Sowed the fall peas

Sowed the fall peas today.  No idea if it will work or not, but worth a try!  Sugar snap peas are one of the best, if not *the* best, garden crop IMHO!

Started them inside, in peat pots, same as the last round.  This time I tried some in a cheaper pot, just as deep but not segmented.

Cabbage woe

Alas!  I'd been thinking I should really harvest that one gorgeous cabbage head.  And then this morning after a day of solid rain, what did I find but it suddenly split right open!  A deep crevice, and with a bonus little green worm easily visibly within.  I decided Scooter would enjoy this one more than I would.

Cucumber harvest has begun... but measly so far

Finally harvested the first cucumber today.  There appears to be one more which should be ready within a week or so.  There have been lots of male and female flowers, but not many takers.  Tried handpollinating at first several weeks ago, but for some reason couldn't get any pollen from the males.  Oh well, we'll see how it goes.

Brussels sprout -- first harvest!

Harvested 10 or so smallish Brussels sprouts.  Roasted them with oil, salt, and pepper.  Quite edible, actually.

However, the plant I harvested them from was so incredibly huge, that I decided to pull it after this harvest.  (Needed to make room for other stuff.)

Some of the other Brussels sprout plants are looking fairly promising, others not so much.

Changing of the guard -- a mid-season swap out

Today, I pulled:
- 2 cabbages (1 was horribly full of slug holes, the other was just not heading up at all, maybe due to being under the roof overhang although last year's cabbages loved it there)
- 2 Brussels sprouts (1 was just wayyyyyy too huge so I pulled it after harvesting what I could; the other just wasn't looking very promising)
- 2 or 3 celery (these ones didn't have any nice mature stalks)

And I planted these, bought from Canadian Tire, which although teeny, actually look nice and non-leggy:
- 3 or 4 itty bitty broccoli
- 3 or 4 itty bitty cauliflower
- 3 or 4 itty bitty cabbages

Peas almost all done

Pulled out 2/3 of the pea plants today, as their harvest had stopped and the vines were drying out.  The other 1/3 still have a few flowers/peas so I'll leave them a bit longer.

It was a pretty good pea harvest this year, after all that early season drama!  It's a mystery to me how I ended up with three types of peas when I thought they would all be sugar snaps.  Ended up with some snow peas, as well as some non-edible pod ones.

Soon will start a new batch indoors, in the hopes of a fall harvest!

Carrot harvest -- disappointing flavour!

Have harvested a handful of carrots so far.  All of them have been... pretty blah.  In fact, almost even bleh, not suitable for eating raw.  Bitter, and a bit woody.  Probably ok for hiding in muffins or whatnot although I haven't tried that yet.  Scooter has enjoyed that as much as ever, and Lucy likes them too, but me, not so much.

Past years they've been delectable -- so sweet, juicy, crispy.

Oh well!

The carrot seeds I broadcasted a few weeks ago are coming along, looking good, though of course still very small.  They were MUCHHHHHHH easier to thin this way, compared to the thickly sown rows I had done with the spring plantings.  Maybe this batch will taste better!

Zucchini update

The crazy huge, multi-directional, world's biggest zucchini plant next to the air conditioner, has produced quite a few male and female flowers over the past few weeks.  Some of the fruit appears to have taken (hand pollinating new females as they come up), but geez are they ever slow to grow; none harvested yet.

The normal sized plant next to the compost bin is doing well, has produced 3 or 4 nice zucchinis so far.  Today however, I had to pull one whose end had softened -- hope it's not a sign of squash vine borer already -- noooooooooo!!!!

The one in the pot as an experiment -- well, good thing it was just an experiment.  It's puny, and has produced only a few males, no females other than maybe a few which self-aborted at the tiniest size.  The few males  have come in handy on occasion for some females on the other plants.

The good type of pea flop

A great pea harvest this year!  The plants had gotten so tall, 2-3 feet over the top of the support, and loaded with ripening pods, that they finally flopped over a few days ago.  Good thing, as I was wondering how I was going to reach those 8 foot high pods!

So yes, in the thick of the pea harvest now, although near the end as there aren't many flowers left except for on the snow pea vines.  (I have no idea how I ended up with snow peas though!)

First zuke!

First zucchini harvested today!  Surprisingly it was from the smaller plant next to the compost bin.  That plant seems to have put everything into that one zucchini; all of the others are teency.

The other, huge plant by the air conditioner has some promising ones that I'm hoping have taken.  (I helped out along the way.)