End Of July, More Bounty

Last night Kate thinned out the carrots some more.  In the Spring the seeds got all moved around due to wet weather and were growing very close together.  She also picked the lettuce. 

So everything is going well now in the west garden.  Some grape tomatoes are starting to turn red, jalapenos are sprouting all over the plant, and we've already had a few big sweet peppers.  I found out the cucumber plant is a white cucumber plant so I would be waiting quite a while for them to turn green.  We've brought the biggest one in already that either fell off or was removed by a squirrel.  Well, it was just a free packet of seeds we received.

There is nothing new to report about the strawberry bed other than some of the older plants seem to be being replaced with new growth.  That's probably all that will happen until we trim it this fall so I may not show it in all future updates.

And below is just a side view of the east garden.  Can you believe it it going to be August already tomorrow?

All pics are from this morning except the top one with the carrots.

Garlic!

Kate harvested the garlic last night.  Like last year, the bulbs are in nice shape yet small.  This fall she is going to plant the garlic for next spring, so maybe that will make a difference.  Maybe then we can replant and get two crops of it next year, too.  The only other change in the garden is the small thyme plant that was getting lost in the middle has been replanted in the lower corner where the radishes were earlier.  The tomatoe plants are still wilty and the cucumber leaves have been looking like damp rags a lot lately.  We have been watering them in the evenings and now we have rain much of today and some tomorrow so hopefully everything pulls through well.

Growth of July

  The west garden has evolved a bit since the last post.  About a week ago Kate picked the last of the peas and pulled the plants along the top.  The small trellis I made to contain them remains, however, as the cucumber plants have grown up, over and through it.  Also, she picked the radishes in the lower right corner.  This was the second try for radishes and like last time they failed to bulb up underground even as the tops were huge and going to seed.  Oh well, I don't really like radishes anyway.  More on this garden with the side view pic below.

  In the east garden the strawberrys are done for the season and the plants look like they have seen better days.  I'm not exactly sure, but I think we should pretty much leave it be until fall when we can cut down the plants and cover it with hay again.

Here I can point out more things with the side view.  Starting at left, the carrots (top left in this pic) are growing well.  Below that the lettuce is ready to eat.  We have already eaten some in salads and I'm sure we'll have more soon.  Next, the Jalepenos and sweet peppers are growing very well.  There are many small peppers started and even a few that need to be picked very soon.  Then there's the garlic.  It layed down last year too and it made me nervous enough that Kate finally picked it.  She assures me that the bulbs are still growing so I will believe her.  The huge tomato plants have been looking sickly lately, withering up in the heat of the past week, but hopefully with water and more reasonable temperatures they will bounce back.  In front of those are the two basil plants, a large leaf one and a small leaf one.  Then  there are the cucumbers, one up top to the right of the tomatoes that's hard to see in this pic, and the monster long one growing down the length of the garden.  It is a lot of stuff in a small area but we seem to be making it work! 

Monster Cucumber Plant

I took pictures two days ago but didn't post them so I went out this morning for an updated pic to post today.  The last post was 9 days ago and you can see the growth!  There are now small peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers starting to grow.  The cucumber next to the path has become a monster, growing up the small trellis into the peas and down the side of the garden.  I'm posting the garden side view below so it is easier to compare to the last post.  Pics from 2 days ago, including the strawberry bed, are after the break.

Full Garden Rundown

The west garden is so full of growing bounty that you can't see it all the way I usually photograph it.  So in the interest of our documentation of the garden I chose to shoot it in sections from the side, standing in between the beds.  Let's see how this works out...

Starting at the top of the garden, on the right here, the peas have become quite the tangled plants.  They just keep growing and need a bigger trellis to climb.  We may add about a 4-5 foot trellis up the garage side next year, see if that helps.  Next to the tiny trellis I put in earlier, the cucumber plants that Kate started from seed inside have started to take off.  This is one of our biggest space concerns.

Moving left, further down the garden we have a rough row of cherry tomatoes at the top, regular tomatoes in the middle, and a small basil plant that we may have to move or put in a pot due to the encroaching cucumbers.  To the left of that is another rough row of sage, a tiny but healthy thyme plant and a larger leaf basil than the smaller one next to it.  Further down are 2 rows of garlic (still not enough :)).

Just this side of the good looking garlic are hot and sweet pepper plants, the one lower in the pic, the sweet, was laying a bit the other day so is now staked.  Then at the bottom of the garden, in thirds, are carrots up top, then lettuce and finally the radishes.  The squirrels dug up part of a row where you see the bare spot.  We might move the basil there later, we'll see.

And finally, the calendar has turned to July and the June-bearing strawberry plants must have known as they have finished giving up their delightful berries.  In all, we got around 7 quarts of berries this Spring.  It doesn't seem like a lot, certainly not too much, but it's kind of sad that they're done now until next Spring.

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