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.) 

Peas!!!!!

Yes, that's right!!!!  A pea harvest!!  After such a roller coaster ride, they're here, they're really here!

Lots on the way, but so far have harvested just a dozen or so, spread out over the past week, and shared with the dogs of course.  Most of the plants are well over the top of the frame now; I assume they will flop over at some point given the lack of support up there.

One pea plant died.  I noticed the leaves were dried up and it was wilted; checked the root, and I was able to pull it right out with hardly any effort.  Hope it's nothing contagious!

The peas I've had so far, while I won't dare complain, mostly weren't particularly sweet.  I wonder if I'm picking them a bit too soon.  The plumpest one was the sweetest one, so will try to be a bit more patient to see if that's the key.

Radishes, bleh!

The radishes sown on May 21st are mostly all harvestable now.  I tried one the other day and was promptly reminded why I don't grow, buy, or eat radishes!  So, these will go to my dad. 

Lettuce out; carrots in

Harvested the leftover lettuce tonight, will it up for falafels.  There was lots of it, and even though it didn't seem to have gone to seed yet, I hadn't eaten any in a long time.  I'm just not a lettuce person, I guess!

So, in went another round of carrots.  This time I broadcasted the seeds instead of putting them in little rows that needed major thinning and still resulted in gaps here and there.  I think this way will work better, with less thinning.

They've sprouted already!

Wow, that didn't take long.  Quite a few of the cabbage, chard, and kale seeds sowed on Sunday are up already.

Fall crop indoor sowing: Cabbage, kale, chard

Cabbage:  Looks like the spring cabbage is starting to head up already.  Last year my cabbages took the whole season to head up, I assume because of groundhog-related delays.  This year, new fence, no groundhogs (knock on wood), so the cabbages have been doing their thing.  So, figured I'd try starting some seeds indoors now, in the hopes of having a new round of transplants to replace the spring ones once they're finished.  Wouldn't that be neat!  Sow, I mean so, today I sowed 5 pots, 2 seeds each (will thin to 1).

Kale and chard:  I've been enjoying excellent harvests so far, but I imagine they will soon go to seed.  So, like the cabbage, sowed new seeds today, to take the place of the old kale, chard, and choy as well.  11 small pots of chard and 6 small pots of kale, with 2-3 seeds each (will thin to 1).  Ended up not sowing more bok choy, seeing how much the slugs loved them.  That makes me wonder though, with no bok choy, maybe they'll be happy to go to town on the kale/chard -- oh well, hopefully there will be enough for us all to enjoy.

Didn't put them under a plastic dome, figured it's plenty hot and humid without that.

Zucchini update (usual early flops as in past years)

Quick zuke update:

The one by the air conditioner is growing great, the biggest one by far.  About a week ago there was a finger-sized zucchini whose flower opened, but I think it didn't get pollinated and I was a day too late, pollinating it by paintbrush after the flower had closed -- so, the end went hollow and I plucked it.  Another one, smaller, looks like the flower was going to open, but it didn't, then it went hollow and I plucked it.  No more imminent right now, but lots of males.

The one by the compost bin is coming along, but nothing imminent.

The experimental late sowing in the pot is by far the smallest, has some males.  Will be interesting to see if anything happens.

Chard and kale vs. Choi vs. baby choi

Ding ding ding!  There is a clear winner to this match-up, this year anyway.

Baby bok choi went to seed a few weeks ago after hardly any harvesting.

The other choi (which I could swear the package said was also a baby version but is pretty normal-looking in size) has not yet gone to seed, but the vast majority of the leaves are full of holes (slugs I believe).

And then, there's the chard!  The glorious, bountiful chard!  And the kale, too!  Wow.  Both are going strong with no sign of bolting yet, and the slugs have hardly touched them at all!

Lesson learned:  Probably won't try baby bok choi again.  Will probably grow regular bok choi again just for some variety, but will definitely grow swiss chard and kale again.

Hello yellows! (beans, that is)

Hallelujah, the yellow beans are finally emerging in their peat pots!  I had been starting to wonder.  So, perhaps there will be yellow beans, after all!

Bean saga continued

So, the only beans that came up in the peat pots indoors were the lima beans!  Gak!  I dug around in the pot soil, and all of the yellow beans failed -- smooshy and no sign of life at all, except one lonely seed that seemed to have sprouted (which I then tried to re-sow, so hopefully it will survive).

I wonder if it's because I pre-soaked them and then put them into moist soil and the peat pots were all one up against the other so the soil remained very wet, and they rotted.  And for some reason the lima beans were ok with those condition, but the yellow ones were just not.

So!  Yellow beans round three tonight.  Two seeds per pot.  This time I did NOT presoak the seeds, and the jiffy pots are spread out so there's ventilation around their sides.  Oh, and I forgot to put inoculant.

Fingers crossed!!

Bok choy bolting

The mini baby bok choy started going to seed a few days ago -- flower buds have begun to emerge.  The other kind is still good.

How timely -- came across this interesting article about bolting and some tips for way to deal with it.

http://www.creativevegetablegardener.com/bolting/