Happy Garden After a Storm

Everything in the garden is doing great after a few days of heavy rain followed by sunshine. We are going to need to increase our greens and salad intake to keep up with the growth!

Pretty chard

Collard greens

Red mustard

Various salad greens

I see you, carrot

What's Growing

I'm really pleased with how everything is coming along in the garden. Rather than take pictures, I shot a little video showing everything, except the shallot bulbs that haven't broken the surface yet. Everything is from seed except the Sun Gold which was a tiny little starter plant months ago and is producing more now than it did during summer. I think next year I will plant the tomatoes later in the season. I've been diligent about thinning and weeding and created nice fertile soil before sowing. The plants seem to appreciate it.

The Beginning of New Crops

Well, I had another disappointing summer crop and am looking forward to a more successful fall venture. Most everything I recently sowed has started coming up and many rows will need to be thinned soon as you can see by the pics below.

This is a "rainbow" mix of 4 different carrots. 

Bright Lights Chard

Collard Greens

April Garden

I'm pleased with how everything's coming along in the garden and went out and took some pictures to share.

I'm very happy with my broccoli this year. Last year I barely got any florets and then it all bolted. This year is very different. Three of my plants have had small florets that I've been cutting off and using raw in salads because they are small and about to bolt. I thought the other three plants were not going to produce then two of them starting growing really big, like the one below. It's about softball size and there is another slightly smaller one. Hoping they will get nice and big but watching closely to harvest when needed.

Big broccoli, yay!

I have been harvesting lots of lettuce for lunch sandwiches and we have been having some nice big dinner salads. The red sails have been producing for a while and the green leafs behind them have just gotten big enough to start harvesting. The darker green in back are the castelfranco radicchio plants. 

Lettuces and greens

Here is a close up of one of the castelfranco radicchio plants. I had never had it before and is is really good. The younger leaves have a velvety texture and are great in salads and sandwiches. The older leaves are getting a little tougher and bitter, as radicchio does, so I will probably be cooking some up soon.

Castelfranco radicchio

We have been eating a lot of beet greens, chard and kale but the collard greens are coming along nicely. 

Collard greens

Speaking of beets, these are the last of the three sowings and varieties, except for a couple rogue ones that came up by the kale. I've been good about thinning so hoping to get nice big beets from them.

Detroit Red beets

 Snap peas have started blooming. Can't wait, they were so tasty last year!

Snap pea blossoms

Besides all the above, there is chard and kale ready to eat, tomatoes and eggplants growing, and pepper and bean seeds germinating. 

Just a basic update

Haven't posted in while. Garden was a bit depressing during the winter months but I'm pretty happy with how everything's coming along right now.

Currently growing:
Beets (3 varieties-Ruby Queen, Detroit Red, and Bull's Blood)
Green onions
Collard greens
Parsnips
Pak Choi
Broccoli
Mizuna
Lettuces (Red Sail and a mix of other seedlings too small to differentiate yet)
Sugar Peas
Bright Lights chard
Lacinato kale

Broccoli plants are much healthier than last year's. 

Ruby Queen beets & green onions

Mizuna, the bulk of my recent salads.

Waiting

I have a mish mosh of stuff growing in the garden currently. Tomatoes, melons, eggplants, brussel sprouts, beets, scallions, and parsnips. I've torn up three tomato plants that weren't looking like they were going to do anything and that I didn't get much from to begin with. I only got two tomatoes each from the Cherokee Purple and Large Barred Boar plants and none, zero, zilch from the Berkeley Tie Dye. Very disappointing. The sun gold is still going strong and the Juliet is also still producing a little.

Sun golds 

The three newer tomato plants look healthy and the Beefmaster actually has 4 tomatoes growing now that it's cooler.

Beefmasters

Not sure if I'll get anything from the other two since it's so late in the year and is starting to cool. But I'll still give them a little longer to see what happens. There are 3 charentais melons  growing and I hope the cooler weather doesn't kill them.  The honeydew is flowering but no actual melons yet. The eggplant has some flowers but I'm starting to think none will become an actual eggplant. However, the cooler weather is making the brussel sprouts very happy and I've  had really good germination with the beets, scallions, and parsnips so that is all promising.

Lots of brussel sprout plants

The dirt between the beets is still fairly soft as evidenced by my bigfoot style print

Parsnips are looking good

Not sure what I will plant once I have more space, probably another type of beet and some sort of greens, at least. 

The Beet Sprouts Have Sprung

This is a section of the Ruby Queen beets I sowed last Saturday.

Ruby Queen beet sprouts

All four rows are germinating nicely though I will definitely have to thin. I promise myself that I will be better about thinning this fall. I definitely learned my lesson last year. Luckily the sprouts are delicious in salads and will not go to waste.

Eggplant Blossom

The first, and hopefully not last, eggplant flower!

Eggplant flower

I hope it becomes an actual eggplant. May even do a little hand fertilizing when it's bigger to increase the chances. I'm seeing new growth coming in, too, and hope that more flowers are on their way. I'm wondering if it has just been too hot for the plant.

Recent Sowing

This past Saturday, I sowed seeds for beets, parsnips, and scallions in some vacant areas of the garden. I was very surprised, and happy, to see lots of little red beet sprouts sticking up when I did my evening soaking today since it's only been 4 days. The soil and my watering must be perfect for germination right now. I hope the scallion and parsnip seeds are as happy.

I still have tomatoes trying to grow on some the 5 older/bigger plants but they're not doing all that well and one has not given me one damn tomato! (Shakes fist at Berkeley Tie Dye plant.) The three newer tomato plants look healthier and are flowering so I hope they produce. Perhaps the still warm yet not 100 degree weather will agree with them. There are also two kinds of melons that seem to be doing ok. One of them has a promising blossom that I hope becomes a melon as it will be the first out of the plants in front or back. There is also finally a flower on the eggplant which I really hope gets germinated and becomes an actual eggplant. There are quite a few young brussel sprouts plants that got badly attacked by cabbage worms but I think I eradicated them as I haven't seen any more, but will continue to check to make sure.

Large Barred Boar & Cherokee Purple

Well, the other day I harvest two small heirlooms, a Large Barred Boar (that wasn't very large at all) and a Cherokee Purple. I've been watching them and hoping they'd get bigger but they seemed to grow to a small size, pause, and then, finally ripen.

I also harvested the Juliets and one lone Sun Gold that were ready and placed them all together for size comparison of the "big" tomatoes.

4 varieties of tomatoes

Close up of the Large Barred Boar & Cherokee Purple

Tonight I sliced them both so we could try them. The Boar was a little tangy and the Cherokee had a nice deep tomato flavor. I hope the plants produce more; there are no signs of any more growing on either bush. Hopefully we're out of the 100 degree heat and they'll start producing again.

Sliced and ready to eat

Some of What's Growing

Took some pictures of various things growing in the back garden and out in the front yard.

Herbs

Yummy basil

Sage

Tomatoes

Juliet 

Cherokee Purple

Large Barred Boar

Melons

Charentais in the garden

Charentais out front

Galia, seeds from a delicious store bought melon

 Pumpkins

Jack o Lantern

Sugar Pie

 Okra

Red Okra

Juliet Tomatoes

Pulled this handful of Juliet tomatoes today. Accidentally knocked off a green one in the process. Hoping it will ripen on the counter.

Juliet tomatoes

These and the Sun Golds are the only tomatoes I've been able to eat so far. The Sun Golds rarely even make it in the house due to being so damn tasty. 

I think I posted about the Cherokee Purple and Large Barred Boar having fruit that "stalled" during the growing process. Well, they finally started to ripen after I started using MiracleGro, but they still didn't look right so I pulled them so the plant would stop expending energy into them. There are two new Boars and one Cherokee growing so hopefully all will be well with those. Still waiting on the first fruit to form on the Berkeley Tie Dye.

Not much happening

Haven't been posting much since there is not much to report. Mostly waiting on stuff to grow. I picked up 3 more tomato varieties on the 4th and got them in the ground along with a couple of eggplants and a couple habanero plants. I also picked up a basil plant. Third time's the charm, right? I kept this one out of the garden in a pot and it's looking good so far.

I've been able to harvest a few Sun Gold & Juliet tomatoes a couple times but nothing from the bigger varieties. The sun golds are so sweet I wish I had planted two of them. Next year. I picked the ones below this past Sunday.

Sun Gold & Juliet

The other tomato plants that had started growing fruit, the Large Barred Boar and Cherokee Purple, seemed to have stagnated. The 4 fruit just did not get any bigger or ripen. This, and seeing a friend's big bushy plants, made me decide to start using MiracleGro. I have to say, the plants look a bit fuller and there is more fruit coming in so I'm glad I did it. Now, hopefully they will mature and ripen like they are supposed to. Still waiting for the first fruit to appear on the Berkeley Tie Dye but at least it has started flowering so that's promising.

The royal purple bush beans are growing nicely and I had a nice germination rate so I have high hopes for a nice yield.

I have sowed corn twice in two different spots and just did not get good results. I'm probably going to end up turning in both areas as I need them as there just aren't enough plants for the amount of space they're in. I know corn needs other plants to germinate and the area just isn't promising.

I pulled up the last of the small onions and have been using them for various things. I will definitely be better about thinning next time I do onions.

I plan on getting some brussel sprout plants in the ground this month. Yum.

My housemate dug up a big ugly bush in the front yard and has sowed melon, okra, and 2 kinds of pumpkins in a nice space by the driveway. She also added a few basil plants, a couple of tomatoes, and a serano pepper plant. The more food growing, the better!

Non-Green Tomatoes

Some of the smaller tomatoes are starting to ripen. Can't wait to start munching on them.

Juliet cluster

Sun Gold cluster

Pitiful Potato Harvest

I pulled up my red potatoes today. And got a whopping 10 1/8 oz worth of potatoes out of 4 plants.

Red potato harvest

Grr. I had a really small Yukon Gold harvest, too. I'm not sure what the problem was. I don't think the plants were too crowded or close together. I''m wondering if maybe the ground was too hard for them to properly spread roots and grow, but it was soft and freshly tilled when I planted and all the dirt I used for hilling was also soft. During the growing process, only one plant flowered, and only a couple blossoms at that. Something was definitely amiss. Will have to do some research and see what I can change next year for a better yield.

Tomatoes

I'm happy to report that there is fruit on 4 out of 5 of the tomato plants. The Berkeley Tie Dye has still yet to flower. The Cherokee Purple has been dropping blossoms like crazy but I finally saw the first fruit today so I'm hoping to see less blossoms drop. The others are coming along nicely. I've found 3 fruits on the Large Barred Boar and both of the smaller varieties, Juliet & Sun Gold, have multiple clusters going.

First Cherokee Purple fruit

A couple of  of the first Large Barred Boars

One of the Juliet clusters

One of the Sun Gold clusters

May's current crop

Well, there is less variety in the garden than when I posted April's current crop. Especially after today's pulling of the purple bush beans, gold beets, eggplant, mint, and strawberries. I'm most bummed about the eggplant; it never grew at all. The bush beans were coming on strong, but dried up and died. I may try those again in a different spot. The gold beets were also stunted and never really produced. The mint and strawberries I pulled both came from my friend across the country and did not take.

I also harvested all of the small red onions since they were starting to die and stop growing. They're small and will be tasty mixed in to something.

Small red onions

Current breakdown is 7 different vegetables and 5 herbs: pole beans, potatoes (red and Yukon gold), tomatoes (5 varieties, one of which has still yet to flower), onions (white & yellow), corn (2 varieties), chard, lettuce (2 varieties), and the herbs mint, sage, oregano, chives & chamomile.

The Cherokee Purple tomato is growing tons of blossoms but it has also been dropping them instead of them dying off and forming into fruit. I hope that changes.

Cherokee Purple tomato

I intended to sow honeydew melon today but the ground is too hard so I'm giving it a good soak to till up tomorrow. I am also going to extend the corn area as it looks like there will only be 9 plants but I will need to harvest about half of the onions to do so. I should probably go back out and soak that area so I can work it tomorrow too.

Early Sunglow corn 2 weeks after sowing

The Yukon gold plants are dying off and I will probably harvest them one night this week. Can't wait to see the full crop of them, I hope it's decent!