June 20, 2013 - As the Garden Enters the Summer Season (part 1)

Tomorrow summer officially begins.  You couldn't tell from the weather we've been having!  It's been about 20 degrees below normal for the last ten days......cloudy, windy and rainy.

I spent most of today in the garden, trying to catch up a bit in between rain storms.  I transplanted, weeded, hoed, pulled out old plants, raked and did general garden cleanup.  Then I took pictures.  Lots of pictures!  So many pictures, I thought it would be best to put them in two posts.  So here we go, with the summer garden!

 The small garden behind the shed had garlic, the main lettuce bed and a container of potatoes.  All the remaining mature lettuces were pulled this week, so today it was filled with transplants.  These lettuce plants had been started in the main garden, but sparrows were keeping them badly nipped.  Back here they are protected by the netting covered structure, so hopefully they can recover and grow.  Tuesday the garlic was pulled (back where the straw is).  It was still small, but beginning to dry and flop over, so out it came.   In its place I planted three rows of carrots.

 The garlic, drying on a screen in the shed.  Not a great harvest, but considering they all came from a couple of grocery store bulbs that were rotting, not too bad.  These won't be weighed until they are completely dry.

 To the right of the shed garden, we head into the main garden.  Here I have flowers, a couple of leftover pepper plants, some tomatoes, parsley and dill.

 To my right I see the four Super Fantastic tomato plants, with a few carrots interplanted.

 Yes, I have tomatoes.  But will it ever warm up enough for them to ripen?

 This was the Walla Walla sweet onion bed, but most of them have now been pulled.  There are about a half dozen larger ones at the back of the bed, and a few salad onions in the front, but my onion harvest is only going to be a fraction of that of previous years.  It just hasn't been a very good year for my root crops.  I do have a few radishes left in this bed, and a nice row of Red Sails lettuce.  The sparrows don't bother the red lettuces like they do the green.  Today I planted a few beet seeds in the center of this bed.

 Walla Wallas hanging in the shed to dry.  I won't be giving any away this year!

The earlier blooming Sweet Williams were all cut back this morning.  I was going to scatter some Cosmos seeds here, but when I opened the packet there were only about six seeds left.  I tossed them into the loosened soil, if they grow they grow.  At least the tomato plant here has a bit more breathing room with the flowers cut down.

 A wheelbarrow stuffed full of Sweet Williams will be headed for the landfill.  My compost pile doesn't get hot enough to kill the seeds, and I don't want volunteers all over the garden next year!

 My "Toni Hollyhocks" are blooming.

 As is my very first coneflower!  These budded last year, but never did bloom.  I was planning on pulling them out this week, but they came through for me!  The plants are rather ugly (and huge), but the flower is so very pretty.

 Dark Red Norland potatoes.  

 On the left are the Yukon Gold (from my saved seed) and the not Yukon Gold potatoes that were mislabeled at the store.  Unfortunately, the ones from my saved seeds evidently have blight, which is spreading to the others.  I've been digging the ones from my seeds, but so far I've only found a couple of potatoes under the others.  It seems they are not only the wrong variety, but they are going to give me a very sparse, if any, harvest.  On the right are my only two mature broccoli plants (all the others were consumed by cutworms).  There are a few carrots in there somewhere, but not growing well.  More Red Sails lettuce that will be ready by the time the other ones are gone.    I have a bare spot at the front, where a cabbage was just removed.  I have no idea what will go there, maybe more beets.

 I've pulled the cabbages from this bed, they were used to make sauerkraut this week.  There is still an oddball in the bed, along with some young broccoli transplants.  I've cut off mature cabbages, leaving the roots in the ground, and had them grow multiple mini-heads.  But I've never before grown a cabbage from seed that developed three heads on one plant!    I put in a few cloves of garlic that had begun to sprout.  It should be fine to use as green garlic this summer/fall.

A three-headed cabbage!

 This is the first time I've ever grown leeks.  They seem to be doing OK.

The strawberries on the left are just beginning their second crop of the year, and they are beautiful berries.  They're way bigger than the early berries, and much easier to pick as they are up higher on the plants.  There are a couple more Celebrity tomatoes back against the fence (I have 8 of them in all), some yellow bush beans between the strawberry and raspberry beds, and cantaloupe in the pot in front.  Marigolds are just beginning to bloom.

 The cantaloupe plants have blossoms.

 Next to the raspberries, I have another Celebrity tomato, a row of mixed sweet peppers, a few more carrots, parsnips in various stages of growth, and parsley.

 I love the cosmos at the end of the raspberry bed.  I think I'll plant them all over my garden next year.

 Three hills of butternut squash are threatening to take over the garden.  I'm trying to aim them toward the fence, so they can climb.

 Zucchini in the back, yellow crookneck squash in front.

 We'll be eating crooknecks soon.

And zucchini, too!

June 17, 2013 - Plum Disappointed

We have a flowering plum tree in our front yard.  I'd say it's 15-20 years old now, and it has never fruited.  It's not supposed to.  But this year we have plums!  They are very small, they look rather like Bing cherries.  I happened to notice them today, so I plucked one off the tree and popped it into my mouth.  Mr. Granny had fits, and insisted it was probably poisonous.  I said no, it's a plum tree, it has plums.  Very good tasting plums!  Sweet, juicy plums!  While visions of (sugar) plums danced in my head, I picked a few.  Mr. Granny said "They have worms".  I said I hadn't seen a worm in the one I ate, but then again, I didn't even really look, I just ate.  I picked a few more.  Even if they had a tiny worm or two, I could flick them out.  It wouldn't bother me to eat them as long as the worm was gone.  I took them in the house and cut one in half.  Or, at least I tried to cut it in half.  It turned out to be one of those that will not come loose from the seed, so I just had to kind of gouge it away.  And there was the worm.  I tried another.  Another tiny worm.  Like I said, it wouldn't bother me to eat them, once the tiny little worm came out, but there was no way I could open every one of those little fruits to check them out.  The only way they could be eaten is to pop the entire thing in your mouth and chew the fruit off of the pit.  I'm sure I've consumed worse things than those tiny worms, but I just couldn't do it!

 Plum pretty.

I had to open 3 more of them before I found one with a worm.  It's right above the tip of the paring knife.

So....since I couldn't do plums, I did sauerkraut.

 I went out to the garden and picked two more cabbages to add to the two I had in the fridge.

 Since my (almost) new Cuisinart food processor broke while grating a piece of mozzarella cheese, I had to use the mandolin to slice up five pounds of cabbage.  We'll discuss the Cuisinart in a separate blog post.  And maybe the piece of crap new Black and Decker electric can opener. :-(

 After mixing in some salt and then letting it sit for an hour or so to go limp, I packed it firmly into clean quart jars.

 I smashed it into the jars until the brine covered the surface, leaving about an inch of headspace.

I cut some cabbage leaves to fit the top, then pressed them down over the contents until the brine rose above them.

 Then I used some crumpled plastic wrap to ensure the shredded cabbage would stay under the brine.

Lids were put on, and the jars were set on paper towels on a large plastic lid.  They went out to the garage, where they will stay fairly dark and cool for the next 6-8 weeks.  I'll check them every few days to make sure the brine is still covering the cabbage.  If any has seeped out, and it usually does, I'll dissolve a tablespoon of salt in a cup of cold water and add it to the jars.

There were a lot of outer cabbage leaves, and bits and pieces that didn't go through the mandolin, so I decided I needed to use them to make a big pot of soup.  I tossed the scraps into the pot with parsley and onions from my garden, carrots and celery not from my garden, some beef soup base and water.

 I simmered it for a loooong time, then strained the resulting broth into another pot.

I pureed the carrots and added them back into the broth, then added corn, peas, green beans, carrots, diced tomatoes, a can of white beans and a lot of course ground pepper.  I simmered it for another loooong time.  Oh, my, it was the best soup!  I had a huge bowl of it for my dinner, saved some for the next day, and froze the rest.

So....the plums were disappointing, but the rest of the day was quite productive!

June 17, 2013 - Harvest Monday

6/10 - Raspberries are being picked about every other day now, and we have been enjoying them for breakfasts as well as on angelfood cake slices with a dollop of whipped cream.  The second head of broccoli was harvested and used in my stir fry (I didn't make Mr. Granny eat it, all the more for me!).  The small Gonzales cabbage was used for coleslaw.  I'm not sure I'll plant this variety again, as it's very spicy and I prefer a sweeter cabbage.  The two small peppers were sunburned so I picked them, but they were quite bitter tasting.   They are still in the fridge, but probably will end up being composted.  No problems eating the potatoes though, as they are always welcome!  I also pulled one garlic (not shown) to add to my homemade pizza sauce.

 6/12 - More raspberries.  I wish they'd never stop!

 6/13 - Fresh peas and potatoes.  These were promptly eaten for dinner.

 6/13 - I love this Anuenue lettuce, it's so crisp and sweet.  I wish germination had been better though.  I had a bit better luck with my second planting, but then the sparrows ate the tops off of the seedlings.  I rescued a few and got them transplanted under protective netting, so hopefully they will survive.  It's supposed to be a heat tolerant variety.  I certainly hope so.

 6/14 -  Seeing red!  Everything harvested this day was red.  The strawberries are just beginning their second crop, and are much larger than the earlier berries.

 This Dark Red Norland from 6/14 is the largest so far, at 8 ounces.

 6/15 - The Golden Acre cabbages are now ready to pick.  They aren't as large as last year's, but still too big to fit into the harvest basket.

 There was a lot of earwig damage, but once I got all of the chewed up outer leaves off, I still ended up with nearly 3 pounds.  At least two more must be picked today, so I'll probably be making sauerkraut this afternoon.

 6/15 - The Red Sails lettuce has been coming in non-stop.  Last week there was so much of it in the fridge, I ended up taking about half a pillowcase full out to the garden and trench composted it.  I pulled the last of it from the main lettuce bed to make room for the Anuenue lettuce seedlings, but I have two more rows in the main garden, in various stages of growth.  As soon as this batch has been consumed the newer plants will be ready to harvest.  It's odd, but the sparrows don't usually bother the red lettuce, but they annihilate the green.

6/15 - More raspberries and peas.  The peas are nearing the end, and will probably be pulled by the end of this week to make room for a planting of pole beans.  Although I missed having snap peas this year, I must admit we certainly have had some lovely meals from the shelling peas.  

This week's harvest:

Broccoli: 2.6 ounces

Cabbage: 60.8 ounces

Garlic: 1.7 ounces

Lettuce: 22.1 ounces

Peas: 45.8 ounces

Peppers (sweet): 3.5 ounces

Potatoes: 85.1 ounces

Radishes: 1.4 ounces

Raspberries: 54.4 ounces

Strawberries: 4.1 ounces

Total this week:  281.5 ounces (17.59 pounds)

Total to date:  63.2 pounds

Be sure to check out Daphne's Dandelions to see what others have harvested this week!

June 11, 2013 - Another Case of Mistaken Identity

Top potato: Yukon Gold, from seed potato saved from last year's crop.  Bottom potato: Yukon Gold, from seed potato purchased at my local feed & grain store.  Methinks someone labeled the bin wrong.

I realize mistakes can be made, but how unusual for it to happen to me twice in one year!  First the snap peas that ended up being shelling peas, now the Yukon golds that are probably the Russets I swore I'd never grow again.  Bummer!

June 10, 2013 - Harvest Monday

 Lettuce continued to be a big part of the week's harvest, but it turned out to be more than we could consume.  One large container ended up being composted, but the refrigerator is still full from this last picking.  In the garden, the butterhead lettuces have bolted but the romaine, Red Sails and Anuene all look good.  A later planting of Red Sails will be ready soon, and new seedlings of Anuenue have replaced the pulled out butterheads and are looking great.

Peas are coming on fast, and we've had a couple of meals with creamed peas and new potatoes.  I ate the first head of broccoli all by myself, as Mr. Granny doesn't like it.   Oh, my, it was good!  It doesn't taste anything like the store bought frozen or fresh broccoli.  Notice the butternut squash under the broccoli.  That's from the 2012 garden, and still keeping beautifully out in the garage.  I have two small ones left that will probably have to be cooked this week.  I can't believe how well they have held up, especially with the hot weather these past two weeks!

 I've only scrounged around under the potato plants for enough for our meals, and they are gooooood!!  The last of the current crop of strawberries were picked, but the plants are blooming again and I expect larger berries in the next crop. 

The onion tops are flopping early this year, so I've begun pulling them and will use these fresh rather than drying them for storage.  They are quite a bit larger than they look in this photo, but I'll not have nearly the onion harvest I've had in past years.  The first head of cabbage, a miniature variety, was picked this week, as well as the first beets.  Beets are very slow to develop this year.  Out of all I planted, only 3 were large enough to eat.   The beet greens (not shown) were never weighed in past years, as we don't eat them.  Turns out our daughter likes them juiced with her other veggies, so now they get saved for her and added to the harvest total. That's one lone Yukon Gold potato that looks like a brown egg in the basket.  I had to dig around for one just to check on the size.  I also pulled 3 small carrots, and found two of the three to be badly deformed.  I do hope it's not going to be a complete carrot fail year, as these were from the best looking of all that were planted.  Enough rhubarb was picked to make a strawberry rhubarb crisp for our dessert.  That's parsley in the basket, not broccoli.  LOL, I wish it was broccoli!  

More floppy onions that had to be pulled, more peas picked, and the first tiny sampling of raspberries (there were more, but they never made it out of the garden....they went straight into my mouth).  I thought we were going to have a fantastic year for raspberries, but although they are plentiful, the berries are extremely small.  It looks as though the back half of the bed just didn't get the water that the front half did, and many of the berries are undeveloped.  I'm going to have to figure out how to get water to that one small area of garden.

This week's harvest:

Beets: 5.6 ounces

Beet Greens: 11.1 ounces

Broccoli: 5.7 ounces

Cabbage: 14.7 ounces

Herbs: 1.7 ounces

Lettuce: 34.5 ounces

Onions: 60.2 ounces

Peas: 55.1 ounces

Potatoes: 17.5 ounces

Raspberries: 1.6 ounces

Rhubarb: 13.4 ounces

Strawberries: 12 ounces

Total this week:  233.1 ounces (14.57 pounds)

Total to date:  45.66 pounds

Be sure to check out Daphne's Dandelions to see what others have harvested this week!

June 9, 2013 - Same Old, Same Old

It seems as though I blog the same thing every week!  I could just put a link to my last garden update, but the squash bed has grown quite a lot since then, and my one and only rose bush is blooming.  I was going to do a video walk through this morning, but my camera kept shutting off after just a few seconds.  I assume I'm supposed to occasionally charge the battery!

June 4, 2013 - Ed Hume Seeds Customer Service & Deadheading

Ed Hume Seeds Customer Service

After my recent experience with the sugar snap peas that weren't, I decided I'd write to Ed Hume Seeds to let them know that what I bought wasn't what I got.  I must say, the company is very quick to respond.  I had the same thing happen last year, when I purchased their Dwarf Cherry Rose Nasturtium seeds, the flowers of which turned out to be a common orange color.  I refused their offer to refund the price of the nasturtium seeds, but since I'd paid nearly $5 for the sugar snaps, plus tax and shipping, I accepted the offer of a refund on them.  I was also vindicated on my nasturtium complaint....it wasn't just me, and I'm not color blind!

Hi Carol:
    I have checked with everyone on the staff and none of their peas are bearing yet. And, I have not had any negative comments about the variety Sugar Lace other than yours.
    The peas come from an Idaho grower, with a top notch reputation.  Their pea varieties are grown in Eastern Washington, Oregon and Idaho.  I looked at the test label and it reads 99.5% purity and 87% germination. Having worked in the bulb industry in my early days I know occasionally a rouge variety will appear in a crop...it's usually one plant which is overlooked by the crew.  So that may explain the reason for the one plant with purple flowers. (Probably the variety Sugar Grey.)
    By-the-way, I am not certain if I ever wrote you about the Dwf. Cherry Rose nasturtium situation.  We found out the California flower grower had sold out to a Dutch growers.  Apparently in the transfer, somehow the varieties, either here in the USA or when they arrived in Holland got mis-labeled. You would have thought they would have caught the color difference/name when the plants were flowering in the field...but they didn't.
    Carol, I will send you a refund for the two packets of peas and your $2.00 mailing fee.  It may be tomorrow before it goes out in the mail, as I think I have already missed today's mail.
    Thanks for letting us know about this condition, so we can do something about it!
   Wishing you a most successful and bountiful gardening season!
    Ed Hume
    Ed Hume Seeds, Inc.        

So....I will continue to be a customer, as I have for many years.  Mistakes are made, but good customer service can make up for them.

Deadheading

A job I dislike doing, mainly because it means the end of a period of beautiful blossoms, is deadheading.  But deadhead I must if I want a pretty garden and bountiful blossoms next year.  

 The spent lilacs were removed as far up as I could reach without dragging out the ladder, and the chives were all cut back.  All that remains in this bed are volunteer alyssum, which are much prettier in person than they are in this photo.

 All of the dead flower heads were removed from the rhodies.  The big, healthy looking rhody had 80 blossom heads, the sickly looking smaller one had 79.  Yes, I counted as I cut them, it makes the job more interesting LOL!  Both of these get the same treatment, but the foliage on the one on the right never looks healthy.  The flowers, however, are always abundant and beautiful.

 Oh, how I hated to cut back the yellow lilies!  They are always such a welcome spot in the garden, and the aroma is heavenly.  but the blossoms had mostly faded, so off they came.  

There were a lot of blossoms on those plants!  A heaping wheelbarrow full!

 I did salvage a beautiful bouquet for the kitchen.

And another for the piano.  Now my entire house smells lovely!