It is All Over for the Onions and The Start of Fall Planting

 Mid July is about when the onion stems start falling and turning brown and this is the time when you need to dig them up because they are not going to get any bigger.  The heat is usually what gets to your onions and leaving them in the ground too long is something you want to avoid.  I always like drying them completely before I store them indoors whether it be a garage or in a basement.  A cool dry place is where you should put them to prevent fungi from growing on them and going bad.  If you dry them properly they should last a long time and I have had onions that have past the new year into the month of March.

 

Potatoes are another plant that I will have to dig up, but at the moment they are nowhere close to harvesting.  I would say about mid August they might be ready because right now they are starting to flower which is a good sign that harvesting might be right around the corner.  I don't have that many plants this season because many of them didn't sprout for whatever reason.  I am hoping that the ones that survived will produce a very decent crop as long as the weather doesn't end their season prematurely.  

Some of my eggplant plants are beginning to flower so that is something to look forward to in a month or two.  Peppers are also starting to produce more flowers and fruit.  My sweet peppers are the only ones that are looking good while my habaneras peppers are growing, but not thriving as much as my sweet peppers.  In fact I will probably start harvesting these peppers this week or next at the latest.

 

I have also started planting seeds for my fall crop into small pots and some in peat pots.  I have decided to grow radishes, peas, and testing another crop of red onions.  This would be a good time to start a crop of carrots in peat pots, but with very little room in the garden at the moment I will hold off on planting them right now or for the season.  If my potatoes are done early, then I might be able to plants some carrot seeds.  This all depends on various factors.  For now I am sticking with radishes and snow peas for the fall season.

 

Taking Onions out of the Totes and Eggplants of the Plants

 The month of August is never the time when onions are completely done and dry them in the sun and get them ready for consumption.  This was an unusual year for the garden due to rainy weather, but was definitely a good change compared to last season with very little rain throughout the summer months.  This might be why they were not ready for harvesting during July which is when I tend to pick them out of the ground.  Even with all this rain I still was able to pick them and have a decent size harvest.  I also got much larger red onions which I was happy with and hopefully these onions alone will last to the new year.

 Eggplants are also another vegetable I have been harvesting more recently and have already eaten the first of the season.  I have about five plants of eggplants and each of them has at least two or more vegetables growing on them.  Some are small, but most of them are about medium size and I can do plenty with these vegetables once I start picking them on a consistent basis.

 

My tomatoes are also coming in quite well and I have already made some salsa out of my beefsteak tomatoes because I had too many and I can only eat so many BLT's every day.  I still keep the best ones for my sandwiches and still there are many tomatoes that need picking, but just waiting them to turn color.  

 

Broccoli has also been prominent in the garden with many of their heads ready to be cut from the plant.  Although I would rather pick the heads in the spring or fall this particular type of broccoli is good in warm to hotter than normal weather.  Although they can still grow in cool weather I wanted them in order to pick broccoli throughout the year.  Although it didn't work out that way I still have plenty of time to possibly pick smaller broccoli from these plants

 

.Peppers and cucumbers are still being harvested, but I think my cucumbers are done for the season with only a couple of healthy vines left producing fruit.  Peppers on the other hand are still producing vegetables and I think a couple of hot pepper plants were able to survive this season.  I was certain that none of them sprouted, but I think I was wrong and it looks like one or two possible habaneras are alive and well in the garden.  I will have to wait and see if these are the hot peppers that I tried sprouting during the early springtime.

It is Almost the end of a Season for 2019 Until Fall Crops are Ready for Harvesting

At the moment fall crops are not quite ready for harvesting, but I would say in the next couple of weeks the first broccoli heads or the first kale leaves will be ready for consumption.  I also have a brussel sprout plant that is just about ready for harvesting which I may do either this weekend or sometime next week.

Now that my fall crops have been growing quite well I also am still harvesting various vegetables that I grew this summer.  Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and some beans are what is left of the summer harvest right now.  

My beans are probably done for the year and they have not been producing any more flowers.  There might be some that are hidden within the leaves, but I think it is safe to say that they have given their all. 

My tomatoes are also going the way of my beans and are done with producing new flowers for new fruits that can be harvest.  Luckily there is one beefsteak tomato plant that doesn’t want to give up and is still growing tomatoes.  As for flowers I think it is done, but the plant still has fruit on it that I will be harvesting sometime this month and hopefully before a frost.

 Peppers are another vegetable that I am still harvesting through the month of October.  These plants grew quite well this season and I have probably picked several dozen throughout the year using them for various things including a couple of batches of homemade tomato sauce.    There are still a few on these plants that I will be picking this week, but once I pick these last ones that will most likely be it for them.

 Last but not least are my eggplants that have grown the best out of most of my garden plants.  This could be due to the fact that I grew over 20 eggplants in the garden.  It was just a numbers game that I will have many eggplants to pick.  I have been picking them on a regular basis and I still have plenty out in the garden to harvest.  I would say that this is the largest harvest of eggplants I have ever received.

Wondering What I have Been harvesting Today?

Today was quite a busy day with cutting the tops of the onions now that they are dry enough to bring inside.  I also decided to pick the rest of the corn that were on the stalks, picking several cucumbers, picking a zucchini, and putting away the tables that the onions were drying on.  Now I just need to wait for things such as melons, eggplant, and pumpkins to ripen so I can harvest them as well.
 

For the moment I have been continuing to harvest peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, and corn.  The very last of the corn was harvested this afternoon.  There might be an ear here or there still on the stalks, but they will not be very big and not worth the time to pick them.  I will remove the husk from them and place them in my onion totes which will decompose over the winter for nutrients for my onions in the spring time. 

 

Zucchini I have been picking for the longest this season.  I now have four newer plants that were added about a month or so ago and they are at the point that they might be producing female flowers real soon.  This means that I might actually have time to begin picking zucchini from them.  I just picked a large zucchini from one of the older ones that were transplanted into the garden.  This is the biggest so far this season and hopefully will get several more before the season is done.

Peppers are also a very consistent vegetable to pick through the season.  I have started picking them a week or so ago and now most of the plants have plenty of flowers along with plenty of peppers.  This season I planted Chinese giant instead of the normal California bell pepper.  They are very similar except for the fact that the Chinese giant ones maybe a little bit bigger than others.  I guess I will find out with time how big they can get.

What is Next Now That Lettuce and Spring Crops are Done?

Yup it is now time to switch to summer crop mode now that most of the spring crops are either going to seed or starting to turn brown which means no more production from them.  I still have to wait before digging up my potatoes which is one of the very last spring crops along with onions that have to be picked from the soil.

As for my onions they are still growing and getting bigger at the moment.  Some of them started to go to seed quite early so I had to make sure to remove the seed pod at the tip of them stem otherwise my onions would be very small when I pick them.  My yellow onions I will keep in the totes for now, but my red onions look like they are just about ready for harvesting.  At the moment most of the red onions have fallen which means they are done for the season.  Since my yellow onions have not fallen that means they are not quite ready for picking.  It won’t be long before they begin to fall.
 

Now that it is time for summer crops to produce it looks like my peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini are the first to be harvested during the month of July.  At the moment I have picked two zucchinis which have already been used to make some good meals and there are still more growing on the plants.
 

Pepper plants and tomato plants have flowers and some fruits.  Right now my peppers do not have fruits, but my tomato plants do.  I have at least a couple of plants that have flowers and fruits that will hopefully be ready by the month of July.  Usually it is usually a cherry tomato plant that is producing because they grow and ripen much quicker than beefsteak tomatoes.  Right now my beefsteak tomatoes are the ones that have tomatoes growing and plenty of flowers beginning to open.

 

I also have a couple of small cucumbers that are growing on a few vines that look like they have been pollinated.  One of them is getting bigger each day, but another one is too small to tell if it has been pollinated yet.  I am staying optimistic that they both have been pollinated and I should be getting the first cucumber of the season very soon

Season Cooling off With Very Little Summer Crops to Harvest

The weather here has been getting cooler over the past couple of weeks and those hot humid days are probably over for this year.  I don’t expect to get much more summer crops this year except for some beans, cherry tomatoes, steakhouse tomatoes, peppers, and maybe decent sized eggplants.  What I have in melons is it for this year and now is the time to start picking them off the vines.

At the moment I have picked one crimson sweet watermelon and two honeydew melons from their vines this past week.  None of the other melons were ripe yet and have not fallen off the vine which is an indication that they are ripe enough to be eaten.

Although weather is cooler I am still seeing flowers on my eggplants and one of them actually is producing a few vegetables on the plant.  I am not certain how big they will get with the lack of sunlight and warm weather, but I am happy that I could get a few more from this season.  As long as a frost doesn’t occur for some time I could get a couple of decent sized eggplants.

Peppers and cucumbers are also still producing flowers, but I think that they are pretty much done for the year.  I think the last cucumbers are on the vines right now and are probably ripe enough to be harvested.  Peppers are done producing flowers and a couple of them have fruit on them that I will have to pick either today or sometime this week.

 I will soon have to cover my strawberries for the winter, but I am going to wait a little bit and put straw on top of them most likely in October.  I will also have to cover my rhubarb this season since it is the first winter for these plants.  I probably could pick some of the stems, but I want to wait until next season in order to prevent from picking too many stems this year and possibly harming the plant.  Plus rhubarb needs at least one cold winter to produce tasty stems for cooking

Short Corn Season with Plenty of Ears Harvested

Although the season for corn was a little short I actually got quite a bit of ears from this variety of corn.  Most of the stalks had multiple ears for picking while previous types of corn that I have planted previously only had one and sometimes two.  Ambrosia is definitely one to grow if you are interested in picking more than just one ear per stalk.

Many of the corn that was picked was frozen so that I can have a little taste of summer during the cold winter season.  I still have others that have been cooked and need to be eaten right away.  As long as you keep corn in the fridge they should be fine for several weeks.   So far it has only been a week or two since I have cooked the first harvest of corn.

Although now that corn is done for 2018 I still have plenty of other vegetables that still need care for a few more months.  For instance my peppers have been growing since I planted them a while ago and it is just about time to pick some peppers off the plants.  One pepper was picked this week and with the amount of flowers on the plants I am sure to get many others this season.

Another harvest of cucumbers was completed this afternoon and they look quite well for consumption.  I wanted to make sure that they stopped growing on the vine before picking them.  I don’t like picking them when they are ripe, but instead wait until they stop growing to their full size.

Not only were cherry tomatoes picked, but on one of my tomato plants there was a steakhouse tomato that was surely ripe enough for picking.  I like to pick them just before they are ready to turn red.  This is the prime time to pick them and they will last a little bit longer than if I was to wait for it to turn a dark red color.  Picking these tomatoes will last longer and stay firm for a good duration

Peat Pots Made for Planting Melons, Peppers, and Eggplants

It is pretty common to place sensitive plants into peat pots because when it comes time to planting them outside they will not be harmed by you handling them.  I started planting some fruit and vegetables today that take some time to mature and harvest.  Melons take the longest followed by eggplants and then peppers.  All three were planted using these biodegradable containers.

Once I planted each of the seeds I then added them under some fluorescent lights that are used to start the germination process as soon as possible.  This year I am growing crimson sweet watermelon along with Carolina cross and Georgia rattlesnake.  This type is more round than oblong like most other watermelons tend to be.  As long as it has the same taste I don't mind what the shape of it is.

I am also growing a different cantaloupe as well.  I have been growing an heirloom melon throughout the past several years, but this season I wanted to grow something different.  This year I am growing a crenshaw cantaloupe which is supposed to be much larger than the ones I have been growing.

Flowers grown inside are just about ready to go outside once some warmer weather arrives.  I can place them outside during the day right now, but will probably bring them in during the night.  The night is still too cold to leave certain plants outside, but soon I will be planting my spring cool weather plants.

Gardening is Out and the Winter Season is In

It is now getting colder and most of my plants are done for this year except for a few peppers and my strawberry plants which will be protected with some straw.  I didn’t think my pepper plants would last through November, but I am still picking the peppers right off the plant until the very first frost which will end the season officially.



Before or when the ground freezes straw needs to be applied to plants that you want to save for next year.  Certain plants don’t need straw especially if they are perennials like blueberries.  Strawberries on the other hand can survive without straw, but you will be taking a risk not covering it with straw.  It is always best to cover them with straw before the real cold weather arrives.



At the moment I am just enjoying the very last of the summer fruit and vegetables.  I had recently started cutting my watermelons which are really tasty and juicy.  I am trying to keep them around for as long as possible in order to enjoy their incredible flavor.  They should be able to last a month or so as long as they are kept in a cool refrigerator.


Carrots are still outside in the ground and they will be ready once Thanksgiving comes around the corner.  In a couple of weeks I will have them up from the ground and they will be cut and ready to be eaten immediately.  With enough of them I could can them and enjoy them all through the cold winter months.  There is only one row, but if they are big enough I will can them for future enjoyment.

Melons are done and Ready for Harvesting

The only large fruit that was left from the summer were my watermelons.  It was that time this week to finally pick them from the vine.  They had been left outside long enough and they should be ripe inside once I cut them to see for sure.  All my melons are now done and all that is left are some remaining cherry tomatoes and peppers.



While I was outside I thought it would be prudent to continue picking some cherry tomatoes that were left on several of the plants.  Many of them are still green and just some sunlight to turn them red is what I am waiting for.  There were a few that were ready for picking and that is what I did this week.



Peppers on the other hand will probably last a little bit longer at the moment.  They have several fruit on the plants and I think I have many more pepper harvests in the near future.  Once a frost comes then it will be the end of these plants and the entire garden for the most part.

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.

Getting Plenty of Vegetables for Multiple Meals

The past couple of days has been good for harvesting and there was plenty of vegetables that I needed to harvest as soon as possible.  More and more tomatoes are getting ripe and turning to their respective color and my corn is coming to an end along with my regular cucumbers.  I would say that I have probably a half a dozen of corn left and only two plants of pickle cucumbers remaining.

The good news is that although it is halfway through the garden season I still have plenty of peppers, Roma tomatoes, steakhouse tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes left for more harvests.  Soon I will start using all the Roma tomatoes for making sauces and that will mark the beginning of the end of my Roma harvests.  They are almost ready for picking and I am sure by this week or next week I should be picking many of them.

For now I have been picking the vegetables that are ready and I will work on the others when it is their time for harvesting.  Let’s just look at a couple of harvests that I did this weekend such as corn, cherry tomatoes, and peppers.

I think this was the largest harvest for cherry tomatoes this season and I might be able to get an even larger harvest this week depending on how many are actually ripe.


Peppers and cucumbers were also ready for some harvesting and I wanted to pick all the ones that were ready so that these plants can continue producing flowers and vegetables.  Most of my pepper plants are spitting out flowers as fast as possible and my cucumber vines are also producing flowers and I hope to pick many more of them.

Ten pickle cucumbers were ready for harvesting.  Some of them look a little pale, but once you peel them they will still taste like a regular pickle cucumber.  These five peppers are about average size of this year pepper harvest and there are actually some on the plants that are much bigger that I can’t wait to pick.

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.