A Good End to The Summer Garden Harvests

Eggplants this season was more prominent than any other summer or spring crop.  I had planted close to thirty eggplant plants and received at least one or more from each plant.  I picked some of the last eggplants a couple of weeks ago just before a frost ended the season for most of my plants.  Close to a dozen were picked in this last harvest
 

The frost ends the season for all my summer plants and starts the season for harvesting my fall crops that include broccoli and brussel sprouts.  Carrots will also be harvested during the fall season as well, but that will be a little bit later in the month. 

My last tomato plant that was still growing after most of them were done for the season has finally finished growing the most tomatoes that it could during the time that it had.  It grew some of the best beefsteak tomatoes this season and some of the best that I have ever grown.  This year I grew a different variety of tomatoes and still focused on beefsteak, but instead of a large type I decided to grow a basic type of tomato.

 

 Now on to my fall crop which I am very much looking forward to.  I have actually started harvesting both my broccoli and brussel sprouts.  I have only begun to harvest just the large heads of my broccoli plants, but soon I will be harvesting the side shoots that come after cutting off the head.  So far I have just cut a couple of large heads that were ready earlier than many of the others.  I would say that the next couple of weeks most of the heads will be removed from my broccoli plants.
 

I wasn’t sure if it was time to start picking my brussel sprouts, but the plant had stopped growing and most of the brussel sprouts looked like they were pretty much ready for consumption.  Instead of picking the whole plant I just started with about have of them and the rest I will get later in the fall season.

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.

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.
 

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 Should I be Harvesting This Month?

At the end of July I got started on picking my red onions.  Then once my yellow onion stems began falling down it was time to start removing them from the totes.  Once they dry I will start using them for as long as I can or as long as they do not rot.  It was then time for my potatoes which I grew successfully this season.  Today I picked several ears of corn that were ready from the garden.

I planted many onions these year including four totes of red onions and six totes of yellow onions.  I had already picked my red ones in the middle of July because the stems were falling and they weren’t getting any bigger.  My yellow onions on the other hand needed some more time before I could pick them from the soil.

Once the end of July cam around I could see that the stems of my yellow onions were beginning to fall over signaling that they were done growing.  It didn’t take long to take them out of the soil, but it will definitely take some time for them to finally dry in the sun.  Since there are many onions it will take a little bit longer for them to dry, but as long as we keep getting these hot days I am sure they will be ready sometime this month.

After I got all my onions out of the soil I turned towards my potato plants.  The plants themselves had stopped growing and turned brown and wilted away.  Since the plants were no more it was pointless to keep watering them and leaving the potatoes in the ground.  I dug them all up and filled up my five gallon bucket with potatoes from the garden.  They were all different sizes, but they all look very good for eating.

 The ears of corn I picked were from this evening.  I had picked a few in the beginning of the week, but most of them only needed a couple more days for them to be ripe enough for picking.  I gave all the others until today and I started picking all the ones that looked like and felt like that were ready.  Only one type of corn was picked toady, and the others will be picked most likely this weekend or next week at the latest.

Getting the first Set of Red Onions Harvested this Past Week

At the moment my red onions were ready to be harvested, but my yellow onions are still not quite ready to be picked.  I always wait for the stems to fall over when harvesting onions and my red onions have fallen were ready to be picked from the soil.  I had planted two extra totes of red onions this season and it seems to have been a good decision.  Once they dry out on the table outside I will then bring them inside and feast on them throughout the year.
 

Although I have harvested red onions the rest of the garden is still growing and not quite ready for a good harvesting.  I would say within a week or so I should be start picking vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes, and possibly peppers.  Right now I have been slowly picking zucchini which has been growing quite well and ripening fast.
 

Many of my tomato plants are producing fruit and have not began to ripen just yet.  I am hoping that with all this hot sunny weather they should start turning red.  It will be interesting to see how many plants of cherry, Roma, and beefsteak I have.  I went through several plantings in the spring and kind of lost track of how much of each type I have.  At the moment I have at least two Romas, several beefsteak, and several cherry tomato plants.
 

I will also start digging up my potatoes that I planted in the springtime.  The plants are started to wither and die and this is when you know it is time to get them out of the ground.  I plan on digging them up sometime this week at the latest.  I could do it tomorrow morning before the afternoon rain comes.  I will have to see how the week goes before digging them up.  They will definitely be up by the end of the week.

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

Time for Harvesting Many Spring Crops

It is that time of the year when spring crops are ready for harvesting which include radishes, lettuce, pea pods, broccoli, and soon to be harvested potatoes.  These are all cool weather crops but are best harvested when the weather gets just a little bit warmer.  You don’t want to pick them in very hot weather because they will most likely start to bolt and no longer be edible.  May to June is the perfect months to harvest these kinds of vegetables.

Let’s start off with lettuce which is usually the first plant to be harvested right next to radishes.  I have had just one harvest so far, but I know there is plenty more lettuce in the garden.  I like to space out harvests especially if I have many lettuce plants.  There is only so much I can store in the fridge and so much I can eat each day.  This way we have plenty of time to eat it without being overloaded with lettuce.
 

Radishes are also another springtime vegetable that is great to have through the cool weather months.  I grew about a half a row this season planting two different kinds of radishes.  One of them was supposed to be a traditional radish while the other was supposed to be much larger.  The key to radishes is to keep them covered with dirt and don’t forget to water them otherwise they will crack and possible rot in the ground.  I was able to get some good sized radishes from this harvest which I have been enjoying in many salads this year.

Last but not least comes my strawberries.  They had been growing this entire season and when they started producing many flowers I was excited to starting picking and enjoying them.  Since these are June bearing strawberries it is a good bet that they will fully ripen in the month of June.  This is the first good harvest I got from them since I started planting them years ago.  It takes a few years before you get a bountiful harvest from these plants

Running out of Time Planting Seeds into the Garden

It looks like time is starting to run out and I only have a couple of weeks to get all my plants and seeds into the ground.  Weather and other factors have prevented me from getting everything in on time and this can happen from time to time.  I will just have to work as fast as possible in order to get everything done before the month is over.

I do have my spring crops in the ground which I placed in the garden about a month ago and they are thriving with this cooler weather.  I am hoping to start picking the leaves off my lettuce real soon because they are growing really good.  Both my green and red plants are just about ready for harvesting which may be done by this week.

Even though I haven’t picked any lettuce leaves I did pick some of my strawberries that were ripe enough to eat.  I picked about four pounds worth of strawberries which is large for a first harvest of these berries.  I am hoping to get another harvest from these plants within the next week or so, then I can start focusing more on plants that need to be transplanted right away.

 Along with transplants there are some seeds that must be planted in the garden including beans, carrots, and corn.  I have planted my corn already and they have been sprouting and I have thinned them out this week.  Now I just need to till some more of the garden and get my beans into the ground before planting any other seeds.  My pole beans need a little bit more time to grow and produce beans and that is why I like planting them in May rather than June.

What’s Left of My Spring Crops That Need to be Transplanted?

This week I actually started placing my spring crops into the garden.  I have plenty of plants that I think I should get a decent crop as long as the weather cooperates for the time being.  Spinach was the first plants that I needed to get into the garden.  They were starting to get a little bit pot bound and running out of room within the container.  Some leaves were also starting to fall which means they need to get into the garden right away. 

 Next I decided on placing the Brassica plants that I planted into the garden.  Unfortunately I lost track of which container had cabbage, broccoli, and brussel sprouts.  Since these plants all look the same when they are young it is very difficult to tell at the moment what they are.  In a couple of weeks they should start to take shape and I can tell you exactly what plants I added into the garden.

Next I wanted to get a new type of lettuce into the garden.  As you know I planted a large crop of lettuce seeds this season in an effort to make up from last year.  I planted seven different varieties of lettuce I was planning on having a great crop as long as they sprouted.  Some did not sprout which was disappointing, but I still have plenty of lettuce plants that did sprout which I hope to place in the garden very soon.

Once I get all my spring crops into the garden I will then start my summer tilling and get my corn, beans, and carrots planted right away.  I need to get them into the ground in the beginning of May and we are now getting close to mid May which means I must start planting them as soon as possible.  I am hoping to get them into the soil this weekend, but I am not sure if I can accomplish this with the time I have.

Potatoes are Placed into the Garden Later than Recommended

Due to weather conditions I have been planting much of my garden later than I would like to.  As they say April showers bring May flowers.  This happens to be true most years, but this season it has been abnormally rainy and windy for the most part.  I normally wouldn’t mind, but unfortunately it is preventing me from planting potatoes and other plants into the garden.

Luckily today was actually quite nice, but definitely windy.  I can deal with the wind and since the sun was out for a short time I decided that it was time to get my seed potatoes into the ground.  I had cut them a couple of days ago and let them sit in the windowsill in order to cure them before placing them in rows outside. 

 

 Rather than digging holes which would have taken much longer to complete I decided that it would be best to start with a thirty foot row.  I had to dig a little bit deeper because they require at least three inches of soil to cover these seeds.  Once I did that I planted them into each row and took up about twenty feet of row instead of the usual thirty or more.

 

  This means that there was extra room that I need to fill.  Since I had no more potatoes to plant I thought it would be best to put some cool weather seeds there.  I wasn’t sure what to put in this spot, but I eventually decided on cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, celery, and lettuce.  I could have placed some flowers there, but there was enough space for some seeds to be planted.

All my recently planted seeds have started to pop up.  I didn’t think they would be sprouting by now, but believe or not they are showing themselves through the soil.  I would guess that it was all the rain we have been receiving for the past couple of weeks with more to come

How Late is Too Late to Plant Peas and Radishes Outside?

Timing is everything when it comes to gardening because there is a time when it is too late to start planting certain seeds.  In this case it is between radishes and snow peas.  I always like to get them into the soil during the month of April and no later.  Although I just planted them in the soil today which is still within the month of April, I would have rather planted them a couple of weeks ago if the weather cooperated.  Luckily this week was good enough to cultivate the soil and I had to plant them today in the cloudy rainy weather.

Now that they are in the soil they can take advantage of the cool weather and rainy conditions which they seem to like and thrive in just like my onions.  I will soon start planting my lettuce, spinach, cabbage, and other plants into the garden soon once they get a little bit bigger.  These I planted indoors and have been in containers outside for the past month or so.

I plan on getting my potatoes into the ground as well.  I am thinking about giving them an entire thirty foot row in the garden.  I think one thirty foot row is plenty of room to get many plants into the ground once I cut off the eyes and dry them a little bit. 

Each eye is potentially a plant that is waiting to be planted into the ground.  You can just plant the whole potato in the ground, but if you cut the eyes you can get many more plants and hopefully a much larger harvest.

My containers that I have planted indoors that are full of edible plant seeds and flower seeds are starting to sprout and break through the soil.  Some seeds that were planted indoors include pumpkins, zucchini, watermelon, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, pickles, cantaloupe, honeydew, and many more.

I have also planted flowers that include Queen Anne’s lace, statice, coriander/cilantro, cosmos, calendula, marigolds, corn flowers, and many more.

Adding One More Tote for My Spring Season Onions

This year was a good idea to add another tote for my onions this season because I decided to use more totes for planting red onions.  They were a great addition to the garden last year and I thought it would be good use more totes to plant them.  That is why I only added one for the moment making the total of totes 10.  I will now use four for my red onions and six for my yellow onions.

I am hoping that these onions will be just as good as the ones I picked last season and will last just as long in storage.  The last red onion was used less than a month ago which means that these onions can last quite awhile if stored properly.  Right now I will be using non garden onions for at least a few months or until I pick a new batch of them.
 

Now that I have planted onions I think it is time to get my peas and radishes into the ground.  I probably should have planted them sooner since it might rain tomorrow which will give them one less day of growing.  I would like to till the section where they are going to be planted, but with the rain tomorrow will make the ground soggy and will not be advisable to till when this happens.  I will just have to plant them without tilling.

More plants are going to be planted inside as well because I have many flowers that need to get into pots not to mention all my other edible foods.  I have not planted watermelon which I love to get a head start and really needs one.  My eggplants also take awhile to grow along with peppers, cucumbers, pickles, cantaloupe, honeydew, and much more.

At the moment my spring plants are doing quite well and with this rain occurring tomorrow possibly it will definitely help them out.  I have been leaving them outside for the past couple of days even though it is sill cool.  They are taking to the weather quite well and they will probably stay outside from now until the warm weather makes them go to seed.

Time to Get Those Four Types of Tomato Seeds into Containers for Indoor Planting

That is right I have four different types of tomatoes that I am going to be planting this season instead of the usual three that I grow every year.  I thought it would be good to try another type of tomato instead of the same every season.  I happen to see a couple of them in the store that I thought would be good for the garden.  I picked up big boy tomato seeds and a super beefsteak.

 

I would have liked to plant my tomatoes indoors a little bit sooner than this past weekend, but I think they should do fine as long as I place them under fluorescent lights to give them a good head start.  There is no room on the windowsill which makes this a necessity to put them under lights for the time being until they sprout.

 I will be continuing to plant cherry and Roma tomatoes which happen to have real benefits.  Roma tomatoes can be made into sauce or other delicious foods and cherry tomatoes are just perfect placed into a salad.  If I get a large harvest of cherry tomatoes like I did last year I can make them into a salsa before they turn moldy. 

Right now my spring crops have begun to sprout this past week.  All the spinach seeds that were planted are now through the soil along with other crops such as lettuce, broccoli, and some celery.  I am hoping by next week everything should be up through the soil or at least just poking through the soil. 

I plan on planting some more seeds very soon which could include melons, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins and many more.  I also still have many flowers that need to be planted which will come very soon as well. 

I might have to get another fluorescent light because my tomatoes are using the two that I use every season for everything.  Although I might not have to once I get my spring crop outside during the daytime I can then have more room on the windowsill.

What is New this Year for My Spring Crop?

This years spring crop is revolving mostly around lettuce.  I actually have seven different variety of lettuce seeds that I bought his year that I decided on growing.  I didn’t think I bought this many, but this should make my garden much more diverse with different types of lettuce and other seeds.

I am growing at least one from each type of lettuce which includes butterhead, looseleaf, iceberg, and of course romaine.  I have three different types of romaine which makes up the bulk of my lettuce seeds this season.  Two looseleafs and one of iceberg and butterhead make up the other half of my seeds.

It wouldn’t be a good spring crop if I didn’t add spinach to the list as well.  I normally start spinach much sooner, but I decided on planting these seeds at the same time as my other spring seeds that I have placed on the windowsill. 

This time I am using different types of containers for these seeds.  These particular plants have a deep tap root and need plenty of vertical room in order to grow correctly and prevent them from going to seed too soon.  I have planted them in smaller containers before and they would always go to seed very quickly which makes them useless for harvesting.

This time I avoided small containers and used longer vertical ones that should provide enough room for the main root to grow without becoming pot bound.  I planted six seeds of my spinach and all the others I have only planted three since there are many seeds I am using for a spring crop.

The last of my spring crop include brussel sprouts, cabbage, celery, and broccoli.  My broccoli I will be picking through the entire season hopefully since it is a hybrid that can withstand the hot sunny days during the summer months.  As for the other three they are pretty much regular types of seeds and I am giving them a head start by planting them indoors first.

What I Plan on Doing for the 2019 Gardening Season

This year I am hoping to be growing many new variety of plants and adding some brand new plants into the garden.  I am looking to have a much larger spring crop than usual which could include seeds such as cabbage, broccoli, and seven different types of lettuce, peas, radishes, and many more for this year’s springtime.

Along with new seeds and varieties I am also looking to grow some new plants this season too.  I was thinking about trying potatoes again but getting them from a local store instead of ordering them from a catalog.  I thought I would try something different in order to get a different outcome this season.

I am looking at possibly adding raspberries and maybe grapes into the garden.  I will most likely plant raspberries, but for grapes I am still up in the air about them.  Although they are a little bit more work it would definitely be worth all the trouble in the end.

I even thought about growing a fruit tree such as an apple or a peach tree.  There was one particular peach tree that actually grows five different types of peaches which can be picked at different times throughout the year.  The theory behind this is that you can pick them all year long instead of one large harvest and then done for the year.  I am still thinking about this as well.

In terms of seeds I have several varieties of lettuce that I plan on growing which includes all four types romaine, iceberg, butterhead, and looseleaf.  With seven different types of seeds I should be able to get a decent crop as long as the weather isn’t too bad.  I will most likely start these plants indoors before putting them outside this year.

Last year I just planted them directly into the soil and I did get some lettuce for picking, but they didn’t do as well as a transplant does.  I plan on planting much more of my seeds indoors instead of directly sowing them into the soil.  This is the best way to get a good start to the growing season in my opinion.  Let’s have a good gardening season for 2019.