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

Getting to Harvest Zucchini Today and Soon Many Other Vegetables

Right now I have not harvested anything from my summer crop.  If you count blueberries as a summer crop, then I have only harvested one fruit this season.  Well all that changed today when I harvested the first zucchini of the season. 

Not only are my zucchini plants producing vegetables, but my cucumbers are on the verge of harvesting as well.  For now it is my straight eight cucumbers, but my pickle cucumbers will probably come shortly after these. 

 One pumpkin looks like it wants to grow right on the vine.  I have a pumpkin plant that has its first pumpkin growing right on the vine.  This is the first one of the season as well and with many other vines growing in the garden I hope to see more of them in the coming weeks.

Taking a Look at Some of My Progressing Fruits and Vegetables

This whole week has been busy in the garden especially with everything that is starting to produce flowers, fruit, and vegetables.  Right now it looks like my first zucchini of the year is going to be done within a week or so with good weather.  It has been growing every single day and it is definitely very noticeable to the naked eye that it is continuing to grow.  Once it stops growing or getting bigger that is how I know it is done.

All my tomatoes are growing and I have at least one of each type that has tomatoes.  This would include at least one steakhouse, one Roma, and one cherry tomato.  My cherry tomato plants at the moment actually have just flowers, but I am sure very soon this week I should have at least one growing on one of these plants.  Check out my steakhouse and Roma below.

One of my cucumber plants is already producing cucumbers, but at the moment none of them have been pollinated so far.  Luckily many of my other plants are starting to produce flowers as well and I think that my plants will have a better chance at pollination once most of my cucumbers are producing flowers.

Here is just one of those female flowers that have opened.  I am not sure if it received the pollen that was needed, but I should find out soon if it did or not.  This could possibly be the first cucumber of the season.








I did not mention my pumpkins in the previous post because they were not doing anything at the time.  Yesterday I noticed that a pumpkin had been growing on one of the vines for the past couple of days at least.  I didn't notice it earlier and it actually had an opened flower.  It was a sunny day and that is good because usually there are more of them during sunny mornings.  So there is a possibility that it had been pollinated, but I am not sure.

Harvesting the First Vegetables May be Just Around the Corner

So far the only thing that I have been harvesting is mainly leaf plants including spinach and lettuce.  Now that spinach is over and lettuce season coming to close it is almost time to start harvesting vegetables that are beginning to grow in the garden.  The first of the season would most likely be zucchini.

My zucchini plants are growing quite well and at least most of them or even all of them are producing vegetables at a very fast speed.  They started flowering about a week or so ago and are now producing very large zucchinis and it will not be long before I start harvesting them.

This is just one and there are many that are this size or even bigger.  I would say by this week I will be harvesting zucchini.  This will be the non leaf vegetable to be harvested this season.

My pumpkins are even growing good and the vines are just spreading out like crazy.  I acutally found a pumpkin that looks like it has been pollinated very recently.  I would say less than a week ago it flowered and was pollinated by the bees.  I never thought I would get a pumpkin this early, but I am not going to complain because the earlier they come the more time they have to grow that pumpkin.

This is the first pumpkin so far and there are more that have begun flowering, but I will not now if they were pollinated until another few days to a week at the most.  Once it starts getting bigger then that means it was pollinated and will start getting bigger each day.

Cucumbers are another vegetable starting to grow and flower.  I found the first fruit starting to flower yesterday that means cucumbers will be visible very soon.  There are only a couple of plants flowering, but I have only seen one fruit actually opening.

My tomato plants are growing flowers too and I am hoping that some of them will start ripening very soon.  The goal is to start picking them by mid July at the latest.  I don't think any of them will be ready by the fourth of July, but they are usually not ready by then normally.  Here is a large Roma tomato that may be the first tomato harvested this season.

A New Harvest of Cherry Tomatoes Started Today

I just found out that I had a couple of cherry tomatoes that were ready to pick today.  After looking at all of my cherry tomato plants I was able to pick just five of them for now.  They always ripen before any other type of tomato.  I was just surprised that they had turned red this quickly.  Once they start turning it is only a matter of time before you have too many tomatoes in hand and you don't know what to do with them all.

On the other hand I had a cucumber that came a little bit earlier than all the rest and it was time to pick it because it wasn't going to grow any more.  Picking them before they become tough is something that I like to do in order to savor their sweet flavor.

I also took some snapshots of the latest on my two growing pumpkins.  Take a look at how big they have become.

Noticed Some Pumpkins and Cucumbers Now Available

Checked up on the garden yesterday and have found that cucumbers and pumpkins are now beginning to grow in the garden.  It can be difficult to find them when there are so many leaves covering them especially if you are not using a fence of some kind to let the vines grow.

I just make sure that the vines do not get in the way of other plants and force them to go where I want them to go.  It is a very simple process that you can easily use with short sticks that you have lying around.

As of yesterday I took these pictures of two pumpkins and one cucumber.

These are two vegetables that are very significant in the garden that I thought you would like to know.  I have others including peppers and beans as well which I will talk about later.

The Last Vegetables That are to be Planted Indoors

One of the last vegetables that needs to be planted include the pumpkin and zucchini.  These are part of the squash family and are sometimes referred by this name.  I like to do them last because as soon as they start sprouting they will grow considerably fast.  You don't want to have a plant on your windowsill that is taking up too much room.  This is one reason why I grow them last.

Another reason to grow them later than your other plants is that you need to put them into larger pots in order to accompany all the roots that will be needed in supporting these vegetables.  Root bound plants never end up doing good and will most likely not succeed as you had hoped. 

One container that you can use for this task are ones that can hold up to 32 oz of soil.  I happen to collect these types of containers and I reuse them for all my gardening needs.  Don't forget to insert holes on the bottom to allow for proper drainage and air circulation.  Hurry up and start growing your squash plants today.