This time of year is special when you have the gardens like I do. Dave has done a tremendous job cleaning up the permanent garden and beating back the damn morning glories. We can actually see the kiwi vines! They are about 4-5’ tall now and we might get some kiwi berries next year which would be great! And a living privacy wall. Gotta love a double duty plant!
The permanent garden is going strong, especially the strawberries and grapes. We get a cup+ of strawberries every day and they are so delicious! Some of the tomatoes are starting to set and I’ve had to trim a lot of lower leaf branches. The pear tomatoes are cute little green “pears,” one San Marzano has sets and the two chocolate cherry tomato plants also have sets but are very short. I fertilized them lightly yesterday so hopefully that helps. They’re in good soil but in a hole that is in iffy soil so maybe fertilizer is what is needed. The two tiny San Marzanos are growing and getting thicker but are still only 6” tall or so. The raspberries are growing new vines as are the boysenberries, and one of the blackberry plants has green berries on it! The huckleberries are hanging in there and slowly growing while the blueberries are shooting up in height. Looking great for next year! We have a lot of hope from this garden for next year when everything is three years old.
The herbs are growing fast now too. I am feeding basil and oregano a couple times a week to the chickens to keep it small enough and getting bushy not tall. Certainly enough basil for pesto now, especially since there is one big plant and two little plants! The oregano also has a medium sized plant and a small plant. Hopefully the thyme and rosemary will continue to grow and they should enjoy this heat! The parsley has one tiny plant struggling to stay alive, the cilantro bolted (but I let it go to seed so maybe we can get more a bit later), but the marigolds and zinnia are growing there. Oh well.
Then there are the bins. I am trimming some kind of squash leaves daily as they explode into each other even with the half spacing compared to last year. The Lakota are not doing as well as last year but there are three decent sized fruits set and the vines are growing. Just not as insanely as last year. Probably better overall! We get multiple yellow squash daily, and zucchini most days. The patty pans are also struggling but we’ve gotten six so far and several more are set. They just don’t have a lot of leaves. The Delicata squash have a lot of sets and some even starting to color. Those plants are doing well with the trellis. The butternut squash have only four set but their vines have recently taken off. They are also doing well on the trellis.
The melons are also doing well. We have several honeydews set and the watermelons are taking over the peppers area in their bin. And many watermelon sets so we are hoping for a much better harvest this year compared to last! And the pickling cucumbers are going crazy. Matt and Jenny say they taste good peeled and eaten fresh, and Matt has made many jars of pickles so far. They are growing up a trellis also and just going up and over the top. The green beans are also cresting the top of the trellis and going down the other side. I planted a lot of beans because they are what I like so there are plants on each side of the trellis. They are finally setting and I am very excited to harvest them. Maybe tomorrow or the next day will be a bean harvest day. I’ve been a little disappointed with the carrots- they are growing well but should be ready to harvest. They are still pretty small diameter so I am waiting. Both the finger length and standard length ones. Hmm…
And then there are the peppers and tomatillos. I finally bought pepper plants even though my seeds sprouted and are finally 5 or 6” tall. So slow! So now we have purple and red bell peppers sets, habenaro, jalapeños, Serranos, cayenne and a couple Poblano plants. The tomatillos are finally looking like they will make it which is good since no one is selling the plants anymore. I got some nice pepper plants from Eternal Iron (Nathan) at the Wilton Farmers market and so far they look good. I got a couple jalapeño plants from Green Acres. One is called Macho Nacho and it has some peppers setting already. So hopefully this works!
I do enjoy working in the garden and listening to the birds every morning. And the greenery is just a mellowing kind of color. Jenny has beautiful sunflowers in the front and Dave’s flower bin has started to sprout in the back. It is a soothing start and end to the day. I am very thankful we have water as these days move to over 100F and it is fun to see the plants respond. I’ll report back in a week or so. Im sure it is going to change!
