Many Fruits and Vegetables Appearing on Most Plants and Vines

It looks like this is the month for harvesting which may include tomatoes, beans, zucchini, melons, and many more.  At the moment I will be definitely harvesting zucchini, onions, corn, beans, and possibly cherry tomatoes.  All the others I might not be picking this month, but most likely in the month of August at the latest.

First on the list is between zucchini and onions.  Since most of my onion plants have fallen over this is the sign that I use when it is time to pull them from the soil.  I would say that my onions are going to be the next harvested vegetable from my garden.  Although I don’t use them right away because I let them dry in the hot sun, my zucchinis may be the first to be used for a meal sooner.



I have a few plants that have zucchini vegetables on them.  The earlier planted zucchini plants will have the first crack at harvesting.  The seeds that were planted a little bit later will obviously take just a little bit longer for some vegetables to be growing from them.



My pole beans are also on the list to be harvested very soon.  Some of the vines already have beans that are ready for picking which is quite soon for them.  The other vines are still in the process of growing and producing flowers and are not ready for harvesting just yet.  I will probably pick all the beans that are ready at the moment in order for the plants to continue producing pods.



Corn is also early this year and is usually picked in August, but this may be due to the new variety that I planted this season.  This is most likely an early picked corn that is growing in the garden right now.  I feel that I will be picking them this month at the latest.



Tomatoes I am also looking forward to because I have many plants this season and I might have enough to last a little bit longer than usual.  I also use many of them for sauces and salsas so none of these tomatoes will be wasted.  Whatever is not used for sauce will be used for sandwiches or salads.

It Looks Like Blueberry Season is in Full Force

Today was a good day to start picking some more blueberries from the garden.  Most of the time the month of July is when you need to start picking them because many of them should be ripe by this time.  It is not uncommon to start picking them at the end of June, but this year it looks like they were not ready enough for harvesting until July.  The good news is that I picked much more today than I did in my very first blueberry harvest.

Five and a quarter pounds is what I got today and the first harvest was barely a pound if not a little bit less.  I still have plenty of berries out there and I should be able to have a couple more harvests with plenty of berries. 

My tomato plants are looking good with plenty of tomatoes growing on them at the moment.  Cherry tomatoes are usually the first to be picked, but I actually had a Roma tomato growing on one of my plants since I placed them in the garden.  This year I am not sure if I will be picking a Roma for the first harvest or a cherry tomato like usual.






Normally my zucchini plants have already started growing on my plants, but since I planted them a little bit late they are getting their flowers late as well.  They are now just showing signs of flowers of both male and female.  Only one plant looks promising that I could be picking a zucchini very soon as long as this flower was pollinated.



My rhubarb plant that I added to the garden this season is doing quite well even though it is quite hot right now.  I still won’t be picking any of the stems this year, but I am hopeful that next year I will be able to pick at least a few of them to do something with.  It takes at least one cold winter to get them producing many delicious stems year after year.

What to do with Broccoli in the Summer?

That is what I did this past week is pick a single broccoli head.  I wasn’t sure if broccoli was going to last this long since it is made for the cooler fall months.  Although I grow a hybrid which is made for warmer temperatures and I want to see how far I can push it before it starts to flower and no longer produces large pieces of broccoli. 



I picked another two pounds of peas this evening and this will make it only the second harvest of peas for the season.  Flowers are starting to dwindle and it looks like it might be the end for them this year, but with the right nutrients they can continue growing with even more flowers hopefully. 



Strawberries are definitely done for the season and all that is left is dealing with the runners that come from all the plants.  If you don’t control them they can go wild and start planting new plants in all directions.  I will take some of them and put one in between all the plants that I have right now.  This should increase the amount of strawberry plants from 30 to 50 or more.

Blueberries are not that far behind and it should be harvesting time in the month of July.  I usually start picking them at the end of June, but it looks like this year that is not going to happen.  They are beginning to turn, but they still have some time before they are blue enough for picking and eating.

I wouldn’t mind starting to pick my lettuce this week.  Some of the plants are not ready, but my king crimson red lettuce is about time for them to be picked.  I don’t like picking plants all at once and instead pick leaves here and there.  I find I can get more out of a plant if I leave them in the ground and only pick leaves when they continue producing them.

A Look at My Garden Progress and First Pea Harvest

I just wanted to get you up to speed with what has been going on in the garden for this season.   I actually picked the first harvest of strawberries last week and had another harvest a couple of days ago.  It looks like only two harvests will come from these plants, but I will be adding many more plants this year for more berries next season.

Today was a good day because I had a second harvest from my pea plants.  This was just the first harvest from my pea plants and it was a small, but successful one.  Although there were not many that were ready for harvesting there still was enough to get a small yield.  I would say that this will last just one meal.  There are plenty of more peas on the plants which I plan on picking in the coming days.



Blueberries are looking good and I can’t wait to start picking them which happens at the end of this month.  July is when I get the bulk of these berries, but getting a little early would definitely be small taste of what is to come hopefully.



If I were to take a guess I would say that the next harvest will come from my lettuce plants.  Many of them are ready for picking and cutting, but I have held off for the moment.  My king crimson red lettuce is the best out of all of them for the moment.  I do have green lettuce that looks good as well and even a broccoli plant that is producing a head.  I would say real soon I will be cutting many of the leaves from my lettuce plants.



I also just wanted to mention my tomatoes have flowers on them and should be seeing tomatoes coming from them real soon.  I have staked them and all I need to do is tie my plants to the stakes to prevent them from falling over.  I will have to do this sometime this week at the latest or at least before tomatoes start to come through.

Almost Done with All the Transplants in the Garden

I am just about finished with all the transplants that I will be adding to the garden.  All I have left is some dill, wildflowers, statice, alyssum, and various other flowers that I need to get outside real soon.  With vegetables and fruits finally planted from seed or transplanted into the garden from containers, I can now focus on weeding and caring for my plants.  I am just looking for the first harvest from my garden this season.

It looks like some of the first harvests of the season will come from either my lettuce plants or some other spring crop.  Radishes don’t take long to mature and they were planted in the ground a couple of months ago along with my pea plants.  These are just some of the harvests I have to look forward to this year.



The only flowers I transplanted into the garden this week were my cilantro and cosmos flowers.  These plants I started growing back in April and took quite awhile for them to germinate and grow in the containers that I provided them.  They survived this whole time and it was way overdue to plant them in the ground.  It seems like they all took to the soil and with the rain today should definitely help them out greatly.



Rhubarb was another plant that had been grown in pots and was eventually destined to be added into the garden.  I gave them a spot with plenty of room since they have very large roots and need plenty of feeding.  I don’t plan on harvesting any of the stems this season, but hopefully with some good care this year and a cold winter I should have a small harvest next season. 



Last but not least I wanted to mention some of the seeds that were planted and which ones have shown signs of germinating.  Squash was the first since they don’t take long to germinate.  This includes both zucchini and pumpkin plants.  Some cucumbers were in the mix beginning to sprout.  Sunflowers were the other seeds that are starting to grow in the garden.  All that I am waiting for are carrots and a couple of melon seeds that I added a week ago.