Garden Harvest - the haul so far...

If you have been reading this blog you already know that I garden as I talked about in  The Garden Marches On  and in the update of Garden Check In.  Well, I thought I would take a break from harvesting all of our garden produce to run the numbers on what we have picked so far and to talk about the major contenders in the garden produce competition.  Yes, my plants are pitted in a knock down drag out fight with one another to win my love through relentless production.  The winner gets my eternal love, devotion and an extra shot of fish emulsion the loser gets my ridicule and maybe not as much water at the end of the season.  You definitely want to be on the winning team in my garden.

Here is what the garden has produced so far:

Basil

Lots of globe basil which has a very rich smell and taste and stays compact if you clip it frequently.  So far I have harvested a pound of it and it is still growing strong.  It is trying to bolt, but clipping off the outermost stems will set it back into leaf production and encourage its compact growth.


May Harvest:  1 pound
Over-all Garden grade: A+ so far

Cilantro

A constant supply of bolting cilantro.  Just what is up with this cilantro?  I just get it to a size that in a couple of weeks it might have enough leaf stalks to use for a recipe and then I turn my back and WHAM!- look at all the pretty flowers.  This is not the first year I have had this problem, in fact it is the umpteenth year this same scenario has played itself out.  I do not have the cilantro gift. 

April Harvest: zero
May Harvest:  zero
Over-all Garden grade: F!  final grade  (okay, its bolting flowering self looks pretty cute, so at least it has that going for it)

Squash

The butternut squash we tried this last fall for the first time has made a wonderful addition to our lives again this spring.  The plants are looking a little bedraggled from the heat, but there are several squash on the vine and several already harvested.  Plus, not a sign of the dreaded squash vine borer yet!


May Harvest:  6.25 pounds - all in the last week
Over-all Garden grade: A+ so far

Okra

The plants are doing wonderful and have been producing fruit.  Unfortunately the plants are still suffering from 'dog'.  My two canine gardeners are enjoying almost every single pod these plants produce.  It is hilarious to watch them sniff out the pods and reach up to snap them off with their sharp middle teeth.  The plants are getting tall now and almost out of Westie range, but this morning I saw him trying to climb a plant to get to that sweet, sweet, okra ambrosia.  Raw okra as a dog delicacy.  Who knew?


May Harvest:  1/2 pound
Over-all Garden grade: A+ so far for the plants - Grow little plants.  Grow big and tall and out of doggie range soon so I can enjoy your bounty.

Onions

The onions were pitiful this year. In my second ceder bed the few that survived produced a half dozen less than golf ball sized bulbs.  My other onion bed did a little better, but this is nothing like the wonderful crop I got last year.  I have managed to make about three onion braids in all, but there is far less fruit and they are very small. 

April Harvest:   1 pound
May Harvest:   1.5  pounds
Over-all Garden grade: C-  (final grade - all have been harvested) 

Leeks

The leeks are going strong, but not at a harvest size yet except for a couple I pulled just to see how they were doing.  I am unfamiliar with leek habit, so I presume they will continue to grow, but who knows.  Perhaps they are pulling a fast one and just sitting there taking up water and fish emulsion, plotting to die before I get to harvest them.  


May Harvest:  1 pound
Over-all Garden grade: B+ so far

Peppers

The pepper plants have been producing a great crop of well formed fruit.  Both the banana pepper and the gypsy are going strong and are the best producers.  It looks as if they will continue to set fruit if the temperatures stay under 90.  The Corno de Torro produced quite a nice crop but is slow to set new fruit.  It may be more sensitive to the hotter temperatures.  The mild Tam jalapeno was slow to get started but it is setting a lot of fruit now.  So far so good.  

April Harvest:  1.5 pounds
May Harvest:  3 pounds (1.5 pounds this last week)
Over-all Garden grade:  A+ so far.

Cabbage

The cabbages did alright in all the beds they were in.  They suffered from predation of voracious worms but I was happy to find that hand picking these critters solved the problem and the cabbage heads formed with only a couple of holes in the outer leaves.  A couple of the plants had no holes and I was able to harvest perfect heads.  This being my first year with cabbage made this an exciting discovery for me.  I can grow cabbage!  Now I just have to come up with a whole bunch of cabbage recipes.  

April Harvest: 4 pounds
May Harvest:  3 pounds
Over-all Garden grade: A (final grade - all has been harvested)

 Beans

The bush bean plants have really been churning out their pods.  I have to pick nearly every day.  The plants are lush and not only did the original bed do well, the secondary bed I planted has started to produce as well.  Finally I got something right in the plant a second crop category.

 
April Harvest: 2.25 pounds
May Harvest:  6.25 pounds (3 pounds just this week)
Over-all Garden grade: A+

Cucumbers

The burpless hybrids are doing it again and producing copious amounts of fruit on disease impervious plants.  They are truly garden champions and if they weren't annuals I would be leaving them something in my will.  The pickle cucumbers have also produced but at a more demure pace.  They are also afflicted with the typical cucumber mildew plague which is already taking its toll.  Their fruit however is crisp and tasty so they have that going for them.  Together these plants are way over producing what we can personally eat and I have been giving away many, many pounds of these things to friends and family.


April Harvest: 1.5 pounds
May Harvest:  20.5 pounds (16.5 of that in the last week - eeek!)
Over-all Garden grade: A+ for the burpless hybrid, A- for the pickle type

Tomatoes

Okay, if I say this I run the risk of somehow jinxing everything, but this is quite possibly the best tomato situation I have ever had.  I read what I consider the Bible of gardening info - the original Rodale's Organic Gardening book.  I consult that old green book every year and live by its principles.  No pesticides or inorganic substances - lots and lots of compost, etc.  Well, the section on tomatoes features an article about this guy who planted his tomatoes in pure compost and got "50 tomatoes to the plant" yields.  That has always been the gold standard to me regarding tomato production.  Now, I am not talking about cherry or grape tomatoes, because I have already maxed out on productivity with those types.  What I was longing for was the ultimate large type tomato productivity.  The type of tomatoes that have 1/2 to 1 pound size fruits. 


So, this year I planted all 5 of my tomato plants in pure compost.  The plants did wonderfully in leaf and vine health, which is nothing unusual as far as I was concerned.  They always seem to look great, but the big tomatoes seldom produce much fruit.  I decided to do a fruit count to see how things were going before the fruit began to ripen.  I also wanted to see which of the different types of tomatoes I had planted were the most productive.  Here is what I found:


Top gun  - this tomato is new to me and I don't even know if it is determinate (sets all fruit at once) or indeterminate (sets fruit throughout the season) but it was touted as being good for hot humid conditions.  I counted its green fruit and was delighted to find 31 growing tomatoes.


BN444 "Bunny" - this hybrid was also touted for hot and humid conditions and was a determinate type which I have not used before.  Now Bunny had a major limb disaster after a hail storm, so I wasn't holding out much hope for her productivity, but low and behold she had 27 fruit which considering the 6 fruit she lost in the storm put her totals to 33.


Big Boy - this indeterminate type was causing me all sorts of worry due to loss of leaves which reminded me of late blight issues I had suffered with last year.  I am not sure what exactly is the trouble, but this plant has some sort of problem.  This has probably reduced its fruiting capacity, but I was amazed to find there were 41 fruit on it!


Creole 1: Leeky Creole -  This plant had some seriously huge fruit on it which was causing me anticipatory stress.  What was going to befall the luscious fruit before I could get it to harvest?  The fruit count on Leeky was a promising 32 huge tomatoes.


Creole 2: Corny Creole - This plant had the most lush growth which it turns out was hiding a treasure trove.  The first count I made I figured that I must have made a mistake and recounted several fruit.  So I counted again.  Then I counted a third time.  Something has gone very, very right for this plant because it had set 78 tomatoes.  78!  And the plant is healthy as can be!  And the fruit is very large!  I can't believe I have finally not just met but seriously surpassed my Rodale's Gardening dream.




But of course, set fruit does not equal ripe fruit and there are a whole host of problems getting from point A to point "on the table".  Not every one of those fruit on any of the plants made it to the eating stage.  Top gun has lost 3 due to some hole making creature.  Bunny lost her first fruit to who knows what and also four more to some hole making insect.  Big Boy was visited by some sort of nocturnal 'eat half a tomato' creature that gnawed into a couple of fruit and some of the fruit just up and died.  Both the creoles have lost about six fruit between them for various reasons.   In all there have probably been a dozen to two dozen lost fruit from all the tomatoes so far.  This is hardly a drop in the bucket to what is waiting on the vines.  Here are the totals from all plants so far:


April Harvest: 2 pounds
May Harvest: 28 pounds (21 pounds of that in the last week - eeek! eek! eeeeeek!  - I estimate we have triple that at least on the vines and ripening in the next two weeks)
Over-all Garden grade: A++++++



What does one do with 28 pounds of tomatoes?  Well, we eat as much as we can and give away a whole bunch to friends and family.  Too bad this kind of crop can't go on all year.  Come July there will likely be no tomatoes at all, sniff.

So, that's all for the harvest so far, but stay tuned.  Fig season is about to start, the tomatoes are all going to ripen in the next couple of weeks and the okra will finally outgrow the dogs.  

Garden Check In

April has been bringing showers this year, which is a very welcome thing considering how badly nature treated us last year.  In fact it has been raining so much it really has made it difficult for me to install the rest of my watering system.  In the meantime of course my garden has been growing by leaps and bounds which made it a virtual flora wrestling match to install the last few soaker hoses.  Finally though the last one went in with a bunch of huffing and puffing and sweating on my part.  All that rain makes the low 80 degree weather seem like a sauna. 

I finally got the camera out this evening and decided to take you on a tour of the garden as I saw it today.

First stop is my newest bit of yard art.  I present to you Garden Koi.  He is lurking in the Herbie bed right now, but I will probably move him to a shadier spot to prevent him fading out from the sun.

Now here we are in the second of the ceder fence beds in what I am calling the Leeky-Creole bed.  Here are three of about a dozen Creole tomatoes growing on this plant.  This is my first year with this variety which is touted as being able to set fruit in hot humid weather.  I have only love for this plant - these tomatoes are huge!

Next door to Leeky-Creole is the Big Boy tomato who has some sort of tomato unhappiness going on.  Some of its leaves have died back and the stems look a little purplish as if there is a nutritional issue.  It has plenty of fruit but they are much smaller than the Creole.  Might just be a variety thing, but I swear if this plant pulls a late blight swan dive on me I will yank it from the garden faster than the Border Collie can tear up a new stuffed toy (30 seconds is her new record).  I am already removing the dead leaves as if they are a potential contaminate to my other plants and I use surgical gloves when I handle it in order not to spread any potential gunk. 

It's Bunny!  Lovely BN444 is neck and neck with the Creoles for humongous fruit.  But on a sadder note, Bunny's first fruit went boots up for some unknown reason.  I found it all withered like a tomato raisin on the vine.  No other problems though.  The fruit was so advanced in decay I could not tell what befell it, but I think it must have been some sort of fruit injury.

Here is the other Creole in the Corny-Creole bed.  It also is adorned with bunches of these clusters and barring the descent of tomato poaching insects we should have a great tomato harvest beginning soon.

Here is a representative of the pepper clan from the six plants in the first four beds.  This is a Gypsy variety and all of the peppers are already loaded with fruit.  One more day and we will pick these and many others.  That is one thing for sure about the peppers.  Harvest often or they will get to thinking that their work is done.  We are already in a race against the night time temperatures.  As soon as they climb into the high 70s our peppers will no longer be able to set fruit.

Here are the leeks from the Leeky-Creole bed.  They are a lovely blue-green color which contrasts nicely with the other greens.  Nobody is big enough to harvest yet, but with the rain and warm weather there should be some big stalks coming.

This is the best looking of all six cabbage.  We have had some issues with I guess cabbage worms.  I have found those little guys down in the leaves of the other plants and when I find them I evict them into the dog area.  The resident Border Collie makes quick work of them and then the Westie rolls on them.  A hardy one/two punch in pest control.

Not only is this picture showing you the fence trellis I finally erected today for these burpless hybrid cucumbers, it also is showing you the pathway that I finally finished between the beds.  Okay, I lie, I have only finished five of the between bed pathways and have another four to go.  Okay, another lie - they are not actually finished until I get the ceder mulch for between the stones and the black plastic to put down over the dirt so the damn weeds will stop making my life a constant weed pulling mess.  But other than all of that backbreaking labor to come - I am finished.

Why is it the onion bed always seems to need some sort of makeover.  It did have a hard start with the whole being dug up by opossums in its first few hours as a bed and I also disturbed it by putting in the hay mulch and just recently again by putting in the soaker hose - but still does it have to look so apathetic?  Lift up your fronds (stalks?). Have some pride or something.  Ahh well - as long as it continues to onion it does not have to look pretty.

Collard greens are sort of the emperors among greens.  Unlike turnip or mustard greens, collards have to have a lot of space between each plant.  They are robust and I am sure if they were not tied down by their roots they would be setting off on all sorts of vegetable adventures involving mountains and grizzly bears. 

This started out as just a photo of a sun blasted squash blossom but on further review it revealed one of the bug friends of the garden.  This is an assassin bug and he or she is on the lookout for other bugs.  What you don't see in this photo is the long saber like snout on this thing that it gleefully stabs into other bugs in order to suck out the sweet, sweet bug nectar.  I am very glad they are only about a half an inch long because I shudder to think of having to live in a world if these were Border Collie sized.

Here is a female bloom of the butternut squash.  It will be a couple of days before we know if this fruit set or not.  Meanwhile the rest of the plant is plotting the eventual take over of the entire garden.  I put in six of these into this bed and they are now moving into both beds next to them, the pathways and also eyeing the dog proof fence.  I think butternut squash may be the Kudzu of the squash kingdom.  I will let you know when it has covered our house.

Okay so these pickling cucumbers are looking a little upset and I must admit it is my fault.  They were perfectly happy and beautiful before I went and put in their soaker hose.  This involved me whipping the vines back and forth like some sort of slow vegetable monster rock dance.  I also put in their trellis fence and insisted they use it.  They haven't gotten over it yet.

Stepping out of the ceder fence garden we are met with the promise of things yet to come.  Here is the fig tree displaying three of what will be about a billion figs this year.  The abundant rain is making the fig growth lush and since we didn't trim the tree last year it means I will be doing advanced gymnastics atop the ladder this year in my quest to get my share of the figs from the birds and squirrels.  Stay tuned.

Another up and comer is the Meyer lemon.  This tree is the one I call Lazarus because we found it languishing in a pot that got buried within an enormous hedge of shrimp plant for about two years and was never watered.  Somehow even though it never grew through the pot it managed to survive.  We now have it in a place of honor in the garden and it has shown its thanks by tripling in size.  I always admire the plants I can't kill. 

It is a slow year in okra land, mostly because I decided to start them from saved seeds from last year.  This is Clemson Spinless and it is doing just fine although most are somewhat worm bitten.   No worries they will shake it off and in a couple of weeks they will put out their adult leaves and grow about six inches a day for a while.  This will soon be an okra forest.  On another note, next to this bed I put in about a half dozen Emerald Velvet okra which are supposed to be great.  I now have three of those plants remaining because something was biting the tops off the plants.  Now due to last years okra problems I vowed to blame the dogs for any okra problems this year.  I have done that officially, but just between you and me, it would be a little hard to get a doggie snout past my okra barriers.  I am almost certain this was the work of some little whiskered pest.  Specifically I am talking rodent especially because next to this bed I sprouted some cantaloupe seeds and each morning their tops had been eaten clean off.  I put the seed tray up on a table and yet again the tops were mowed off.  It seems some little critter was ecstatic that I was providing it with an abundant source of fresh sprouts.

Here is the outlier tomato known as Top gun.  He sounds all tough and stuff and I must admit he is sprouting a lot of fruit and has some rather attractive foliage, but just between you and me he doesn't hold a candle to the Creole twins in the ceder fence garden.  But who knows - this guy is supposed to handle the hot weather too, so he might just win the productivity game yet.

Now this plucky little guy is one of several tomato volunteers that applied to be the tomatoes for the Westie this year.  If it looks like it is behind bars that is because it is.  Although these are for the Westie, we must protect them from Big Foot the Border Collie who can make short work of any plant.

This is a view into the grapefruit garden and this is the single yellow squash plant that decided to come up from seed this year.  I do not have high hopes for it because you can almost hear the rumbling of the squash vine borers as they are about to pounce.  Just as soon as this plant sets fruit and that fruit almost gets ripe they will attack and that will be the end of this plant.  So far other than burying the vines I have found no cost effective organic solution to this pest.

Here we have the garden bed name-sake.  This is the first grapefruit that has set this year.  The tree is covered with fruit so far, but it remains to be seen if it will be able to bring any to ripeness.  The tree is still very young, but it is encouraging to see it trying this year.  Last year I don't even recall if it bloomed.

These are bush beans and they are loving life right now.  This year I gave them circular cages like I made for the okra and they are overjoyed. 

Their joy is my joy as is evidenced by the 15 or so incredible beans in my hand.  I had already picked about a dozen of the bush beans earlier this week which makes this enough for the first bean meal this garden season.  Yum.

Here we are at the strictly ornamental bed with the last of the amaryllis that have bloomed this year.  I am not sure of the type because these bulbs were given to me from someone who forces the blooms each year.  I consider all of the amaryllis to be nomadic because every year I move them thinking that this will be the best place for them.  So that is what I am telling them now -  this will be the best place for them...

This is a scented geranium that I managed to grow from cutting taken from one of the wildly abundant tribe growing in the ornamental garden.  These were the only successful ones I managed to grow from about a dozen clippings.  They probably all would have made it if I had managed to water them more.  They also had to survive a couple of freezes.  You need to be tough if you are going to survive in my potted plant area.

Here is a pink Pintas that managed to survive last years horrific drought.  I really love it when a plant not only survives natural disaster but also my on again, off again desire to water it.

And last but not least, another volunteer, this time a weed.  This is a wild morning glory along with  sorrelvine and snailseed.  What is not to love about April.  Even the weeds try harder.

The garden March-es on...

Just a couple of months ago I was breaking my back getting all my garden beds prepped for Gardening Version 2012 and I am excited to report that now in March – I am still breaking my back getting all my garden beds prepped for this year.

Don't get me wrong. There has been some progress. I went from having a mere four completely redone 3ft by 6ft ceder fence garden beds with their 22 inch pathways on all sides to now ten. I transformed the center garden from three east/west facing rows into two north/south facing rows and additionally created an extensive rock pathway within this bed area. I completely remodeled the grapefruit bed from a single massive horseshoe shaped bed into three manageable beds. I also have planted most of these beds and have harvesting radishes and mustard greens.

Yet even though it seems like I have done a lot there is much, much more that needs to be done. Currently we are installing a watering system that will allow us to have drip hoses in every one of the ceder fence garden beds. Now I know when you just read that it did not have the impact on you that it has on me. Just seeing the words 'watering system' much less 'drip hoses' makes my heart beat faster.

Perhaps I should explain. Last year, what with the relentless drought and 100 plus degree temperatures I would spend somewhere around an hour and a half every morning just watering my garden. An hour an a half I could have been oh, I don't know, maybe sleeping or weeding the garden or harvesting the massive amounts of produce or performing basic hygiene. As it was I spend an hour and a half just watering and then pretended I didn't see the weeds, snatched the fruit and vegetables off the plants and did the bare minimum hygiene stuff necessary to make sure people were not offended by my presence.

I have a dream and it goes like this. I get up at a reasonable hour, saunter out to my garden where I turn on my 'watering system' which starts all my 'drip hoses' and then I leisurely weed the garden, pick the abundant produce from the thriving plants and luxuriate in a long hot shower before I casually look over my water bill and laugh because it is so low. I like the virtual watering system very much. It almost seems a shame that we have to actually install it because that is sure to put some wrench into the works in some annoying way that we can't foresee because you just don't know what you don't know. But I have tonight before we turn it on for the first time, so I am still living the dream.

I thought I would provide an introduction to each of the beds to have as a reference for later in the year. These first group of garden beds are in the ceder fence area that is protected by the dog-proof fence.

Ceder fence garden bed number 1 - "Herbie"

This bed is only partially planted because many the wonderful seeds I lovingly pressed into the soil refused to sprout. Currently it is home to cilantro, a mixture of salad greens, fennel, basil, and curled parsley.

Bed number 2 - "Leeky Creole"

At the north end of this bed is one of the Creole tomatoes we are trying this year. Supposedly this tomato will set fruit in hot humid weather. The rest of this bed is filled with yellow onions, leeks and garlic.

Bed number 3 - "Big Boy"

The north end of this bed has a Big Boy tomato plant. I consider all of the tomatoes in competition with each other, so we will see how this guy stacks up to the other contenders. I should mention that I am trying a new tomato restraint system this year since last years 'lash the tomatoes with string between several bamboo poles' was a horrible, horrible idea. This year I am using a C shaped cage of dog fence which I will increase in height as the tomatoes get larger. Perhaps this will be the year I will find my tomato caging solution. This bed also has a couple of cabbages and two different sweet peppers, a Gypsy and a Sweet Banana. There is also an extra cucumber plant snuggled in next to the tomato cage.  The pots along the side of this bed are several fig trees we sprouted last year.  They are awaiting distribution to their new homes.

Bed number 4 - "Bunny the Quick"

This bed is almost identical to bed three except that is houses the tomato “BN444” – some sort of determinate hybrid. I like this tomato since it has won the 'first to set fruit' award. I like it so much that from now on I am giving it a proper name to replace it uninspiring clone sounding name. I will call it Bunny the Quick from now on. The south side of this bed has cabbages, sweet peppers and another orphan cucumber plant.

Bed number 5 - "Cornie Creole"

Okay, again this is a tomato at the north and cabbages, sweet peppers and orphan cucumber at the south, but this tomato is another Creole and these sweet peppers are a Corno de Toro and a mild Tam Jalepeno.

Bed number 6 - "Burpless"

This bed still needs its trellis to support the hybrid burpless cucumbers it is holding. This type of cucumber is a miraculous beast that just laughs at powdery mildew that kills off all the other cucumber types I have tried. It also is a workhorse in production and soon, very soon I will be asking myself just why I planted so many of these plants. The cucumber orphans are of this variety which means that very soon we will be discovering just how many cucumbers we can consume in a single day without ill effect.

Bed number 7 - "UnYuns"

This was the first bed I planted and if you looked at my earlier gardening post from January you will see the onions have valiantly rebounded from their ravishing by the opposums. The onions to the west of this bed are yellow and the east side are red. The center of this bed are scallions and at the very back are garlic plants.

Bed number 8 - "It's not easy being greens"

This bed is hosting collard greens, turnips, mustard greens and until recently, radishes. It is also being plagued by snails and caterpillars which are making lace of the leaves. Soon though I will find my organic slug and snail bait and my caterpillar BT powder and this bed will feel much better.

Bed number 9 - "Butternut"

These guys are butternut squash and if they do what their family members did during the fall garden then we will have a whole bunch of very large squash on plants that will try to overrun the entire ceder garden area.

Bed number 10 - "Pickles"

Here are some more cucumbers, but these are pickling cucumbers. I actually purchased these before I was able to find my burpless hybrids. They are supposed to be hardier than other types of cucumbers, but they will have to prove themselves.  Regarding as to why this bed looks like it is out of the Flintstones cartoon.  I found myself with an abundance of energy and a lack of correctly cut lumber.  We have a whole bunch of rocks we have collected and I decided to use them as a temporary holding wall to shape the bed. 

The great beyond...

This is a picture of what is yet to come. It may look like a bunch of dirt and rocks, but this is proto-garden. This will become four more beds in the not too distant future, baring early excessive hot weather, my body  giving out, or me actually coming to my senses. The plan is that this area will be for the wildly vining things like cantaloupe and watermelons.

Stay tuned...