Radishes, Lettuce, & Carrots

I planted three rows of seeds today in the space between the garlic and the green onions. Closest to the garlic, is a row of radishes; then a row of lettuce; and in the front, a row of carrots. The seeds are left-overs from last year, so we’ll see what grows.

All of the tomato plants have a few small, green tomatoes starting, but the plants in the garden are making me nervous. One day they look fine, the next they’re wilted, and then they look fine again. I’m almost certain the problem is in the soil. But is it bacterial wilt or lack of nutrients???





Over on the berry side, we removed the raspberry trellis from the middle of the garden. The purple raspberry plants show no sign of improvement; they’ll be coming out before long to make room for more strawberries. The red raspberries in the back continue to thrive. To accommodate the growth, I moved the back support wire of the top arm of the trellis to its widest position.

Flower Pictures

Pictures of all things flowering right now in our yard, after the break!

Mid-June Update

It's been a week and a half since my last post and a lot has happened in the garden...

Late last week, I harvested just enough cilantro to try a new salsa recipe. I've never made a salsa with canned tomatoes before, but I thought I would give it a try since it looked like a salsa Mr. Scoakat would enjoy (and he did). In addition to the cilantro, I used a garlic clove harvested last fall (dried and hung in the basement over winter, then frozen), and instead of the jalapeno the recipe calls for, I used a lemon pepper harvested last fall (then frozen). The salsa turned out great and we enjoyed some of it with friends who came over Friday night.

In other news, I had planned to plant cucumbers this year but I've decided against it. Last year, the cucumbers and the tomatoes were afflicted with bacterial wilt, which is usually caused by cucumber beetles, though I've never seen one in the garden. After deciding against cucumbers, I was considering planting green beans but on Monday I noticed signs of bacterial wilt on the peas! So, I harvested all the mature peas, pulled out the plants, and removed the trellis.

I think I'll pick up some new lettuce seeds, and plant some carrots and a second crop of radishes in the space between the garlic and the green onions. I'm thinking about getting a couple new basil plants too, since the original plants still haven't recovered from the unusually cold temperatures we had a few days after I planted them in the garden.

On Wednesday, I harvested the rest of the cilantro before it could bolt. There was a lot of it, so I had Mr. Scoakat contact a friend who enjoys cooking to see if he's like some. He said yes so we met him at a local watering hole last night; we had a few beers and gave him some cilantro (and some thyme - also harvested Wednesday).














The tomato plants are still doing well. The plant in the bucket continues to do even better than those in the garden. I pinched suckers off two of the plants again, but I think we're past the point where suckers are a real threat.

We've enjoyed a few more strawberries. And it's looking like we'll enjoy even more next year. The purple raspberries are not doing so good; if they don't improve significantly by the end of summer, I'll take them out and plant more strawberries.

That's it for now. But since it's now officially the weekend, there will be more gardening to do, and more to post soon.

Garlic Scape Pesto! Tomatoes, More Strawberries... More Weeds

I've grown a hardneck variety of garlic the last few years. In previous years, I've cut the scapes off and thrown them in our compost bin. This year, I decided to find a recipe to use the scapes. The recipe I found, garlic scape pesto, is so good. If you like pesto and you really like garlic, you should try this! I opted to use half basil and half garlic scapes, and only used lemon juice, no rind.



The tomato plant in the bucket seems to be doing better than the two in the garden. This might be worth paying attention to. Buckets are ugly, but I'll put up with ugly if it means a good tomato crop!






Not much else to report on. We're still getting a few strawberries here and there. And I spent another hour pulling weeds! I'm beginning to think they might be my most successful crop this year...

Tomato Cages, Raspberry Adjustment, and the First Strawberry

It was time to get the tomato plants caged up for the season. I’m growing grafted tomatoes this year, so before I could cage them, I had to pinch off suckers growing from grafting scars to prevent the scions from rooting.

 

 

The raspberries in the back continue to spread, as do the weeds growing amongst them. After a lot of weeding, we moved the back support wire on the bottom cross arm of the trellis to its widest position. Eventually, we will need to move the back support wire on the top arm too.

 

And, as promised, Mr. Scoakat enjoyed the first ripe strawberry of the year!  It looks like we’ll have several more ripe berries by the end of the week, and the runners on the new plants have already rooted so we should have many more plants by the end of the summer.