The zucchini and squash plants are filling in and finally starting to produce. We should be able to eat some zucchini within the week, I can already taste it! The baby squash are growing slowly but at the moment I’m just glad they are growing.
Thankfully the tomato plants are finally starting to bare some fruit. Every time I walk by them I see more tomatoes and some of them are getting to be a decent size already – we might end up with some vine ripened tomatoes after all.
My garlic is still yellow as can be, but it’s not dead so hopefully we’ll still get some bulbs out of the deal. Until this year I had never plants onions from bulbs and the bulbs I did plant are huge onions now; so huge they might need to be thinned again. The green onions are doing fine and I think it might be time to thin the shallots again – at least now I can keep what I pull and we will have mini shallots to use.
All the root veg seem to be growing exceptionally well. Although the carrot and beet plants vary in size, they are all developing wonderful surprises that are hiding in the dirt and will taste fabulous. So far we’ve had carrots out of the garden a few times. This year I planted a different type of carrot, they aren’t very sweet but have a real earthy taste; next year I might have to try another type as we would like a bit more sweetness. We haven’t had any beets yet, I try to leave them for canning, but I’m tempted to pull some of the golden beets for a roasted beet & feta salad… yummm.
Last year 99% of my turnips were full of little white worms. I was able to savage some of them by slicing and dicing and only keeping the good parts. This year I keep the plants dusted with DE in attempt to keep them bug free. This works, hopefully, by preventing the survival of the eggs that are laid on the turnip leaves (that hatch into the worms/larva) from flies and little white butterflies/moths. I’ve been very diligent in keeping the plants dusted as I am just starting to see the little white beasts, I mean moths, flying around.
As for the Swiss Chard, it’s time to harvest it. It is a rich dark green color and has developed into large, crinkly leaves. If it’s not harvested soon I fear the grasshoppers will eat it all. (I won’t get side tracked here, I’ll post separately about our grasshopper problem.) Because the Swiss Chard will continue to grow after I pick it, I’m hoping that we might get a second growth out of it if I pick it now, and hopefully the grasshoppers won’t devour the new, tender growth.
Hmmm… what else… BEANS & PEAS! The peas are still growing like mad and we will have to pick some this weekend. The plants are full of pea pods at various stages of development and there are still flowers blooming so there is more on the way!! The beans are also making excellent progress; there are many, both green and yellow, that are close to being ready to pick. In fact, I think there is probably enough green beans for a meal. The beans like to hide and fool you; all you see is plants but when you go looking under the leaves there are hundreds of beans. I love fresh beans. We normally blanche and freeze what we can’t eat fresh but this year I might try to pickle a few.
As far as the potatoes go, we are undecided as to their progress. We have yet to see any flowers and a few plants are starting to die. I think they may have had too much moisture. This weekend I’m going to get Steve to dig up the plants that are dying to see what is happening. Oh, and the grasshoppers love potato leaves so I’ve taken to dusting the potatoes with DE too.
And finally the sunflowers. They are also being attacked by the grasshoppers but have grown leaps and bounds in the past week. They have really benefited from the heat and at this rate we might still end up with a row of blooming sunflowers this fall.
And last of all there are the raspberries. I think maybe we should open a U-Pick this year; yes, we have that many berries! (I’ll talk more about our raspberries later.)
So there you have it, my 81 Day Update.
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