Compost

I unloaded the tumbler this morning, just 2 weeks after I filled it. Hot summer days work wonders. I reloaded with whatever had built up in the wooden bin on the side, but it wasn't much. I chopped up some weeds, and pulled the shell pea vines, and here's what the fresh load looks like. I wonder how long this one will take?

Squash update

I have a MAJOR cucumber beetle problem. They are on every squash I have (canteloupe, green and lemon cucumbers, zucchini, kabocha, spaghetti, and red kuri.) I have a couple plants' stems wrapped in nylons. I have a couple plants protected underneath by a sheet of aluminum foil. I suspect these protection devices are a complete joke, but we'll see. I pick and kill them in the morning and at night, but there's just no way I've got them all.

Despite the dry heat we've been having (temperatures breaking 100 degrees) they all look good except the red kuri. It gets a blast of late day sun, so maybe that's why it's doing worse than the others. Fruit is setting on the red kuri, kabocha, zucchini, and spaghetti squashes so far.

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OK - Correction - cucumber beetles do not lay the eggs that turn into the squash vine borer. That's a different bug - a red moth. My friend Karl did a ton of exhaustive research on squash pests and as soon as he posts it I'll add a link. I have so many squash vine borers at this point it'll be a miracle if I get any. I've found them in all the varieties I've planted.

I'm going to try another round of zucchini plantings. Who ever struggles to get zucchini out of a garden?

Red Norland potato harvest

The "All Blue" and "Yukon Gold" are still green and vibrant, but the "Red Norland" were yellowing and browning. I dug the row this morning, and I can't promise this is all of them, but if it is we got 4 big ones, 10 fist sized, and 8 little ones. This is a RoI of 7 ( I planted 3 and ended up with 24.)

Here's the post back when I planted these: http://henfieldhomestead.blogspot.com/2011/04/potato-planting-time.html

I had intended to plant beans in between the rows, but the potato beetles were already here (June 11) when I planted the beans (June 18th), so if they repelled them I'd be surprised. Fortunately, I really didn't have any problem with the potato beetles (unlike friends across town that got inundated). And, the potato stalks fell over in a strong rainstorm and suppressed the newly emerged bean stalks. So I wouldn't say that approach was worth much.

First zucchini!

The onion crop

4 sq feet each, planted from sets.

Harvest.

Ames was up early this morning and rather than fight him back to sleep I figured we'd hit the garden before the sun did.

We started with the last of the garlic harvest. 25 heads. These are bigger than the others. It's a variety I've grown for a few years, but I don't remember the name.

Then we moved on to the onions. The leaves had fallen over but were still green. They might have grown longer, but I was worried the bulbs might not keep due to leaf damage from falling over. Also, we are in a major dry spell, which is a good time to harvest onions. I need to water the crops next to the onions, but didn't want to get the onions wet. Anyway, we had 36 yellow and 21 red onions of respectable size. These were growing with less competition than the other patch and were much bigger.

We also pulled the last of the carrots, which were splitting. Next year I need to plant carrots in succession.

And then there were the first string beans and potatoes. Awesome!

First Red Norland potatoes!

First string beans!

A tomato

In three weeks we'll be out of ways to eat it. But right now - wow.

Garlic, beets and carrots

For some reason, maybe depression-era food hoarding instinct, I sometimes have a hard time harvesting, thinking if I wait there will be more food there. But I conquered that today, deciding that two varieties of garlic (svelisi polish red and German red) had enough brown leaves, and one row of carrots could be replaced by some new production, not sure what yet. The beets are still coming out as they reach size, at the perfect pace for our dinners.

Cucumber Beetles

They were here yesterday, if not before. I found more this morning. Time to implement all manor of stem protection against the worms. Please comment if you have any opinions on the matter.

Cut flower bed

Finally, it doesn't look like an unweeded swath.

July 9th

The first raspberry crop is in full swing. I get at least half a yogurt tub every other day. Ames loves that he can just walk up to the canes and grab a red one and eat it.

The cover crop has started to flower. I definitely think I could start cutting it and using it as mulch in the rest of the beds, but I haven't found time to do that yet.

The squashes and cukes are all doing well except a runt acorn squash that is barely hanging in there. The spaghetti squash is the clear leader so far. We are racing to get supports up to train them up the fence. It'll be my first attempt at that approach, but it does save so much space...

There were 4 plots of onions, 2 red, 2 yellow. I let kale grow up between onions in one of the sets of plots, and those onions were MUCH smaller than the plots without competition.

Of the three tomatillo plants, only one is actually fruiting, though all three are flowering. And the one that is fruiting is the smallest of them all. Weird.

Basil is starting to kick into gear.

Carrot harvests have been a wonderful surprise. I wish I'd planted more. They were planted between the tomatoes and basil, assuming that both would require more space later in the season. I think this plan was a pretty good one. The carrots haven't been crowded yet, and by the time they are out I think their real estate will be squeezed.

Beets too are coming out. They are perfect. Also wish there were more of them. It might be possible to put a couple rows of beans in when the beets and next-door onions are out in a week or two.

The sugar snap peas need more climbing room desperately. They are starting to flower.

Garlic is starting to brown in the leaves, but the heads are still rather small. I've grown bigger heads in the past, and am not sure what happened this year. Maybe a lack of water? Maybe the bed is worn out for onions? This is also the place the onion plots did poorly.

The Amish paste tomatoes will be the first to ripen. One (not pictured) is already blushing orange.

Here the garden from the west end. You can't see the cut flower bed in this picture very well.

But here's a sample of the blooms coming out of that Victory seeds mix.

Garlic and onions.

The garlic isn't really ready yet, but I needed some and I was curious. These red onions are among the biggest out there. They are all going in with beets and carrots for roasting.

Carrots

Onions, carrots, and beets are coming out now. I wish I had planted more of all of them.

Beets and peas

Well, the first week of July is a great time for growing. Weeds too. Here's part of today's harvest.