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| 2012 Tomato crop - good year |
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| Great yellow Zinnia - Profusion Yellow - well named |
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| We are waiting on this beauty. |
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| Pop-sorghum will make a good crop. |
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| Horned Jelly Melon. |
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| Black Figs on this tree are excellent. |
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| Peppers in the Earthboxes are good this year too. |
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| Our own Kaboch squash - a new crop for us. |
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| One of the lakes in Canada that I fished. |
I have been on the road- out of the country - and just not around - for some time so the garden has had to fend for itself; and it has.
We have had loads of great tomatoes this year. The salad varieties have been in a bowl on the kitchen counter for weeks and I even took enough with me to Canada fishing to last the whole week. The "Tomatoberry" and the "Sweet Treat" are winners along with "Sugary" of course. the "Red Peach" and the "Yellow Peach" just as good as always - but way too tender to even travel in a gift bag so they are eat right from the vine.
The beans are done and so are the cucumbers. The one reluctant pole bean finally is starting to produce and the pods have little flavor and mostly they look and taste like soy beans so raw they are not the best. I am glad the seeds man already sent me a credit for them as they were a poor crop and will just be compost material.
The cantaloupes have been good and the jelly melon vines took over everything they grew on, but this year they have made fruits and I am waiting for them to get ripe - who knows when that will be. We had our first watermelon and there are three more in the garden - it is difficult to let them alone because they are soo good and we really have eaten many store bought watermelons this season.
The "pop-sorghum" is maturing nicely and its seems to be bird safe so far, but it is not ripe yet either. Later in the season we will see what happens.
Both the fig trees are finally producing and fresh tree ripened figs are so so good. Everyone should have a potted tree.
We are into the apple harvest and noticeably the size is not there this season and I will have to blame the hot June and July that was rainless when they were growing. However, we did not suffer from a killing spring frost that some orchards had this year and that means they have sadly no fruit.
Cucumbers, peppers, melons, beans, tomatoes, garlic, apples, and squash - nice harvest so far this season. I would also note that my most favorite veggie this year again was the red stemmed dandelion greens (really an endive) - they have been wonderful - bitter and edible all season - another experiment that one should try if you like greens.
Happy Gardening
We too have had mixed results with beans. Our pole beans, planted after we took the garlic out have been producing about 3-4#'s per week from our 36 sqft raised bed. The volume is there, but I am disappointed in the flavor.
ReplyDeleteLong Island Improved brussel sprouts are coming fast. Some of the plants are coming up on 5' tall. Time will how well they yield.
Good to have you back. I am jealous of your Canada trip.
Bill,
DeleteDon't be jealous, I turned my new kayak over in Canada and it was quite an adventure swimming to shore and retrieving all my equipment - which luckily was tied in. The beans that are finally coming on the late vines are a poor tasting variety - no where close to a Romano or even a long pole bean - I don't even want to have them mature so I cut the vines off at the ground the other day - compost bin bound.
Happy Gardening
would you like to trade a few fig cuttings?
ReplyDeleteHi Daniel,
DeleteBoth of the figs are common varieties available at several mail order nurseries. I would think that we would have to work with dormant wood or tip growth and sending it (where) might be an adventure. I wanted to clone my other tree - but don't have the equipment or skill and might be able to do it at a tech college class. Chicago Brown Turkey is pretty common in most catalogs and the other black on is called Negroni ( I think) it is not happy when forced to go dormant so if you live in a warmer zone where that variety could grow outside it would be much happier.
Happy Gardening
Thanks for getting back with me. You should try to clone your tree next year. it's not hard to root fig cuttings all you need is a pot a 2 litter bottle and some dirt. stick the cutting in the pot filled with a good potting soil right side up with the leaves removed if it's not a dormant cuttings taken in winter. then cut the bottom off the plastic 2 or 3 liter bottle and place the top of the bottle over the cutting. sit the plant in a shady spot and when the leaves pop out loosen the cap and leave it sitting on the bottle loosely. in about another week remove the lid all together. then in about 2 weeks remove the bottle and introduce the plant slowly to full sun. bada bing bada boom you got another fig tree. I enjoy rooting fig cuttings and you will too once you see how easy it is doing it this way. If you ever do decide to trade a few cuttings let me know I have some varieties not offered at nurseries and don't have a negronne fig tree and will walk you through the best way of mailing them, it's easier then you might think. dormant wood ships good but so does softwood if the leaves are removed and it only cost 2.79 to ship about seven or eight 6 inch cuttings cuttings vs $25 per plant and you'll probably get 6 out of seven to root. I'm just all about building my garden the cheapest way possible and helping others build there's along the way. I also have a ton of different garden seeds from A-Z if you want to trade cuttings for seeds I have about 60 different labeled varieties in little zip lock bags. I have a list of what I have if you're interested let me know and I'll post the list.
ReplyDelete