Harvest Monday- July 16, 2012

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions.  It's a great way to see what others are harvesting.

The harvest are finally getting more varied.

This weeks consisted of the the first red cabbage, the first 'Victor' tomatoes, shallots lettuce, escarole and basil.

'Primero' cabbage and 'Victor' tomatoes.

'Ambition' shallots grown from seed.



'Full Heart Batavian' escarole.

 

'Gentilina' lettuce and the first 'Victor' tomato.



'Purple Ruffles' basil.

'Siam Queen' Thai basil and 'Purple Ruffles' basil.

The Expansion Continues

I was able to do some work on cleaning up the area in front of the potager.  The bearded iris had steam rolled over everything in their path!  The rest of the 'Immortality' clump was removed and the bulk of 'Clarence' was removed as well.  I was then able to fork the soil and begin to remove the bermuda grass, crown vetch and Canada thistle roots.  I was surprised that after seven years the soil is still in good shape.  I expected some thing on the order of bricks, but it was still dark and friable.

The biggest surprise was that several daylilies that I thought had been gone for years were still there, barely clinging to life.  I have moved 'Cherry Valentine', 'Totally Tropical' and 'Swashbuckler Bay' to an intensive care bed.

I still have a lot work ahead of me, but I should finish by months end.

The potager is in the back.  the cleaned out section is now 4ft by 6ft.

The massive bloom clusters on 'Reisenstraube' tomato keep getting bigger.  I hope it has a good taste as the production will be massive.

I'll not need more than bloom cluster like this!

Today in the Garden- July 14, 2012

The day started off with a light rain.  I used this as opportunity to catch up on my harvests.  Lettuce, escarole, shallots, basil and the first 'Victor' tomato.  I then applied a solution of miracle-grow and Epsom salts to the containers.  The day remained overcast and the foliage never completely dried off so nothing else was done.  I don't like working with the plants when they are wet.

The home made bamboo trellis is quickly starting to fill up,  The pole beans have reached the top and the 'Diva' cucumbers are starting to climb.

'Diva' cucumbers starting to vine.

"Blush Potomoc" pole beans.  These have retained the hug leaves from parent 'Potomoc'.

The bush beans are blooming like crazy and are sizing up nicely.  The cherry tomatoes against the fence are growing like gangbusters and the bloom clusters are huge.

Part of the bean patch with cherry tomatoes trained against the fence.

'Black Cherry' tomatoes.

The zinnias are coming into bloom.  The 'Bon Bon' zinnias which had only a vague description are striped. The dwarf zinnias from Burpee were mislabeled as usual and are full sized cactus zinnias.

The first bloom on the 'Bon Bon' zinnias.

Cactus zinnia from Burpee's mixed up seeds.

I am hoping that tomorrow will be drier.  I need to finish digging out the 'Immortality' iris and the 'Clarence' iris.  When this task is completed. I'll have half of the area in front of the potager cleaned out.  Then I can start on the daylily section.

Harvest Monday- July 9, 2012

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions.  It's a great way to see what other gardeners around the country are harvesting.

The heat seems to be have sent the earwigs elsewhere.  I was able to harvest Swiss chard again. 

This week brought the first of the tomatoes, 'Silvery Fir Tree'.  The first two were eaten before they could be photographed.  The shallots have begun to mature.

What would my harvests be without lettuce?

Two from 'Wild Garden Mixed' lettuce, a romaine and an oak leaf.

'Gentilina' lettuce.

Heat and the Garden

The garden seems to be handling the heat much better than the gardener.  Then again the garden is probably more intelligent than the gardener!

Yesterday was the hottest day so far this year.  The temperature was going to be in the triple digits.  What does the gardener decide to do,  but divide his 4 foot wide clump of 'Immortality' iris.  Not one of my brightest moves.  I did get most of the clump removed and replanted some of the divisions temporally until I can give them away.  I can now get to the front of the potager.  Now that the first step has been taken in clearing the area, the task does not seem as daunting.

Like Granny, I've been over watering too.  Since my growing area is small I can give it a good watering daily and survive the heat. The pole beans and tomatoes seem to be getting taller each time I go out to the garden.  The peppers have finally decided to fill out and start blooming and the basil is growing like weeds!  I do share Granny's conclusion that over watering results in bland tomatoes.  I'm going to try and water mine less often.  Not easy to do when everything is planted so closely together.

Potager basking in the morning sun.

The bush bean patch.

'Inuk's Wang Kong' runner bean has reached the top of the trellis in one week.

The 'Reisenstraube' tomatoes have the biggest flower clusters that I have ever seen.

The 'Velour' bush beans are covered in attractive purple flowers.

My best sweet peas are the ones interplanted with the tomatoes!

The 'Silvery Fir Tree' tomato growing in a pot is loaded with fruit.

Pay no attention to the date stamps on the pics.  My camera decided it would be great fun to reset the date stamp, and I'm too lazy to reset it...

A Face Only a Mother Could Love

Daylily seedlings are like children,  Each one unique and different in it's own way. 

Some have a face that only a mother could love.

This is a seedling that I've been growing for over 10 years and is now a huge clump.  It has just started to flower and the color is unusual to say the least!

Five blooms open at once.

Yes, that is the true color.  It opens lavender and quickly fades to tan with a lavender edge.  Hmnn... I'm still waiting for the ugly duckling to turn into a swan... 

Harvest Monday- July 2, 2012

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions, it's a great way to show off your harvest.

The spring lettuce is winding down.  The rest of it was picked this week as it was starting to bolt.  The exception is 'Gentilina'.  My three remaining plants have shown no sign of bolting depite heat in the high 90's and over 100 degrees.  It has become my second favorite lettuce after 'Ruby'.

The last of the spring 'Wild Garden Mixed' lettuce.  Still sweet despite the heat, not shown is the other three plants that were harvested.

'Gentilina' still compact, crisp and sweet.

I also have been harvesting a lot of escarole. I did not take a photo of each harvest as they look exactly the same.  I also have been stealing more baby shallots to cook with the escarole. 

The shallots are starting to bulb.  Some have even split into two bulbs.

The rest of the beets were also harvested.  They were all red beets, not as sweet as the white, but still good roasted.

'Detroit Dark Red' beets.

The pea vines were pulled this week as the last of the pea seed was harvested.  I did get a very good crop of pea seed saved for next year.  Six ounces of the purple podded 'Pretty', two ounces of the super sweet 'Garden Sweet', two ounces of 'Freezonian' and two ounces of a single plant selection of 'Freezonian' thet consistantly set double pods.  I'm hoping that all of this selection will set double pods.