Harvesting Before the Rains Return

Some much needed rain is in the forecast for the next few days. It will be our first substantial rainfall since the first two weeks of June. While the rain is desperately needed to help put out the fires raging all over the West, it does cause some concern in my garden. First in mind were my dry bush beans. So Saturday night I went down with a bucket and harvested all of the dried pods. I am guessing about 1/4 of the beans have yet to dry, but I am really happy to have 3/4 of the crop already harvested and stores for the Winter before the first rainfall. It makes the job so much easier.

• "Titus" Cannellini Dry Bush Bean; 1 lbs. .8 oz

I am learning that the "Pride of Wisconsin" melon go from ripe to over-ripe very quickly. I need to do a better job next year really looking at the skin color and giving them a few gentle squeeze now and then. I am afraid I have lost 2-3 as they are now overly mature and splitting open. But I was still able to harvest 4 good melon this week. I have also been saving all of the seed, with the hopes of growing my plants from my own seed next year. This week's harvest:

• "Pride of Wisconsin" ; (4) 7 lbs. 10.8 oz

I was pleased to be able to harvest the first of my "Black Krim" tomatoes this week. "Black Krim" always takes a long while to set and mature here in Oregon. And more often than not, almost all of the fruit ripens within about 20 days, so you end up with a lot of it at once. 

• "Black Krim" ; (17) 5 lbs. 13.8 oz

The rest of the tomatoes are also rolling right along.  I am really enjoying the beauty of the "Blush" cherry tomatoes. I love the conical shape and the bold yellow color, splashed with red, is really pretty. One of my co-workers has declared this one her favorite tomato this year.

• "Blush" ; (25) 11.5 oz
• "Galina" ; (58) 9.6 oz.
• "Chef's Choice Orange" ; (1) 2.6 oz
• "Ukrainian Purple" ; (38) 5 lbs. 10.1 oz
• "Wapsipinicon Peach"; (25) 1 lbs. 7.6 oz

Bean and Melon Harvest Time

I can't begin to write about this week's harvest without first mentioning all of the smoke and heat in our area. Like all of the West, we had a very warm August that sparked fires all across Oregon. There are major fires burning in my county and many others in nearby counties. As the winds shift, our air quality drops and more smoke moves in. The picture above was taken at 2:00 PM yesterday. Our air quality dropped from Very Unhealthy to Hazardous in that hour. While it is making gardening and all outdoor activities nearly impossible, my thoughts go out to the firefighters working around the clock and the poor folks who have been displaced or lost their homes. We desperately need some rain.

I did make it outside to work in short one-hour increments this weekend. On Saturday I picked all of the dried pods from my bush "Titus" cannellini beans and shelled them inside. It would guess a little over 1/2 of the pods were fully dried on my three rows, so I think I will be able to match this harvest again in a few weeks.

• "Titus" Cannellini Bean - ( 3 cups) 1 lbs. 4.6 oz

It wasn't just dry bush beans that were ready for their first harvest of the year. My very late planted "French Emerite" pole filet beans were also ready to pick this week. It wasn't a huge harvest, but I wasn't sure I would get anything this year with such a late sowing date. They also aren't loving this current heat wave, so this might be the largest harvest that I have this year.

• "French Emerite" Pole Bean - (43) 8.9 oz.

Continuing with my theme of "first of the year" harvests, I picked my first melon last night. I am growing a small patch of "Pride of Wisconsin" melon this year. It is a "new to me" variety. The plants seem to be doing pretty well. My melons do seem to be much smaller than the 4-8 lbs size melons described in all of the catalogs though. But that said, the melons look perfect. This one smelled heavenly when I sliced it open tonight. Taste results will have to wait as it is getting saved for breakfast!

• "Pride of Wisconsin" Melon - (1) 1 lbs 15.8 oz.

The tomatoes on the other hand are loving the heat. This is my biggest weekly harvest yet.

• "Ukrainian Purple" - (49) 9 lbs. 7.6 oz.
• "Wapsipinicon Peach" - (19) 1 lbs. .9 oz
• "Blush" - (37) 1 lbs. .2 oz.
• Galina" - (108) 1 lbs. 4.7 oz.

And lastly, I harvested another batch of potatoes from my first grow bag. We had family over for a last minute dinner. It was so nice to go right outside to the Kitchen Garden and harvest a nice bunch of brand new potatoes. It took only a few minutes to clean them off and they were enjoyed simply steamed with a bit of butter. Nothing better!

• "Dark Red Norland" potatoes - 3 lbs. 6.1 oz.

French Emerite Pole Filet Beans

The "French Emerite" pole beans that I started - late - from seed are really beginning to take off. Even with the heatwave, they continue to climb up the bean tower, slowly wrapping in a counter-clockwise fashion. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they have lovely purple blooms. Even though they got off to a bit of a late start, I think there is enough time left in the growing season for them to produce a mature flush of beans. It will be nice to have a "new" crop just coming in as September nears its end.

First Tiny Titus Cannellini Beans

The "Titus" Cannellini bush beans down in the Big Garden began to bloom about a week ago. Soon the snow white blossoms began to drop and tiny, immature beans were revealed. It's hard to tell at this point what kind of harvest its going to be this year, as the plants have really just begun blooming. But the plants look healthy and are continuing to produce new, leafy growth so I am optimistic about the a nice long spell of bean production. 

Harvest Monday - The Beans are In

Not a large harvest this past week, but still one that I am very excited about. The beans are in! Well not all of the beans, but the majority of them. We received out first significant rain on Sunday morning. It was predicted so I harvested most of the pods from my bush "Titus" cannellini beans earlier in the week. I would say 4/5 of the pods had fully ripened. They were brown and dry, but did not spit open and shatter- just as the catalog promised. My total harvest to this point is 9.1 oz, or 1 1/3 cups. Not a huge amount but I think a descent harvest from just 20 plants. Now I get to play around with these in a few recipes and see how they taste. If they make the cut I would like to double or triple my grow out of them next year.

I also enjoyed a good "second flush" harvest on the "Lemon" cucumber plants. I know that I was complaining earlier in the season that they weren't a very prolific producer but I need to rescind that remark a bit. I harvested another 9 cukes this week, weighing in at 2 lbs. 3.4 oz. So that puts my total year to date harvest at 21 cukes from the 5 plants. Not a huge amount, but not too bad either from plants growing in a location that received only half-day sun.

Titus Bush Bean Update

I thought it was time to post an update on my row of "Titus" cannellini bush dry beans. I planted my 20 young starts in the Big Garden back on June 11th. They didn't miss a beat. And with my 2 1/2 foot rabbit fence surrounding the garden, I haven't suffered any rabbit damage this year.

The beans began blooming in mid-July and have been producing bean pods ever since. Some of the pods are getting quite big now and the plants continue to bloom and set more pods. I am encouraged by their growth and production up to this point. Now we just need a warm, most dry September to see the pods to maturity and harvest. I am excited to discover what size of harvest I manage off of only 20 plants and to taste this variety for the first time.

Titus Beans Are Blooming

My row of "Titus" Cannellini Beans down the Big Garden have begun to bloom. If you look deep into the individual bean plants, pulling back the bright green leaves, you can find the first smattering of pure, white blooms. It will be exciting to sit back and watch this "new-to-me" variety and see how heavily it produces blooms and sets pods this year.

Dahlia Planting - Day #2

It was an all-around busy day today with family gatherings and a track meet. But I did mange to make it down to the garden twice and actually got quite bit done in my two sessions. The first time I went to the Big Garden I brought down two of my flats. These two held young plants of "Titus" cannellini bean and also both "Xanthos" and "Rubenza" cosmos that I had started earlier from seed.

We also brought down another truck load of dahlia plants. I noticed the first rabbit damage up at the house yesterday and there is no reason to let that happen with our great rabbit fence down here. So we shuttled this load down and will cobble together a fence to protect the rest still back up at the house.

After Dad headed back up to the house I planted the "Titus" beans. The seed packet said they should be 6" apart but I only had 20 plants and lots of room. So mine are more like 8" apart.

All of the beans look great Their young root systems were just starting to fill up the cell they were living in so it was the perfect time to transplant them. After I got them all planted I watered them in well.

I then was able to return to the garden after dinner. We got another 16 dahlia planted tonight for a total of 30 in the ground. I now have 30/227 in or 13.2 % planted.

"Irish Glow" a red pom

Seedling Transplanting and Starting More Seeds

I spent my holiday morning down in the Big Garden setting out 5 more dahlia rows. After that my back - and my legs and my arms ! - said enough! So I switched my focus for the rest of the day onto another project; transplanting flower and vegetable starts to bigger cells and starting a few more seeds.

I began with the "Magnificenza" melon. I started two different sets of these melons, fearing germination might be difficult. I shouldn't have worried! 9/10 of my first seeding germinated and 7/8 of my second seeding germinated for a grand total of 16/18. I set out 6 of them this afternoon in the "overflow" Kitchen Garden area, where I grew the watermelon last year. I laid out black plastic first and then planted them in slits cut through the plastic. It will be a fun adventure to see how they do. Then I transplanted the remaining 10 seedlings into bigger pots. I think they are destined for friends and perhaps I will try to grow a few more of them down in the Big Garden.

Next I got out the bean seed that I recently ordered from Adaptive Seed. I am nervous to direct sow bean seed because in the past few years, either the voles have eaten the seed in the ground, or the robins have puled up the young plants right as they germinate. So instead, I decided to plant the seed in small cells and then transplant the beans after they germinate. So into the flat pictured above, I seeded 16 cells with "Poletschka" pole bean.

Then I got out the new 36 cell trays I bought and moved my cosmos starts. First I transplanted the "Rubenza" starts. I ended up with 23/24 plants germinated this year. Not too bad! Then I seeded 12 cells with "Titus" cannellini bean.

In another tray, I transplanted my "Xanthos" cosmos. I ended up with 22/24 plants germinated. Next to them I seeded another 12 cells with the "Titus" cannellini seed, for a total of 24 seeds planted.

I also transplanted my "Country Fair Blend" zinnia starts. I ended up with 22/25 plants germinated this year so I had lots to move into bigger digs.

Finally I moved my "Lemon" cucumber plants. This was my challenging seed this year. I only ended up with 5/18 plants germinated. But 5 is still better than nothing I guess. I set them in the tray with the winter squash. I ended up with 3/4 "Crown Pumpkin", 1/1 "Delicata", and 3/4 "Waltham Butternut" germinated so I was really pleased with that. I will have to buy another "Delicata" but that's my own fault for not starting enough seed to have 2 plants.

With this big job done the pressure is off to get all of these seedlings into their final homes. The weather is suppose to get quite warm by the end of the week and I don't want to set these young plants out in a heat wave. They all have fresh soil and lots of room to grow, so they will be fine now for a few more weeks.

Weekly Harvest for Early October

I thought I would start out this week's harvest with some flowers from the garden. While most of my dahlias are really starting to wind down for the season, the Poms are still producing like gangbusters. Saturday I cut a bouquet using blooms from "Willo Borealis", "Bowen", "Elfin", & "Valda".

The tomatoes continue to ripen. They loved last week's 85 degree weather as much as the humans did. But we are expecting pretty heavy rains to arrive on Tuesday, so I imagine that this will be the last big harvest of the year.

Here are the numbers for this week's tomato harvest. It is especially impressive to note that I harvested tomato number 39-48 from my "Moonglow" plant. It is a grafted tomato and, as advertised, has produced phenomenally. 

• "Moonglow" - 10 tomatoes - 3 lbs. 11.5 oz
• "Bumblebee" - 44 cherry fruit - 14.4 oz.
• "Bloody Butcher" - 5 tomatoes - 4.0 oz.
• "Black Plum" - 15 tomatoes - 8.9 oz
• Amethyst Indigo" - 6 tomatoes - 6.3 oz

I also harvested my "Poletschka" Dry Pole Beans this past week. Since the plants were attacked by rabbits not just once, but twice this season, it is amazing that I had anything to harvest at all. But I did manage to gather just under 1/2 cups worth of dry beans that weighed in at 3.1 oz. At least I will have fresh seed for next year!

 

Bean Harvest

We have enjoyed a long stretch of dry, sunny weather this October. But it is due to end next week so tonight after work, I harvested my "Poletschka" Dry Pole Beans.

It truly is amazing that I had anything to harvest at all. I started by planting bean seed this Spring. A vole pulled down over 1/2 of the seed and ate it. Then I replanted with young bean transplants. When they were about 12" tall, a rabbit came in and chewed off all of the vines! Amazingly the plants slowly recovered and sent up new vines. The rabbits stayed away for over 6 weeks and I thought all was well. But then a rabbit struck again in September and chewed off over 1/2 of the plants. Needless to say, that didn't leave me with a lot to harvest tonight.

Each dry pod held 7-8 shiny black beans. I sat on the back patio in the waning evening sunshine and quickly worked though all of the pods. I ended up with just short of one 1/2 cup full of beans. They weighted in at 3.1 oz. Thankfully, we don't have to live on that harvest this Winter!

The Kitchen Garden In Late August

There's very little bare dirt in the kitchen garden these days. The Winter Squash have claimed every last open space, making my daily watering routine a challenge.

All of the tomatoes, with the exception of the "Bloody Butcher" plant, have reached the top of the two-tier towers and are still growing. The "Heavenly Blue" morning glory has also reached the top of its tower and is happily rambling throughout the tomato plants. Instead of "out of control", I will call this the cottage garden look.

The "Indigo" Amethyst Jewel Cherry tomatoes have started to turn a lovely shade of purple/black on top. This is the first year that I have grown this variety, so I have no idea what they are suppose to look like when they are fully ripe. My best guess is that the whole cherry will turn that pretty purple color. Some of them are getting pretty close.

I was able to harvest the first eight "Bumblebee" Sunrise Cherry tomatoes this weekend. Their stripes certainly are reminiscent of a bee and the colors look like a sunrise. My co-worker thought these were the best tasting cherry tomato she has ever had. Hard to beat that review!

The "Black Plum" tomatoes are beginning to ripen at a fast pace.

Although I have harvested three "Moonglow" tomatoes, the plants is still loaded with large green fruit.

   Further down the row, the "Poletschka" pole bean has made a credible comeback from the bunny damage. The tower is now lightly covered with climbing vines. The "Bumblebee" tomato next to it is leaning away, trying to catch a bit of extra light. Between the two tomato towers are my four "Minnesota Midget" cantaloupe plants.

Between those four plants, they only managed to produce two cantaloupe. Looking at pictures online, I think mine should be a bit larger and have more defined ribbing before they are fully ready to harvest. Mine are now baseball size and are suppose to reach softball size when ready.

The "Poletschka" bean is getting covered with soft pink blossoms.

There are now beans beginning to lengthen on the vines. Since they got off to such a delayed start due to the rabbits, I am afraid that I hold out little hope for harvesting mature dried beans this year.

The Winter Squash are doing really well this year. I have four "Queensland Blue" squash that are nearing the end of their time on the vine. Two are quite large, like the one pictured above, and the other two are a little smaller.

My two "Delicata" plants have gone crazy this year. Everywhere I look under the squash leaves, there are "Delicata" fruit. I liked how this group is growing in one big, happy pile. It's a good thing I love "Delicata"!

The "Butternut" are usually my last Winter Squash to ripen each year, and this year is no different. I think I have at least three nice size fruit. But at this time, they are still mostly green, with just a touch of the golden yellow that they will turn when fully ripe. I definitely need a few more weeks of good weather to help them along.

As is normal, my pepper plants are mostly a big fat failure this year. My "Creme Brule" plant set exactly one pepper and I see that it has a small hole in it. The "Lunchbox Yellow" mini sweet pepper plant did a little better, setting four peppers. It was certainly hot enough this Summer, so I will have to spend the Winter doing more research on growing successful pepper in the Willamette Valley.