Been another two weeks since my last post. There have been a few things going on around the garden – but not enough to make another weekly update. I’ve also been incredibly busy with other things lately as well.
Last week we were exceptionally busy tearing apart two bedrooms upstairs. We fully took off the paint on the walls in the spare room, pulled out all the trim, re-painted, put new trim in, and made the room into an office. So I also made a table as well. When it was all said and done, this is what the new “office” looks like:
Alright, let’s get back to the garden. The week that we were putting the office together, we had quite a bit of Honey Treat sweet corn. So much so – that I’m impressed with this hybrid – but unfortunately they discontinued it. Off of about 12 stalks, we had 23 ears of corn. Yes, almost an average of two each! Last year we were lucky if we got one ear of corn for every TWO stalks.
It looks like they are multi-colored – but this is a fully yellow hybrid. We always boil the corn right after it is pulled off of the stalk for a good five minutes, dip it in ice water to cool it down, let it dry, then put it in freezer bags to put in the freezer.
On the 23rd, I got out and walked around the garden. I was amazed.. there was a cucumber that was yellow! Never even saw it. Both of these were Burpee Pickler cucumbers.
On the 26th, more corn was picked. We got another 12 ears of corn. Some of these were not fully done – but yet they still are sweet.
Now, it comes down to pictures that were taken today from around the garden. We also had a very nice harvest of tomatoes. We’ve previously also harvested quite a few – but today was the largest.
OK – so here is the Anaheim Hot Pepper by the patio. Not much has changed since the last photo. I did take about eight peppers off that were still green. They still seem to be rotting out right on the plant – so as long as they are picked before the entire pepper is consumed, they are usable.
The radish seeds are just about done since they are drying up. With the weather in the high 90’s we’ve had, I’m not surprised that they are drying out. I’ll have quite a few radish seeds for next year. In addition, the single oregano plant seems to be doing well too – and is growing again.
On the opposite side is the basil. This was taken before the basil was chopped. All of the plants had several flower stalks – so all of the flower stalks were chopped off – along with some leaves.
After the choppings, I barely was able to fit them all on the dehydrator.
Over to the side garden, I didn’t really take a full picture of it – only the watermelon area. The side garden is looking pretty dead since there are just Yukon Gold potatoes in that area. It won’t be too much longer before it will be time to take all those out of the ground!
Here is a closer view of two Crimson Sweet watermelon. Supposedly these should average about 24 pounds per fruit – but based on other reading, I’ve found that most home gardeners only get about 12 pounds out of each. I bet these are getting pretty close to that.
In the back garden, the Kennebec potatoes look just as dead. The vines are dying back.
Also in the back garden is the five cucumber plants; two Burpee Pickler and three Little Leaf H-19. Overall, I think I may go back to the Straight Eight cucumbers. We still have several cans of pickles that were made last year – and they simply are not being eaten.
Back onto the driveway – carrots. According to my prevoius journals, it will be time to pick the carrots in about a week. I did de-weed this area today and notice that many of them are peeking up through the soil – so it is about time!
Next is the front area. The Tri-Star strawberries look awful. They looked bad last year about this time as well. I’m wondering if they go into some kind of remission during the summer because no matter how much water I give them, they don’t seem to do much.
And the Bush Blue Lake 274 green beans that were planted in the flower bed. Two rounds were planted – and this shows the round that was planted earlier. There are finally some flowers and some small beans starting on them.
Here is the last remaining corn. All of them have an ear on them! Unfortunately I was not as dutiful this year so I didn’t put clothes pins with the date the silk emerged. It is usually said that once the silk emerges, the corn is ready to be picked in about 20 days. That is why the last batch didn’t look like they were done when I picked them; they were not given enough time to fill out.
Cherry tomatoes! At least we have some this year. I only kept one cherry tomato plant from the seedlings.. and the deer at it down. Luckily it came back pretty good and is producing some.
Over on the opposite side is the Better Boy tomatoes. They are doing very good – and this was taken before I harvested all those large tomatoes.
Well, that is everything in the garden. I failed to take a better picture of the California Wonder peppers in the front – but you can kind of see them off to the left side of the picture above. They still are quite small – but they do have a few small peppers on them.