Digging Up all My Carrots Today

Just wanted to mention that it was finally time to pick all my carrots that I had planted this year.  Two full rows of carrots is what I dug up today and was able to fill three buckets full of carrots.  I am glad that I planted more than I did last season and I think it definitely is going to pay off this winter.  Once I can them in jars I can then use them throughout the season.

I also wanted to mention about one of the last heads of cabbage that I picked last week.  It was probably one of the best ones that I harvested this season.  It was eaten by cabbage worms and was actually a pretty good size.

The End of July Means Fall Seed Planting Begins

This is just an optional way of extending the growing season by planting fall seeds that can withstand the cool weather or sometimes require the cool weather to produce great tasting leaves.  Since time is always against me as a gardener I like to grow as much as I can in the allotted time that I have.  This is why I like to have a fall harvest and this is usually when I begin planting the seeds.

It is also a great way to grow different things for the current garden season.  This year I am planning on growing cabbage, kale, and broccoli.  These plants thrive in the colder weather and can also withstand some hot weather in case there are some hotter than normal days during September to October.  I planted eight of each plant into small pots today.

On a side note some of my cherry tomatoes have been turning red.  I noticed this yesterday when I was going through my plants and I noticed that some of my cherries were red.  They were not quite ripe to eat, but today I decided to pick one of them a give it a taste.  It was quite good for a first and I should be picking many more of them in the next couple of weeks at the most.  I hope it will be sooner, but these are just the early bloomers that like to ripen really fast and early.

I finally have my first honeydew melon of the season growing on one of the vines.  I only have two plants, but since I have never grown these before I think that this would be plenty for now.  I could always grow more next year, but for now I wanted to focus on the honeydew and my watermelons for this season.

Speaking of my watermelons I think that they are doing quite well right now.  I hope that they get as big as possible because it won't be the same eating a small watermelon.  I am not looking to grow a 200 lb watermelon, but I think a twenty to thirty pound melon would be perfect.  Take a look at a couple of them below.

I have a total of five watermelons growing at the moment and these are just two examples of how they are growing.  The others are pretty much the same in size and shape, but I wonder which one of these melons will be the biggest of the season.  Make sure to keep reading this blog to find out how big these watermelons can get this year.

Largest Bean Harvest Along With Ripe Cantaloupes

I had some cantaloupes that were growing in the garden that I thought were perfect for harvesting because of their ripe color.  Most of the time melons are very simple to know when they are ripe.  All I do is wait for the stem to start peeling from the plant or just completely fall off.  Either method works and that is how I determine all melons when they are done growing.

This year I have already picked six of them.  Two came earlier in the week and maybe last weekend at the earliest while just a day ago I picked four more.  They sometimes need to be left out to get somewhat soft.  Once that happens I place them in the refrigerator to prevent them from going bad quickly.  The hotter and humid is can increase the rate of decay.

I had some beans to pick this week and I wanted to pick them around wednesday to thursday, but I had to plant my fall crop during these days.  I picked them yesterday and this was the largest crop so far with a weight of 20 lbs.  I think this will be the largest harvest of the year.  From now on the crops of beans will be getting smaller.

As I mentioned above I planted my broccoli and cabbage into the garden which needed to be done as soon as possible.  There was going to be some rain which they could really benefit from if they were in the ground. 

Just one pepper and three more cucumbers were also picked this week along with all the above.  I will be picking some corn soon as well and I probably should have been picking them this entire week or at least some of them.  Hopefully they are not overripe and are still tender enough to be eaten.  I have been a little late this year in picking corn.

A large pepper this week.

The Cucumber Season has Begun

I wasn't sure if I was going to pick a cucumber today, because it didn't look like it was ready this past weekend.  I though it would need a couple more days, but I guess with all the hot and sunny weather it was able to quickly grow to its fullest size.  I took a look at it today and I just wanted to pick it immediately.  I can't wait to cut into it and have a taste of this delicious cucumber. 

Many more are coming and it is just a matter of time before I have too many.  This is what I am hoping for this season.  Last season was not the best and I am looking to make up from last year with a large amount of cucumbers in 2015.  I have plenty of plants that can do it I just need to make sure that they are getting all the nutrients they need to continue growing and producing cucumbers.

I am glad with the size of the cucumber especially for the first harvest.  I saw another one that looked like it was ready for picking.  I will probably pick that one in a couple of days of good weather.  Today it has been raining off and on.  I still was able to get some work done including adding mulch to my beans, corn, and harvesting cucumbers.

On the other hand my fall plants are growing good for now and I made sure to thin them out this year to avoid having multiple plants in one spot.  This would be a problem especially when growing them in plastic cups.  One was left to each pot.  Since I love broccoli more than most people I want to make sure that I get plenty that I can use over the Winter and decided to grow ten more pots.  Now I can potentially have twenty broccoli plants for the fall season.  Hopefully all the seeds will grow very quickly.

Getting the Bean Vines to Start Climbing up Simple Ropes

One of the best things that I can do for my bean plants is to finish setting up my bean trellis which requires rope for climbing purposes.  I like to finish this process once my beans begin growing and start showing signs of vine climbing.  This would usually include vines that are starting to grab onto everything in sight.  It is actually quite unique that they are able to climb basically anything. 

It is best to place a fence for them to climb, but I have found that ropes are just as good.  This has worked for me and I would definitely recommend using something like this for your pole beans.  Bush beans will not need this at all.

If you are growing pole beans you may have to untie them from whatever they are climbing and place them on the ropes that you have added.  Look at the picture below.

Removing weeds from the garden can be a big pain and if you have ever gardened before then you know exactly what I mean.  Mulch is the best way to eliminate and suffocate weeds from your plants.  I added some mulch to my corn because I don't want to weed them for the rest of the year.  Their roots are too close to the surface that if you start weeding aggressively like myself then you can easily harm the roots and the plant may be stunted or even die.  A thick layer of mulch will solve this issue.

My fall crop is on schedule as my seeds of cabbage and broccoli have began sprouting and within a month or so will be placed in the garden for producing delicious food hopefully.  Once I thin them out in a couple of days or so it will be much more noticeable of what they are.  They start out the same which includes all the brassica such as kale, cabbage, broccoli, etc.

Time for More Harvesting and Beginning to Plant a Fall Crop

This year I decided to grow another fall crop and I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to be planting besides broccoli and cabbage.  I was hoping to get some kale seeds, but unfortunately I was unable to obtain them and now I am going to just be focusing on broccoli and cabbage.  Since I have one less plant to worry about I decided on planting exactly ten seeds of cabbage and ten of broccoli.

This does not mean that I only placed one seed into each of the ten containers, but I am using ten containers for each of my fall plants.  I probably placed about four or five seeds into each container making certain that at least one of those seeds will germinate in each cup.  I used a mixture of topsoil and some worm compost that I have been saving to use for this time of the season.  I love using this mixture because it produces vibrant and healthy plants that can last quite awhile in these containers.

They will be staying outside for the rest of the season instead of growing them inside.  It is better for them to be outside in order to adjust to the temperatures immediately and won't have to worry about hardening them off.  They also will get much more sun by being outside as well which is the main reason why I keep them out there.

I have also been harvesting today even though I was planting my fall crop.  For now zucchinis are the most popular in the garden and they are growing really fast.  I started feeding the plants today because a few of them needed to be replenished with nutrients that they require in order to continue producing vegetables that I can pick later on.  This also helps them produce flowers which are much more important in the long run.

I have pumpkins growing on the vines as well which I am looking forward to picking which will not come at any time soon.

Four is the count right now and I think there might be another one somewhere in there which I will have to look for tomorrow.

Cucumbers are also on the rise today and I saw the first one of the season fully pollinated.

It's not quite ready and probably another week or so it should be approaching the point where I can begin harvesting it.  Only time will tell.

The Last of The Season for Pole Beans and The Garden

Last week I picked some more pole beans that have been growing over the past month or so.  Most of the small beans that had started growing in the beginning of October have finally reached a good size for them to be harvested. 

I actually didn't think there was going to be enough to fill up one container since the previous harvests of pole beans didn't yield as much.  To my surprise four containers were needed to collect all the ripe pole beans that were ready for eating.  This pretty much marked the end of these beans for the season.  Now it is time for cleaning up the garden.

It was more like three and a half containers that were completely filled of pole beans.  They weighed over ten pounds and there was about a few hundred of them that needed to be canned for the Winter season.  Now I can enjoy them all the way up to next years harvest.

Cleaning has began a couple days ago with the removal of tomato plants and stakes.  This usually doesn't take that long and only a couple of hours at the most. 

Most of the stakes from my tomatoes and the plants have been removed.  I placed all the plants in the totes for them to be discarded or used for compost for next season.

As you can see in the background I still have my pumpkins out in the garden and haven't yet picked them.  I will most likely pick them before Halloween which is coming up this Friday.  I always like to have at least one pumpkin that will be carved and placed on the windowsill.  This is something that I like to do every year.

Cabbage plants are what I am going to be doing this fall.  Many of them are growing quite well for the lack of attention that I gave them this year.  Usually in the summer you just have to keep the soil moist for the most part.  Once the cooler weather comes then watering usually doesn't become a problem.

With the continuous rain that we have got this past month I will not have to water them for the rest of the year or until I harvest them in November hopefully.  It would be great if I could cut them at the same time that I dig up my carrots near Thanksgiving.

The Last Zucchini and Pole Bean Harvest

Today was a nice cool day with bright sunlight and I took a look at my bean plants and saw that it might be time to pick them once again.  Some of the plants were still producing many flowers and it looks like they might be in time before the first frost appears.

I picked as much as I could today and did not get as many as I thought I had.  Many of them were small and not very big which is to be expected since the temperatures are dropping in the area.  The first frost will not probably come until October unless we get one earlier than normal which can definitely happen.

My zucchini plants are well done and most of the plants have died and will not be producing any more fruits or flowers this season.  They did produce much fruit this season so I am not very surprised that they are finished for this year.  I was able to get three of them average size today.  I can still use them for my stuffed zucchini recipe.

Eggplants will probably be the last thing to pick in the garden besides the carrots and the cabbage which happens every year.  I have several eggplants that are growing from a single plant.  I am not sure how or why this happened, but I am not complaining because they are all a decent size and this is all that matters when growing these vegetables.

This is just the latest on the garden and I will let you know when the garden is officially over and the first frost has come.  I will also keep you up to date on the cabbage which I am going to take care of for the fall season as well as digging up the carrots in a couple of months.