Three Summer Crop Vegetables Harvesting Continues

 It is that time of the season where most of my vegetables are going to be ready for picking and harvesting.  So far I have been consistently picking cucumbers and zucchini and this weekend I started with harvesting my corn for the first time this season.  Corn usually ripens around the same time and I usually pick an entire row as long as they are the same type or breed of corn.  I have two rows of corn and the second row will soon be harvested in a couple of weeks.  For now I picked an early type and that is what I have been enjoying for the past few days.

The cucumber vines in the garden have been growing since the beginning of May and have been just producing cucumbers on a weekly basis.  I have been picking a harvest pretty much every week and yesterday I probably picked the most so far this summer.  I am glad I am picking plenty of cucumbers because I need to make up from last year when I only picked just a couple of cucumbers from one or two vines.  

It seems that I will be picking tomatoes next from the garden.  Many of them are ripening slow because of the cloudy and rainy weather that has been around this year.  I am sure that with a couple of days of some sun most of them will be harvest prone.  These would include all the types of tomatoes that I planted such as cherry, Roma, and beefsteak.  There was one on a plant yesterday that I should have picked, but I will wait another day before I get to enjoy it's juicy flavor.

Eggplants are another vegetable that looks like it will be ready soon.  These plants I started inside because this is one plant that needs much time to mature and it seems that they are maturing earlier than normal which is a good thing.  I would guess that all the plants have at least one eggplant growing from them and possibly more with all the flowers that they had on them.  I would guess sometime this month at least one or more eggplants will be mature enough for harvesting.

It Looks Like Plants are Starting to Produce Fruit for a Good Harvest

This is about the time that things are starting to happen and harvests will start to become common or at least once a week at the minimum.  Tomatoes will probably be the last to harvest not including my pumpkins which are always picked close to October as possible if at all.  Sometimes I have to pick my pumpkins much earlier because the plant is dead and the pumpkin can't grow or ripen anymore by being outside.  For now I am going to be focusing on vegetables that are ready or ripening right now.

 

The first new harvest for the season are my cucumbers.  I transplanted many vines this season and I also planted seeds directly in the soil as well so I have two batches of plants that I am hoping will produce many cucumbers for me.

 

I have already picked three so far this year and I am hoping to pick many more.  I have looked at the vines and I am seeing most of them with at least one or more female flowers and fruits that are getting bigger each day.  By the end of this month I hope to have at least a dozen cucumbers picked.

  Next up on the list would be my zucchini which have been growing for quite some time.  I would say around the fourth of July is when my plants began producing flowers and short after zucchini appeared on all three plants.  There are three plants, but four zucchinis that I will be picking very soon because they are large right now and only a little bit more time on the plant until it is ready to be picked and then cooked.  

My pole beans have been climbing with their vines and while this is happening they are starting to produce flowers along the way.  I think my beans might actually starting coming right after I start picking my first batch of corn.  Right now they have flowers that are opening, but no beans so far.  With the two plants that sprouted this season I am not looking to have a big harvest.

As I just mentioned my corn plants are coming through with the silks that is a sign that corn should be harvested in a couple of weeks.  This first time is a fast grower and doesn't take as long as my silver queen which I planted  in the other row.  This is the first time growing silver queen corn and I am looking forward to how it will come out this season.  Right now I will have to wait for them since they don't have any silks yet, but this early type does and should be harvesting in the near future.

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.

Another Day Full of a Few New Harvests

I just decided to finally start picking my cherry tomatoes and some pole beans.  I was planning on picking them sometime this weekend and that is exactly what I did today.  There were also a few cucumbers that were also ready which makes for three simple harvests today.

There were just a few cherry tomatoes that were ready for picking, but there are many more that will hopefully start turning real soon to make even larger harvests.  I usually like to fill large bowls filled with cherry tomatoes.  I am actually waiting on my regular and Roma tomatoes to turn because those are the tomatoes I like to use the most.

My beans this season were quite large and I would say that they were just shy of a foot long.  This goes for all the ones that I picked today.  Looking through the vines I saw that there were many more to pick and they were about the same size, but were just not ready to pick yet.





Just wanted to mention the four cucumbers that I picked today as well.  Two were pickle cucumbers and the other two were just normal cucumbers.  I wasn't planning on picking a couple of them, but they were a decent size and I didn't want them to grow on the vine for too long.

Start Getting Ready for Many Harvests in the Garden

It is that time when harvests of many fruits and vegetables will be coming.  For now I have started with zucchini, cucumbers, a couple of pickle cucumbers, and blueberries.  I have been looking through the garden and it looks like I have some beans to be picked very soon.  I could start picking them today, but instead I picked a couple of cucumbers that needed to be harvested right away.

 You can see from the picture that my pole beans are growing, but they are just not quite ready for picking.  There are a few early birds that are ready and I might pick those this weekend, but the majority will most likely be ready in a week or so.

It looks like tomato picking is on the horizon as well with a couple of my cherry tomatoes beginning to ripen.  It doesn’t take long for these types of tomatoes to start ripening since they are a much smaller size than the others that I am growing.  That is why they are the first to be picked which shouldn’t be that long from now.

I think I have a cantaloupe that has been pollinated recently.  One of the vines has many fruits, but there is only one that looks like it has been getting bigger once the flower fell off.  It could be the first melon of the season depending if it continues to grow or not.

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. 

Peppers, Corn, Tomatoes, and Cucumbers

This week was very busy with lots of harvesting of many of my vegetables.  Some of the vegetables that I was able to pick included the first of the peppers, corn, cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, zucchini, and even more cucumbers.  I have many more vegetables on the way including my eggplants which look almost ready to pick.

My peppers were picked about a couple of days ago and it was the very first harvest of these sweet delicious vegetables.  I wasn't sure if I was going to pick any more, but there are still many more on the plants which means I will be harvesting many more in the near future.

Today I picked the first corn of the season which I wasn't sure was going to be ready today.  I had been looking at them throughout the week and thought that sometime this week I would begin picking them.  Today was that day that they finally were ripe enough to pick.  I don't want to pick them too early and I don't want to pick them too late.  I like to pick them when they are just right.

I also have been picking Roma tomatoes this week as well.  My cherry tomatoes are doing very well and I was able to get 52 today and some more a couple days ago.  Once the cherry tomatoes are done or most of them have been picked that is usually when I start getting large Roma tomato harvests.

A few days ago I picked some more cucumbers which I didn't want to leave outside for too much longer.  Most of my plants look exhausted, but some of them are still growing vines and producing flowers along with vegetables.  I am not sure how much longer they will be producing, but hopefully it will be for as long as possible as long as the weather holds up.

Seeing More Vegetables Growing on My Plants

Just thought I would write a quick post about some of my plants that are beginning to produce some flowers and vegetables.  First of all my corn stalks don't produce flowers, but they are starting to grow ears of corn which will be picked hopefully sometime this month.  I am also seeing eggplants and peppers that are beginning to fill up the plants with vegetables.  These I hope to also pick this month.

I also had some more cherry tomatoes and cucumbers that were ripe enough to be picked.  Don't worry I have plenty more cherry tomatoes and cucumbers that I should have some more harvests before the end of the season.

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.