Pizza Night

It's Friday, so it's pizza night.  Tonight's pizza is zucchini, tomato, and green pepper. 

Dahlias

The dahlias are almost all blooming.


Improved Orange Cushion

Smokee Gal

Orange Pekoe

Chee (actually it's a lot darker, a maroon)

New Berry Fence

Today we put in new posts on the wire fence supporting the Beckyberries and Boysenberry.  The hardest part was untangling the canes from the old wire.  It took me most of the morning.  Wrapping back on their new (higher) wire was a lot easier.

Strawberry Fertilizer

The strawberries have been really producing, so I thought they might like a little fertilizer.  I side dressed with Black Gold organic fertilizer.

Tomatoes!!

There's a pretty good chance of rain tonight and tomorrow, plus cooler weather, so I decided to pick all the ripe tomatoes and can them tomorrow.  I got 9 lbs. 5 ozs.  The 'Amish Paste' had only a couple ripe ones, but they are a lot bigger than the others.  There are still plenty coming on all of the plants.

Notes for Next Year

No more melons!  They take up too much space and come all at once. 

Only 6-8 pole bean plants.  Really!!  Also, plant all the bush beans at once, when the pole beans go in. 

Plant just two aubergines.  One globe, one Asian.

Plant more peppers.

Plant basil in the beds, rather than in pots.

Don't bother with planting beets in the spring.  They get lost among all the other summer vegetables.  Plant them in late summer and fall.  Also, plant only 'Cylindra.'  They're much easier to can.

Update:  Actually I will plant melons again, just not so many.  I failed to follow my own advice about only two aubergines.  Too many peppers.  Probably six would suffice.  And forget all the colored ones.  The beet advice is sound, although I still planted some in spring.  

More Melons

Yesterday I picked another Ambrosia melon.  We had it for breakfast this morning, and it was incredibly good.  The honeydews continue to split.  I found two more this morning.  There are quite a few still coming.  I think I'll remove the black plastic from the bed.  It may be contributing to the problem by holding puddles of water.

Cherokee Purple Tomatoes

The Territorial Seed Company catalog claims that Cherokee Purple is 'stingy on yield.'  I just went out and counted three dozen tomatoes, most of them quite large.  That sure isn't my idea of stingy.

Ambrosia Melon

Yesterday I got the first Ambrosia melon.  Cantaloupes are easy.  They fall off the vine when they are ripe.  I'm really struggling with the honeydews.  I've had two split, even though I didn't think they were ripe yet.

Lemon Tree

My little lemon tree has put on another spurt of new growth.  The four blossoms never developed into fruit, but someone told me the tree has to be fertilized monthly for it to bear fruit.  So maybe next year, if it survives winter.

Winter Greens

Today I planted all my lettuce, mizuna, arugula, and tatsoi starts in Bed 8.  I rigged up a piece of shade cloth, because it's still warm (in the upper 80s).

 At the other end of the bed I put in some rainbow chard starts.

I also planted six 'Rudolf' sprouting broccoli starts in the bean bed, Bed 2.  I pulled out the second planting of bush beans.  I decided I rally didn't need them, and I do need the space.

Today we also put in edging along the bed against the back of the house.  It has a two-by-four edge that just isn't high enough to hold water and soil in.  So we put in a 5" plastic strip, screwed to the board.  I think it will be much better.  Now I can actually add compost to the bed without it spilling out on the walk.

Front Yard, Early Morning

Here's my view out the front window while I'm exercising.   Not bad.

Dinner

Here's what we had for dinner, along with some white beans.  And homemade bread.

Apple Pie

After picking up two more apples from the Golden Sentinel tree, I decided it was time to bake a pie. The apples are small, so it took more than I usually use, but it turned out very good.  Except for the crust, which was a ready-made one.  I really don't like them.  I need to work on a crust from scratch.

Today we went up the hill to Sunnyslope Park to check on the pears.  There were quite a few on the ground, already ripe, so we picked a bunch.  We'll mostly eat them as they ripen, but I may end up dehydrating some.

New Berry Bed

I've removed all the plants from the side garden, outside the guest room.  It had been a hodgepodge of things, some waiting for more permanent homes.  I added a 1.5 cu. ft. bag of compost to each of three spots along the back, as well as all-purpose fertilizer.  Then I moved two boysenberry plants from their old home in the bed with the Beckyberries, and a start of Triple Crown berries that I poached from next door.

Along the front of the bed I added four bags of compost and fertilizer and planted 17 small Seascape strawberry plants taken from the older bed.

The Triple Crown does not look good (I really had to wrench it out) but everything else looks good.

Tomatoes at Last

Yesterday I picked the first Cherokee Purple tomato.  It was wonderful.  I also picked the first Red October, which was tasteless.  It may be a good keeper, but what's the point if it doesn't even taste like a tomato?  It is rather firm, so maybe I'll use it to make salsa.  There is at least one ripe tomato on each of the paste varieties.  No Green Zebras yet.

The Golden Sentinel apple tree continues to drop two or three apples a day. I guess they really are ripe.  The other two, which are reds, have not started dropping yet.

Lots of Strawberries

Here's yesterday's crop.

Golden Sentinel Apple

Today three apples fell off the Golden Sentinel tree.  They're kind of small, and still fairly green, but I tried one and they are pretty good.

We had a neat thunderstorm this afternoon.  I was afraid there might be hail (there wasn't) and that my bean teepee would fall over (it didn't).

Meeker Raspberries

Yesterday I picked three Meeker raspberries.  There are a few more coming.  I looked up the description of them, and it says they fruit in July.  So they're a little late.  It would be nice if they did produce now.  The summer ones are long gone, and the fall ones are just starting to produce buds.

Fall Salad Greens

I pulled the last of the big kale plants (they were getting kind of strong flavored).  In that bed (Bed 8) I moved several small lettuce plants that were eking along.  Now they look dead.  We'll see.

Then I sowed a four foot row of romaine lettuce, a row of 'Bloomsdale' spinach, and a row of 'Super Gourmet' lettuce, along with some roquette and mizuna.

Uncovering the Sweet Potatoes

I read somewhere that if you grow sweet potatoes under black plastic you need to remove it in early August or the gophers will eat all of them.  I don't think we have gophers, but I decided to uncover them just in case.  They are doing quite nicely.  In fact, they're starting to encroach on the second planting of squash.

The first planting of bush beans is finished, so David pulled them out.  I'm not sure what I'll put in that bed.  Maybe lettuce.

I pulled all the first planting beets and canned them.  I got 5 lbs, not counting three big lunkers that I decided not to can.  I'll make borscht.

First San Marzano Tomato

Today I picked the first ripe San Marzano tomato.  It has blossom end rot, but otherwise looks o.k.  It's pretty small.

The Red October tomatoes are starting to ripen.

Broccoli and Cauliflower

After cleaning out the onion bed a couple of days ago, I've now planted my broccoli and cauliflower starts in that bed.  I zip-tied two metal hoops together to make larger ones.  Then I covered it with bird netting, hoping to keep out the cabbage butterflies, and then shade cloth.

I also moved all the broccoli that I started from seeds a couple of weeks ago into 4" pots.  I have 24 pots.  About 8 of them are sprouting broccoli.  The rest is a blend of varieties.  I may have overdone it. 


Update:

Yesterday I found a white butterfly inside the netting.  So now it is covered entirely in the shade cloth.

Strawberry Thief

Several days ago we started finding strawberries with large bites taken out of them.  We assumed that the squirrels were back at it, so we put some bird netting over the berry bed.  Yesterday we took the netting off, and later we caught the real thief.  We are dogsitting Sarah, a black lab belonging to our friends, and we caught her in the act.  So now the netting is off.  We just have to keep an eye on Sarah.

Onion Harvest, the Sequel

Yesterday I pulled all the onions and shallots out.  They are now basking in the sun next to the compost bins and blueberries.  My plan is to freeze half of them and keep the rest for fresh use.

The yellow onions are huge.  I have 50 of them.  There are 14 red onions and 10 (very large) shallots.

First Cucumber

Yesterday we picked our first cucumber.  There are three others about the same size,  But then it looks like a long wait for the next round.   Who knows why.