Garden Update July 2014
I haven’t posted as much about my garden this year, but worry not, I spend two evenings and part of a weekend day there each week, keeping things going. I wasn’t as organized about my planting this year as in the past, so “rows” don’t really exist the way they should. My squash are growing all over the place, and before them, the kohlrabi. The peas refuse to stay on the fence, so are draped like wanton women all over the kale, beans, and cabbage. A giant “Russian” sunflower, a volunteer plant I left grow once it sprouted, towers over the garden like a soldier. At one point it started to lean, so now it is staked like a tree, to keep it from tossing completely over. It is easily 9 foot tall and covered in buds. Crazy plant.
And to add to things, I have a small “kitchen garden” next to the back door of our house, as well. I have one cucumber, one volunteer cucumber (and it tastes AWFUL), one green-striped zucchini, and one honeybear squash. I also planted parsley and basil, and have thrown down some beans. Earlier in the season, I had also planted half of that garden with lettuce. We had a lot of salad before I pulled it all up because of the heat.
Within the last three weeks or so, things have really started to produce. I pick three or four summer squash every time I go, and at least three cucumbers. I have picked all the peas now, but we’ve had two big pots of fresh steamed peas, and I have enough in the fridge to do one more small pot. Peas are great to plant because they boost the soil, but the yield is small, and then there’s the whole shelling them thing that takes forever. Still, fresh-steamed peas are a wonder to behold. I have cabbage ready to be picked, the surprise broccoli (they came in a six-pack of kohlrabi plants I bought), and the beans are blooming. The pumpkins are late, but I have at least five set, and more blooming, so they might just pull through after all.
At the house, there is also a nice flower garden I put out front, and two rose bushes I’m babying along (and are getting ready to bloom for the second time this summer). I’m building a raised bed along the fence in the side yard. My peonies and clematis will go there, and maybe a few other thing. Also at the house is a small apple tree that is producing fairly well. We are just now picking them, and they are sweet and soft, probably a green delicious. The squirrels and birds love them, but unlike the apples at the other house, we don’t appear to be having a problem with worms. for this, I am grateful.
I have made soup with kale to freeze for winter. I have also made soup with Kohlrabi to freeze for winter. My kohlrabi, the majority of which were plants purchased from one of my plot neighbors, have produced tremendously, with most of the 9 plants producing two or three bulbs. The summer squash is producing well right now, but the winter squash doesn’t look happy. They got a late freeze, well into June, and have had a hard time recovering. My peppers, as usual, are tiny and producing very little. This year’s eggplant are not producing at all, unfortunately. And the tomatoes are small in stature, but loaded with fruit. Still it is nearly August, and we aren’t eating tomatoes yet. This is hard for me to get used to, especially since in Missouri tomatoes were a never-miss.
So, without further ado, here are some pictures:
The 2014 Apples
Beans. They are finally blooming, and there are baby beans!
Kale. I’ve harvested pounds of it, and given pounds of it away to plot neighbors. I like it but am running out of things to do with it.
The last two kohlrabi standing!
One of my six cabbages. This one is ready to pick. These are Savoy, my very favorite!
Buttercrunch lettuce in the shade of the giant Russian sunflower.
Weedy beets. The alpaca manure I got this year from the garden is full of purslane seed. I’m fighting it, but not winning!
Beets in various stages, which is why some look big, and some small. As I pull them, I plant new seed. I love beets!
Broccoli. Surprise! They were with a pack of kohlrabi I bought from a garden center – they were supposed to be kohlrabi!
Cucumbers. I bought three plants, a variety called “patio.” They grow very small vines, and can be grown in containers. They are hearty producers, however, and I am picking 10 or more every week. They are very tasty!
Pumpkins. I am growing these in a corner of a plot that belongs to someone else, and I have them hemmed in as best I can with some 3-foot-tall fencing. They were slow starting but are taking off now. There were some cosmos that reseeded in the same area, so they are sharing space. I love cosmos!
Pumpkin flower – so pretty!
This one is the size of a honeydew melon.
Another pumpkin, this one bigger than a grapefruit. I have at least five set pumpkins now, which is plenty. 
The two I’m showing here are the biggest.
I even have melons! I don’t remember what kind, but know it isn’t cantelope.
Parsnips. They take forever to germinate, and they are planted in the area that is overrun with purslane, so I can’t weed them or I’ll pull them up!
Summer squash. This is yellow zucchini. It is producing gangbusters, despite the squash bugs I keep killing on it.
Papaya Pear Squash. Yes, that’s what it’s called, and it makes small (3 inches in diameter) pear-shaped fruit. Tastes like zucchini.
Tiny peppers.
Tomatoes. Lots of fruit, very small bushes.
Turnips. Planted these about three weeks ago, and thinned them earlier this week.
Potato basket. Still waiting to harvest these! They seem to be taking forever…but I want to know the results of this experiment!
A typical harvest day.
The garden alongside the house. Beans in the foreground, then cucumbers, then two squash plants.
Honeybear squash. Supposed to be a summer squash but it sure doesn’t look like it! Also, a very slow producer.
Flower garden in the front of my house. Along the back are two day lilies my mother bought me last year, along with some snow on the mountain, which should really take over after this year. I also planted decorative tobacco, dianthus, rose moss, petunias, and purple allysum. This was a dirt patch when we moved in. It’s come a long way in just a couple of months!
As part of my community garden rental, I have to put in 10 “workshare” hours. I spent two hours in March chopping the H-E-double-hockey-sticks out of the grape vine that was threatening to take down our shed. I chopped probably 3/4ths of it down. You sure can’t tell now! However, the grape production is phenomenal. The chopping really helped them!
Loaded with Champagne grapes!
