Back to our regularly scheduled programming

Some health issues have gotten in the way of my summer garden plans. They’re (mostly) resolved now, but it’s getting too late to do anything with the garden for this summer. Plus, I’m going to be away for two weeks in August. So my plan for the summer is to cover the beds with black plastic to kill off any weed seeds, then plant for the fall when I get back from vacation. I have some carrots left, and I’m going to give them away. I also have one small head of cabbage, which I will make into something yummy.

Green tomatoes and broccoli transplants

The tomato experiment continues. I can now say that I have successfully grown tomato plants. I also have had beautiful tomatoes form. Unfortunately, they have all stayed solid green and hard as baseballs. I don’t know if it’s because the weather got too cold for them to ripen?? I’m pretty sure I didn’t plant green tomatoes. Here’s what they look like…

Beautiful size, beautiful shape, wrong color.

I planted these in August. Clearly, that was a little too late. I think this year I’m going to plant the seeds in June and see what happens. Sigh.

However, there is good news on the other fronts. The lettuce and potato plants are going great.

The lettuce is nearly ready to cut and eat as baby lettuce, then I can start hilling up around the potato plant. The other potato plants are already taller and I’ve been hilling the dirt up around them already.

Since the tomatoes have clearly stalled out, I pulled them all out. The rest of the carrots had gotten so big they’d split open, so I pulled them too. They’re now filling the compost bin. I got broccoli transplants from a friend last weekend, and they are looking good so far:

The tinier plants in between the broccoli plants are brussels sprouts.

So, once again a year without edible tomatoes. I’m going with some cherry tomatoes next year; maybe they’ll be easier. But cool weather and root vegetables are, once again, a success.

Potato plants and raised beds

This is one of the potato plants, as of yesterday. It’s surrounded by lettuce. The thin strands at the top are supposed to be leeks, but they’re not doing much yet.

This is the second best potato plant. I built up the soil around them on Saturday, to give them room to start making potatoes.

Phase Two of the raised beds is nearly complete. I just need to build up the right side wall a little more. Phase One, the first two raised beds, are at the far end, full of crazy tomato plants.

State of the garden

We’re having a warm spell. It’s been near 80 degrees for the past few days, and it’s going to be this warm for another week. The veggies are taking full advantage. I have several kinds of lettuce, three or four potato plants, and some new carrots coming up. That’s a potato plant, surrounded by lettuce. I took that two weeks ago, and they’re about twice as big now.

The tomato plants are running riot. They are blooming like crazy, but not producing many tomatoes. I’m not sure what’s going on there. The plants themselves have done extremely well, what with being planted a little later in the year (August 1) and being planted in the same bed with carrots. And they are flowering constantly. But I’ve seen very few tomatoes. Here are a couple that have formed.

As you can see, they’re green. And two weeks later they’re still green. They’re big enough to pick, and showing no signs of turning any other color. I’m starting to wonder if I planted green tomatoes…I may have.

I either planted or got rid of all my old seeds, that were dated for 2010 or 2011. I ordered a few more new ones, some cherry tomatoes, which I’m going to grown in grow bags, and cabbage and Boston lettuce.

And I need to move my compost pile today.

Better get out there and get busy…:)

Yellow carrots

Small but delicious!

These are the carrots that I’m growing this time. They’re smaller than I’m used to, and they have more greens. I’d never eaten a yellow carrot, so I had no idea what to expect.

These are wonderful. They have an almost lemony flavor to them. The texture is the same as a “normal” carrot, of course, but the taste is, to my mind, far better and more interesting. You could do a lot with these in different recipes, I bet.

But I ate these raw, with a little blue cheese dip. Yum, yum.

Beans on the vine

Growing again after a lull

Carrots and tomatoes

Carrots and tomatoes are supposed to complement each other when they’re planted together. I don’t know if they’re equally as beneficial. I have a sneaking suspicion that the carrots are helping the tomatoes more than the tomatoes help the carrots. But they are supposed to do better together, and so far they’re both doing well. I’ve had a lot of success with carrots before, but never much luck with tomatoes. So I’m hoping that will change this time.

One of the tomato plants looks like it might be getting ready to bloom. That’s good news. I would LOVE to get some nice tomatoes this time.

The zucchini never did much; the seeds were kind of old, so that might be the problem. The watermelon did great for a while but then something came along and ate all the leaves and that was all she wrote for the watermelon. The beans have done very well, but they also have some kind of pest, a very tiny flying thing, that coat the stems and beans like fur. They seem to suck the juices out of the plant. The beans that grew that didn’t get infested did very well, and I’ve had four crops. I’ve also let a couple go to seed, to see if I can get them to come up again next time…

Asparagus beans

Five weeks from planting the seeds to first harvest! These are also known as Chinese long beans. You use them just as you would regular green beans, from what I understand. I’ll be trying them this weekend.

On the plant…

…and post picking!

Garden’s growing great!

The big picture

Carrots and tomatoes. The cardboard tubes are keeping the plants from falling over when they’re watered. They’re toilet paper tubes cut in half.

Watermelon blossom

Bean shoots winding around their support

 

 

 

Growing like crazy

This morning in the garden:

Watermelon

Beans

Tomatoes, in the center, with carrots at top and bottom – very small and will have to be thinned