Looking Forward to Start Digging up My Potatoes

 Although I have been picking many vegetables from my garden including tomatoes, corn which is done for the season, peppers, zucchini, and even eggplants  I am still waiting for my potato plants to start turning brown.  When the plants are turning yellow or brown is the perfect time to start digging them up and begin using them in delicious meals and dishes.  I love potatoes and when they grow like they should they end up being one of my favorites vegetables to cook with.  

I am hoping that these new potatoes I planted this season are at least a decent size, but I will not know until I start digging them up.  The soil is beginning to crack from the potatoes and must make certain to keep them covered otherwise they will not be able to be eaten.  Always make sure that your potatoes not the plant are covered throughout the season.

Eggplants and zucchini are the latest vegetables to be harvested from the garden the past couple of weeks.  A couple of weeks ago I got the very first zucchini from the garden which I did not think I would get any this year because of the late seed planting.  These are plants I like to start inside, but due to the cold weather in May I was unable to start them in pots.  Instead I had to hope for enough room in between the tomato plants and enough sunlight in order to get them to sprout.  Luckily they did and so far I have picked two zucchinis this season.

Eggplants on the other hand I did start them inside and very early because they need plenty of time similar to watermelons which also require an adequate amount of time.  I saw a couple of plants that had some good sized eggplants that were almost ready to pick a week or two ago.  I took a look at them this week and decided that it was time to begin harvesting.  I harvested four eggplants with three over them are some of the largest eggplants I have ever grown.  I can't wait to make them into some eggplant Parmesan meals or possibly eggplant pizzas which are also very delicious.

 

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.

Now Some Cucumbers can be Harvested Today

I have left my cucumbers on the vines for plenty of days and it is now time to remove them from the vine and enjoy their amazing and sweet taste.  I wanted to pick them earlier, but I ended up harvesting them today instead. 

I also decided to start picking all kinds of zucchinis that were growing in the garden.  I was only going to pick one or two, but I saw that many of them were hard enough that they needed to be removed from the plant today.  I collected only four average to large sized zucchinis.  I still have plenty out there and will continue picking them as long as the plants provide them.

Just a quick side note on my squash plants that include my pumpkins, I have found about three pumpkins that are pollinated and have started getting bigger each day.  As long as I keep feeding them and don’t let them get dry they should continue getting bigger. 

Most Fruits and Vegetables Flowering and Beginning To Produce

I have been harvesting my lettuce for some time and now that they are pretty much done I have been working on getting other fruits and vegetables ready for harvesting.  The only vegetable that I have been picking is my zucchini.  The plants are growing quite well which includes both my transplants and the ones that were directly sown in the soil. 

The latter plants are producing zucchini, but I have yet to pick any from them.  I am sure I will be harvesting them very soon.  So far I have only been picking zucchini from my transplanted plants.  I actually picked a four pound one this morning.

Here are some of the zucchini that has been growing on my other plants that are not quite ready for harvesting.

My tomato plants are doing quite well this season and they are continuing to produce fruit and plenty of flowers so that I will have fruit throughout the season.  They are not at the ripening stage yet, but I am hopeful that they will be ripening very soon in the near future.

I also have a cucumber and watermelon that have started to grow.  I have a pollinated cucumber, but my watermelon I am not so sure at this time.  I will know if the watermelon was pollinated in the near future.  The good news is that the vine that it came from will continue to produce these fruits until it gets one that is successfully pollinated.  Check out both of them below.

Harvested First Zucchini Today

I just harvested my first zucchini of the year only about 12 hours ago when I first woke up today.  I wasn't sure if it was going to be ready because I have never picked one of these vegetables this early in the season before.  I was a little leery on picking it, but once I felt how strong it was and the sound it made when I tapped on it I knew that it was time to pick it.

It ended up being a good choice because then I used it for dinner today and it was well worth the wait and all the work that I put into getting them.  I hope to pick many more this season, but this is just the beginning and I have more that are growing.  I just need to keep an eye on them and watch for any squash borers that might take up residence in the stems.

Other than picking this zucchini I have been weeding the entire garden for the past week.  This process is always a pain, but it is something that I have to do in order to get vegetables and fruit like the one I just picked today.  This is why weeding is very important for all plants. 

Just some pictures I took of the garden when I was finished weeding it for the most part.