Getting as much Harvests Done before Vegetables Start Going to Seed

At the moment the only vegetable that has started going to seed are my radishes which will need to be picked before the radish becomes too small to consume.  They were quick to sprout and very quick to go to seed, but that may be due to thinning them out to late.  I needed to thin them out a little bit earlier and I think they would have been fine, but I can always grow another harvest in the fall. 

Other than my radishes and peas everything seems to be going quite well.  My peas were done long before my radishes and they didn’t produce much.  This might be due to the hot weather and possibly lack of rain.  Even though I watered them the soil might have dried out faster than other parts of the garden.  I should have added mulch around these plants and that would have helped the soil stay moist and would have retained water helping out my cool weather plants. 

I did place mulch around my potatoes this year since after last season they turned brown quicker than I would have liked I thought it best to give them as much mulch as possible.  It seems to be working and the soil is staying moist and the plants are thriving even in this hot weather we have been having.   

They are already producing flowers which is a good sign for potatoes and some of them are starting to pop through the ground.  Place a little bit of soil on top of it to cover it and make sure it doesn’t get exposed to the sun.

Corn will be the next plant that I will have to place mulch around once I do one last weeding and side dress them with blood meal.  After that I can leave them alone in terms of weeding and that they need is lots of water because they happen to be heavy feeders.  I might give them some fish/seaweed emulsion once they silks or tassels start coming in, but that will be it for feeding. 

 
Once I am done with the corn I can start attaching my rope to my pole beans.  They have started producing vines and I will begin attaching them to my bean trellis to prevent them from going all over the place looking awful.

I Think My Eggplants and Pole Beans are Ready for the First Harvest

So far I have harvested mostly all types of my tomatoes I planted such as cherry, Roma, and beefsteak.  I have also been picking peppers as well.  Recently I have started with my pole beans which have been ready for quite some time.  I actually started picking sometime at the end of August and consistently through the month of September.  Melons were another fruit that I started picking from the garden and have eaten three cantaloupes and one honeydew melon.  The last and most recent vegetable that was ready for picking were my eggplants.

The first one I started picking a few weeks ago were my cantaloupes which had fallen of the vine and is a good indication that they are done and fully ripe for consumption.  They were definitely a decent size and all of them were ripe and very juicy.  I still have one left out in the garden which I am hoping will be ripe sometime this month.

I then worked my way to my pole beans which had plenty of beans and many flowers that were eventually going to turn in more beans for harvesting.  Most of my vines are producing plenty of beans and are still growing flowers even though the days are getting shorter each day.  I think I will have a few more harvests before the vines stop producing or at least slow down.  I have canned many of them and have frozen several beans and have used fresh ones for a few meals at the moment.

The last vegetable on the list that has yet to be picked are my eggplants.  I planted many of them this year as compared to other years and there many plants with multiple eggplants that are a good size which may take a little bit of time to go through all of them.  I am not worried because there are a few good recipes that you can use with them.  I have picked a total of five eggplants over the past couple of days and there are many where they came from.  I will probably start picking them on a weekly basis depending on weather conditions.
 

More Tomatoes are the Subject for Today

It seems that all I have been talking about is my tomatoes.  Fortunately I have been getting plenty of them this season especially when it comes to cherry tomatoes.  300 cherry tomatoes were picked last week while today I beat that by getting 490 ripe cherry tomatoes.  It looks like more salsa will have to be made with these types of tomatoes.

On the other hand I picked plenty of Roma and steakhouse tomatoes this past week as well.  I had over forty pounds of Roma tomatoes that needed to be used otherwise they would become rotten and not good for anything.  Luckily I made plenty of sauce with them and was able to fill up plenty of glass jars with this sauce.  I will be using most of it over the winter as well as the salsa from the cherry tomatoes.

I also had picked many steakhouse tomatoes which are basically good for sandwiches.  I love BLT and have been slicing large pieces of tomato for my lunch.  Having a large slice of fresh tomato on your sandwiches is one of the best things of the summertime.  It is one of the many things I look forward to each year.

Now that I have discussed my tomatoes it is time to talk about other vegetables in my garden.  First of all I picked some more pole beans today and will probably be freezing some of them for use in a couple of months.  I only picked a small batch, but there is still plenty of time with plenty of more beans to be picked real soon.

My melons are doing well and I don’t know exactly when, but some of them are going to be harvested sometime this month hopefully.  My watermelon will most likely be the first since it was planted first and the first to generate a melon.  I have a couple of cantaloupes and a couple of honeydew melons that are still on the vine not ready for picking.

Onions Up and Done With Corn and Others on the Way

My onions were picked a week or two ago and I needed to dry them before they can be used.  I dried them outside for about a week or so.  They were dry enough on Tuesday and that is when I decided to bring them in for the first time.  Just about thirty pounds was picked in total along with 170 total onions that were picked from the soil.  This was definitely a good harvest this season for onions.


Corn is very close to harvesting and within a few days or so the majority of them should be ready for serving.  I only got a couple of them so far and these were most likely the early ones that you have every season.  Once most of them are ready I will probably pick them all in one day or within a couple of days consecutively. 



Beans is another vegetable that happened to be ready for harvesting.  Unlike corn I was able to pick quite a few beans for the first of the season.  Approximately three pounds was gathered from all the vines that are growing outside.  Although there are not as many beans growing this was a good number for the start of the bean harvest.  I hope to get many more in the real near future.

Pumpkins, melons, tomatoes, and more are beginning to show the fruits of my labor.  I have many tomatoes that are growing and they are sure starting to turn with cherry and Roma most likely the first to the dinner table.

I think the next vegetables that I will be picking include cucumbers and or peppers.  I have a cucumber that is just about ready, but I want to leave out there for another day or two.  I don’t want to pick it too soon before I have a chance to add lime to the soil.  I don’t want to pick this cucumber and have it taste bitter. 

Melons will most likely be last along with the pumpkins that I have out there.  Only a couple of melons and a few pumpkins are growing for the moment.  The only thing that I am waiting for are my eggplants to begin showing signs of harvest material.  They do have flowers which are a good sign and hopefully they will begin producing fruit in the near future.

Many Fruits and Vegetables Appearing on Most Plants and Vines

It looks like this is the month for harvesting which may include tomatoes, beans, zucchini, melons, and many more.  At the moment I will be definitely harvesting zucchini, onions, corn, beans, and possibly cherry tomatoes.  All the others I might not be picking this month, but most likely in the month of August at the latest.

First on the list is between zucchini and onions.  Since most of my onion plants have fallen over this is the sign that I use when it is time to pull them from the soil.  I would say that my onions are going to be the next harvested vegetable from my garden.  Although I don’t use them right away because I let them dry in the hot sun, my zucchinis may be the first to be used for a meal sooner.



I have a few plants that have zucchini vegetables on them.  The earlier planted zucchini plants will have the first crack at harvesting.  The seeds that were planted a little bit later will obviously take just a little bit longer for some vegetables to be growing from them.



My pole beans are also on the list to be harvested very soon.  Some of the vines already have beans that are ready for picking which is quite soon for them.  The other vines are still in the process of growing and producing flowers and are not ready for harvesting just yet.  I will probably pick all the beans that are ready at the moment in order for the plants to continue producing pods.



Corn is also early this year and is usually picked in August, but this may be due to the new variety that I planted this season.  This is most likely an early picked corn that is growing in the garden right now.  I feel that I will be picking them this month at the latest.



Tomatoes I am also looking forward to because I have many plants this season and I might have enough to last a little bit longer than usual.  I also use many of them for sauces and salsas so none of these tomatoes will be wasted.  Whatever is not used for sauce will be used for sandwiches or salads.

The Harvests I missed During a Week Long Rain Storm

There were many harvests I wanted to do this week, but couldn’t because of the rain storm that lasted several days.  That is why I wrote a post today to make certain that you are up to date with the latest harvests I did this afternoon.

My pumpkins were finally ready this week and I should have picked them much earlier in the week.  They have been ready for quite awhile and I just like leaving them outside in order to have them turn orange quicker.  A couple have become rotten and I had to cut them up and throw them into some compost that I will be making.  Other than that they were pretty good for being outside through this storm for this long.

Beans are another harvest that I got done today.  I actually wasn’t sure if many of them were going to be ready for picking, but when I went outside and looked at my vines I saw plenty of them that needed to be harvested right away.  Today’s harvest was quite big and I got over nine pounds of these sweet and delicious beans.

The last on today’s list are my peppers that are just still producing flowers despite the weather and are growing amazingly.  They have really good peppers on the plants I got about a dozen of them that were ready waiting to be picked.  Most of them were large sized peppers, but there were a couple that were a little bit smaller.  Nevertheless as long as they taste good I am not worried about their size.

A Few More Tomatoes and another Batch of Beans

This is going to be a small post today because it looks like many of my harvests are winding down and I don’t think I will be picking as many tomatoes for the rest of the season.  My Roma tomatoes are done for the most part and cherry tomatoes are still around with more fruit.

Beans on the other hand are probably one of the last plants that are continuing to produce other than my pepper plants.  I should see a very large harvest from my beans soon and today I was able to fill half a bowl of them.  I might be able to fill up two bowls from one harvest if my beans are going to produce more flowers and pods.

Besides some peppers, an eggplant, and some broccoli plants the last thing from the summer will be a couple of watermelons.  These are always some of the last fruits from the garden and should be harvesting them soon.  I would say early October and these melons will be completely done and ripe enough to eat.

How about Some Corn on the Cob?

Yes that is what I was able to enjoy yesterday with a decent harvest of some of my corn.  I like to cook all of them right away or at least the same day that I pick them and with that I got to have some corn to eat with my dinner.  They were quite large and delicious and I can’t wait to continue picking all the rest that are still out there.  I would guess that I have about a dozen or so left to harvest.


Beans are also flourishing and some more of them were picked as well.  I still have many growing on the vines which means I should be getting some more this month and hopefully through September as well.  As long as those buds and flowers keep coming I should have many more harvests.


A few peppers, cucumbers, and a couple of Romas were the harvest of today.  I even had one zucchini that was ready as well.  It is just the second round for my zucchini plants are there are a couple more out there that are not ready, but I should be picking them soon.

How About Some of Those Large Tomatoes?

Yes, I have some large steakhouse tomatoes that look so good and I want to pick them very soon.  Luckily today I was able to pick the first steakhouse tomato on one of my plants and was definitely a good size.  It weighed just short of two pounds and was able to fit in my entire hand.

Besides tomatoes I had some more beans to pick today.  I knew I was going to pick them before the week was over and that is what I did this morning.  I got much more than my previous harvests and I am not sure, but I think this will be one of the largest harvests of beans this season.

Peppers, cucumbers, and pickles were also on the list for harvesting.  I had a large cucumber that I was hoping to pick soon because it was a very large size that I didn’t want to see get too big otherwise it may not taste right.  I picked it today along with two peppers and two pickle cucumbers.

Start Picking Those Peppers Right Away

Today was the first harvest of my peppers for this year.  I have about six plants and only two were picked this afternoon.  I didn't want to pick too many especially if they weren't ready or they could get much bigger than what they are right now.  All of my plants have peppers and soon I will start picking much more of them once they reach a good size.











Along with peppers I had some cherry tomatoes, pickle cucumbers, and some beans ready as well.  I was hoping to push my beans to this weekend, but they needed to be harvested today before they get too big with large beans within their pods.







Here are my cherry tomatoes and pickle cucumbers that came along with this harvest.  Just a small, but good harvest today and plan to have many more of them real soon.

First Watermelon Harvested for the Season

This week was a little exciting with the first watermelon picked.  Although I did pick the smallest of the four that are growing in the garden it still was a pretty decent size.  The other three are much larger and I am definitely looking forward to picking them sometime in the near future.

I also had some cantaloupes that were ready for picking and I picked two of them which only leaves one more left in the garden to harvest.  I had a good crop of cantaloupes this season even though they were medium sized they still were very delicious.

Got the last beans of the season this week as well.  They were done a little bit earlier than past years, but still picked enough to store for the winter months.  I also had another harvest of cherry tomatoes and some peppers that are still growing in the garden.

Picking Enough Roma Tomatoes for More Home Made Sauce

Today I had plenty of tomatoes to be picked.  This doesn't mean just Roma tomatoes which will be used for making sauce, but I also had many cherry tomatoes and steakhouse tomatoes that were ready for harvesting.  One cherry tomato plant is done for the season and was no longer producing any more leaves or even flowers.  I only have three more left which should provide me enough to last at least a month hopefully.

Here are my steakhouse tomatoes which are best used for slicing and placing on sandwiches or just eating as is.  This is probably the biggest harvest of these types of tomatoes this season.  They are quite a good size and still good enough for slicing.







Some more pole beans were harvested this afternoon and this will probably be the last post about these beans for the season.  They lasted not as long as usual, but I still got enough out of them to be proud of.  I didn't want to forget mentioning a couple more peppers were finished ripening on the plant.

The First Melon Ripe to Pick

I just got my very first melon of the season today.  I actually didn't think that I would get one of them this week, but this happens to be about the average time when they are ripe and ready for eating.  It just happened to be a cantaloupe which I have plenty of.  I was hoping to pick my honeydew first, but when the melon is ready then I will pick it.

Some more cherry tomatoes and some pole beans were picked this afternoon.  I still have some cherry tomatoes on the plants, but I think the season for them is beginning to wind down and there is not that many left to pick.  I hope the plants would grow more, but I can't complain because the season has been quite good this year.

Along with cherry tomatoes I did happen to see some ready and ripe Roma and steakhouse tomatoes.  These tomatoes weighed a pound each and that is perfect for using them for sauce or just for slicing them up for a sandwich.

Harvesting the Most Beans and Cucumbers for 2016

I just happened to pick some more pole beans today that I wasn't sure were going to be ready.  I had been watching them over the past couple of days and I didn't want them to get too big and possibly go to seed.  That is why I wanted to pick them today and there were much more than I thought there would be that were ready for picking.

Not only did I pick beans, but I also had many more cucumbers that were ready.  I had picked some last week that were definitely good sized, but today and a couple of days ago I probably picked over a dozen and possibly two dozen.

Harvest Time for Beans and Cucumbers

It is that time of the year where I will be picking more vegetables and fruits and harvesting will be a daily thing.  Right now harvesting is still slow, but within a week or so I am sure that I will have to start picking more vegetables in the garden

I have started with zucchini and now that my beans and cucumbers are ready I will now start picking them.  My cucumber plants have many vegetables on them and my beans while they take a little bit longer to produce beans they will bring a much better harvest.

Even though I have only picked one cucumber so far you can see in the picture below that my plants have many of them that I am waiting to ripen.  Once they get a little bit bigger I will be picking all of them that are ready for eating.

I picked just two pounds of beans yesterday.

Along with beans and cucumbers I even had some more zucchinis that were ready for harvesting as well.  As you know these plants will just continue to produce for the rest of the year as long as I give them exactly what they need.