Rain!

After about 2 weeks of no rain and intense heat we finally had a storm, a nice long one.  Everything has been watered thoroughly.

Last night I was also able to harvest more vegetables.  Beans bush and pole, zucchini, a few peas and the first cucumbers of the year.  Both bean varieties are doing very well, but the pole beans have an almost faded color that doesn’t make them look very appealing.  I haven't had a chance to eat any of them yet though.

The zucchini plants have been doing terrific but were planted too close together.  That is something I always seem to do is plant things too close together.  I also have beans peas and carrots that are all touching and will have to definitely plan out my spacing much better next year.

Kale

Big harvest today!!!

I finally managed to harvest most of the kale.  I harvested everything that I was not going to be able to eat and froze it.  I just blanched it for 2 min, ice water 2 min and then into the freezer in zip lock bags.

I didn’t realize kale would get quite that big, and seeing as I don’t eat it on a daily basis I have also been giving some of it away to a co-worker who eats it.

That is all of the shallots in the middle and potoatoes on the right and bottom

I also harvested all of my shallots, some garlic and a couple potatoes plants.  The shallots looked pretty good although they were a little small.  The garlic was also pretty small, it was spring planted garlic and in a shadier spot.  All future garlic will be planted in full fun in the fall around mid-September.  The potatoes had one hill with nothing but disease and the other had only 3-4 potatoes.  These were the blue ones (maybe Macintosh) I planted.  Also from the bottom bed that does get significantly more shade.

You can see the potatoe scab on the potatoes aspecially the one on the left.

Beans

The first beans were picked last night!  I probably should have gotten them a couple days previously but there weren’t any that were overly large.   I have been very busy lately and have been neglecting the blog a little.  There are a bunch of pictures that need to go up that I just haven't gotten around to yet….

The garden is doing very well though, the peas need to be picked every other day and I have been freezing them because og the mass quantities, there are a bunch of zucchini that will be ready at the end of this week as well as more beans.

The spinach has not enjoyed the heat wave and it needs to be pulled, I will try to salvage what I can but its time is past.  The strawberry spinich that was planted never germinated.  It is something I will try again next year though with the remaining seeds.  I also really need to get the kale out of the garden  and freeze it.  I might try this coming Saturday morning to make sure it is not dried out when I do pick it.

Field Sprouted!

Yesterday I went to the field to see how everything was progressing.  Everything has started to sprout!  The watermelon is looking much better, all of the gourds are up now and the cucumbers have started to expand.  The carrots and potatoes are just poking through about 15% of the total but in the next week I expect them to all come up.

We have had some rain but because it has been spotty, the field hasn’t had any since I planted it almost 2 weeks ago…  We have been watering it (me and my aunt/cousins) and it has been doing wonders for it. 

My own garden is doing very well, I picked a ton of snow peas on Monday and will have to go pick more today, they are not a forgiving vegetable if you let them go that extra day.

I also plan on trying to take all of the kale off tomorrow but that will depend on a few factors.  We are supposed to get more extreme hot weather and don’t want it to degrade anymore in quality.

 

The bok choy is done, the last few plant went to seed and the earwigs infested them and pretty much ate them.  At least they ate all the good parts that hadn’t gone to seed.

Peas!

On Thursday I picked the first peas of the season!  I also picked the first zucchini. The snow peas look great and taste even better.  Plenty more still on the vine as well as more flowering.  The Mammoth Melting plants have reached 6’ and are still going strong.  I will defiantly be planting these again but next time I am defiantly going to give the peas more room between rows.  There are only 3’ between them and that was defiantly not enough.  The peas and beans are both trying to grow toward each other.

 

The field is looking good.  It was planted 8 days ago and it hasn’t rained on it yet.  It has been watered every couple days though and the soil is a heavier clay so it moisture retentive.  So far the pumpkins have sprouted, some of the lettuce is up and a couple watermelon seeds have sprouted.  I expect the gourds to be up when I check on it Monday night and hopefully by the end of next week the carrots and the potatoes.

The Field

The field has finally been planted!!

Yesterday my cousin spent 6 hours disking and harrowing the field, as well he also added some manure to it.  After I found I spent a hour last night cutting up all of the seed potatoes that have been sitting in the basement for the last 3 months.  Some of them were already growing mini potatoes in the bag….

Today I went over and spent roughly 5-6 hours planting it all up!  There is one variety of zucchini, watermelon and lettuce, 2 kinds of cucumbers and tomatoes, 3 kinds of pumpkins, 4 kinds of potatoes and 5 kinds of carrots.  

I'm not exactly sure how long the rows are but I will take a tape measure with me next time to verify.  I’m going to estimate approximately 50 feet.  I ended up with 5 rows of potatoes, 1 row of tomatoes, 6 rows of carrots, a half row of cucumbers and zucchini plants, a half row a pumpkins and then a few small hills of watermelon for my other cousin and short row of lettuce.

I will have to put up pictures, accurate measurements and the list of vegetable varieties I planted.

these are the blue potatoes i planted,  i think the top picture is black Macintosh or river john blue, and the next 2 look like rusian blue.  This teaches me not to put the pictures up a month late and then i might remember