Starting Fall Cleanup

The weather has turned very fall-like with no prospects for any more warm weather. Today may be our last day in the 70s. So I pulled out the tomatoes, after picking any that were close to being ripe. I also pulled the aubergine, the cucumbers, and the peppers except for the Mad Hatter. The Mad Hatter peppers are still green, so I'm going to give them a little longer in the ground before I pull the plant up and hang it upside down in the garage. I'd really like to get some to turn red.

Last week I pulled up the melons and dug up the rhubarb. We just don't use enough of it to justify the space it takes. We've also pulled out all the strawberry plants. I'll start new ones next year in a different bed.

I've left the zucchini for now, as it still has some squash coming. But without much heat they may not make it. The plant really looks ugly, covered with mildew.

I still have snap peas, lettuce, and bok choi, which has been a great success.

Status Report - July 23, 2018

Things have really been happening in the garden.  I've harvested the garlic and two of the potato plants.  We're now getting Stupice and Lizzano cherry tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, bell peppers, aubergines, carrots, chard, and kale.  The lettuce was very good (starts from Minto Island Growers) but have now bolted.  I've just planted the third sowing of green beans

and the last two rows of carrots.

 I also planted some cranberry beans.

 The leeks are ready but I haven't pulled any yet.

I started two Kale-ette plants from seed.  I moved them to the potato bed and put them under a shade cover because it's been in the 90s.

The herb bed has been a great success.  I'll do it again next year.

The rhubarb and squash bed is doing well.

The trough planter is really filling in.

 The new bed is filling in gradually.

 And the rose bed has been spectacular.

And last but not least we just picked all the pears on the Ubileen.  It was a bumper crop!

Feels Like Spring

Even though it's only the middle of February, it feels very much like spring.  Yesterday it was 66.  Out in the garden things are starting to wake up.

The blueberries have fat buds.

The nectarine blossoms are showing pink.

And the rhubarb is just poking up.

Mache

After several years of trying, I've finally achieved a successful mache crop.  And we love it!  Mache, or corn salad, is a small leafy plant that has a mild flavor and is wonderful in salads.  It's extremely cold tolerant.  My September 20 planting has survived single-digit temperatures with no protection.

I'll need to plant a lot, because it's harvested by cutting off the whole plant.  But it's definitely a great replacement for winter lettuce, which always gets brown and mushy, no matter what I do.

It's a little early, but I decided to plant my 'Cascadia' snap peas now.  I planted a short row along a trellis.  I saved some seeds last year from one plant that kept blooming long after the others had given up in the warm weather.  I've planted six of those seeds on the end closest to the house.  It will be interesting to see if they last longer.

And lastly, my rhubarb is starting to sprout!  It seems early.

Strawberries

This morning I went to Terra Gardens Nursery, hoping to get my seed potatoes.  I had been told they should have them by March 1.  They didn't.  But they did have strawberry plants, so I bought a bundle of twenty Seascapes.  After unbundling them, I gave them a haircut, then planted them about a foot apart in a double row down one raised bed.  The bed was first amended with a can of all-purpose fertilizer.

I also bought a rhubarb start to add to the one I already have.  This one is called Crimson Cherry and is bright red, unlike the one I already have, which is kind of greenish pink.  Both are planted in the front yard.  I loaded them up with steer manure.

I also added two 2-cubic foot bags of steer manure to the new asparagus bed.