Vegetable Gardening

[OakLeaf]

You can always shred it and freeze it for some zucchini muffins in the fall, when (1) zucchini seems more appealing and (2) turning on the oven seems way more appealing.

[tulip]

Oh, and a marble-sized watermelon!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Oh, and a marble-sized watermelon!

[GLC1968]

Oh, and a marble-sized watermelon!

That reminds me...today I saw a canteloupe in our garden about the size of a raquet ball. I'm so excited! I've never had much luck with melons before so I hope this one makes it to maturity.

[tulip]

Hey Lisa, I take what I can get

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Hey Lisa, I take what I can get

Don't we all.

My old tiny garden continues to churn out MASSIVE amounts of lettuce- both red and green leaf lettuce and wonderful romaine. (Thanks again Tulip, for urging me to jam more plantings in there). We're eating big salads every day and I'm giving lots of lettuce to friends as well. I get occasional radishes, and plenty of Swiss chard. Tomatoes are still green, scallions and string beans are growing quite well.

As for the new big garden- the fence is supposed to *finally* be installed (3 1/2 l-o-n-g weeks after putting in the garden) during this weekend and hopefully will be finished by Monday afternoon. I'm so hepped about it!
Meanwhile, I did sow lots of seed 2 weeks ago, most of which are all little 2" high green rows now- so cute! I'm very lucky no rabbits or deer have discovered them. Hopefully they'll survive another two nights until the fence is up. After the fence is up we can finally finish mulching up the paths and perimeter, and I'll no longer be walking in trenches around the beds.

This morning I did the second large succession sowing (2 weeks after the first). It included additional small sowings of radish, spinach, bokchoy, various lettuces, kohlrabi, turnips,chard, carrots, cilantro, bunching onions and scallions, and beets.
A third and fourth sowing in August will include only more cool-tolerant fast growing Fall crops like spinach, radish, turnips, beets, and lettuce.

This afternoon we go play music at our town's farmer's market, and eat Magdalena's wonderful fresh made Mexican burritos for dinner there at the market. It's now our Friday tradition. We play the music voluntarily, but we do get to take home a few fresh organic veggies as a thank you from one of the vendors.

[OakLeaf]

I'd love to plant some seeds for fall, but without rain, there's just no way.

I'm so afraid that this is just how our climate is, now. Last year was much the same.

We might get a few drops today - although once again, as the day goes on it looks less and less likely. Anything's better than nothing for what I already have in the ground, but there's no establishing new seedlings.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'd love to plant some seeds for fall, but without rain, there's just no way.

I'm so afraid that this is just how our climate is, now. Last year was much the same.

We might get a few drops today - although once again, as the day goes on it looks less and less likely. Anything's better than nothing for what I already have in the ground, but there's no establishing new seedlings.

How sad! What state are you in again?...
here in NY we have had a very very WET summer.

Perhaps you could start a bunch of different seedlings in one small section of ground, like a 'nursery bed', and keep that small area watered until the seedlings are a 2-3 inches tall, then transplant them out in their regular beds?

[GLC1968]

Oakleaf - we have a similiar problem. While it rains most of the year here, it does NOT rain at all (hardly a drop) in July and August.

Luckily, we've got enough ground water saved up that our cistern is still quite full. We are being VERY sparing with that water this year because last year, we exhausted it in early August. This year, we hope to stretch it until the rain comes back. We did have a little rain last Sunday, so at least our rain barrels are full again.

I haven't planted anything for fall yet except for the squash and carrots already in the ground. I'm still debating about how much I want to do in the fall since we've just been so overwhelmed already and fall is a big fruit harvest season for us (apples, grapes and pears). I guess I could throw in some spinach and some new broccoli - that stuff doesn't require much work. Eh, we'll see.

Our garden is kind of taking over - I'll have to take more photos this weekend! I've never in my life had zucchini plants as big as the ones we have this year!

[smilingcat]

hmm sounds like GLC will be having my kind of diet.

yesterday: zucchini
today: zucchini
tomorrow: zucchini.

Isn't i amazin how a pencil thin short baby zucchini can end up to be a huge club by the end of the day.

Last night it was back to zucchini with squash in marinara sauce. And we had our first acorn squash aka queen's squash. Acorn squah was unplanned vegi for us. It had sprouted from a compost pile somehow. so we transplanted and wondered what it would turn into. Voila, we got acorn squash.

[Blueberry]

Keep an eye out for the tomato blight this year:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/ny...matoes.html?hp

So far, we've had great luck. Cukes will be in today or tomorrow, already zucchini and yellow squash, baby watermelon, baby pumpkin, (getting too big) radishes, etc.

CA

[GLC1968]

Acorn squah was unplanned vegi for us. It had sprouted from a compost pile somehow. so we transplanted and wondered what it would turn into. Voila, we got acorn squash.

We have the same thing, but we don't yet know what our compost plant will be. It's definitely of the squash/melon family. I'm guessing canteloupe, but it could be acorn...or pumpkin...or spaghetti... Luckily, I don't think it's *another* zucchini!

[OakLeaf]

Wow, that's very unusual. Squash is promiscuous - it'll cross-pollinate with any other squash in the neighborhood, plus grocery store squash is invariably hybrid. So the chance of getting a recognizable volunteer squash is very, very slim. Congrats!

And, we had an unexpected 3/4" of rain this afternoon. With luck, this will break the cycle of hot and dry that makes the big storms dissipate before they get here - <fingers crossed>

I messed up yesterday and didn't pick a 4" zucchini and a 6" zucchini. One good thing about the drought is that they only doubled in size overnight. They're safely in the fridge now.

And, DH is home, trimmin' green beans as I type.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I messed up yesterday and didn't pick a 4" zucchini and a 6" zucchini. One good thing about the drought is that they only doubled in size overnight. They're safely in the fridge now.

Too funny!
I'm glad you got a nice little rainfall.

We are having yet MORE thunderstorms today, and more coming tonight. This has been the rainiest 6 weeks that I can ever remember in my life.
Oddly, the gardens have been doing ok, if slowed down a bit due to much fewer sunny days.

At the farmer's market today I bought some more stuff for growing sprouts-
another sieve-topped jar, and some mung beans and 'salad mix' sprouting seed. Cool that it's all so cheap! I had also gotten a hemp sprouting bag, which is good for sprouting the larger beans and peas that don't need light for sprouting- like the mung beans i just bought.
So i already ate my broccoli sprouts from last week, I have a half-grown batch of alfalfa sprouts growing in a jar, some experimental flax, and am about to start some mung beans after soaking, in the hemp bag and will start some 'salad mix' seeds in my other new jar.

I feel like I'm back in the 70's for some reason.

[GLC1968]

Ah, sprouts! I haven't done any yet, but I really want to. I just haven't had time to do the research and get started.

I have this page bookmarked for when I do though. I've heard it's chock full of helpful info:

http://www.sproutpeople.com/