condition - firm, juicy, and not a blemish anywhere.

Underneath the protective cover of its remay tent, the two "Marina di Chioggia" Winter Squash are really doing well. I think that I will take off the remay tent this weekend if the temperature rises like it is suppose to.

The two "Delicata" Winter squash are also starting to take off and go.

The lettuce has gone crazy. I absolutely have to pick it all in the next few days to make room for the two Butternut Squash hills. I will certainly miss the beauty of the "Australe" plants in the garden. This is such a pretty variety and it has done really well too.

The "Winter Density" lettuce is also a winner.

My "Gypsy" pepper, planted in its own black grow bag, seems to be settling in. With this last week's higher temperatures it has begun to put out some new growth and has opened its first bloom.

The morning glories are settling in well too. My two plants of "Heavenly Blue" that I planted next to the leaf sculpture have started grabbing onto the metal pole with their vines. It shouldn't be too long now before they begin to bloom.

And the four "Pastel Mix" Morning Glories are really happy. They are are climbing my new trellis and have produces a lot of new vines in the last week. The little birds have been doing a bit of damage to a few of the leaves but it hasn't been as bad as I feared. Soon there will be enough climbing vines and leaves that any damage will be covered up quickly. So far these plants have opened two blooms, but it has happen on a weekday while I was at work so I have missed seeing them! I need some weekend blooms please.

And lastly, I am not sure how my two Sweet Potato plant are performing. I am sure that they have hated the cold weather, but I do think that they have put out some new growth in the last week. Fingers crossed that July will be much warmer than June.