July 31, 2014

Garden Harvest in Late July


Starting at the top and working to the right: blueberries, Tendergreen green beans, multiplier onions, Zuchetta summer squash, Green Nutmeg melon, Sugarbaby watermelon (a volunteer), Amish Paste and Roma tomatoes, a couple of eggs, and a blueberry pie. Sadly, the cucumbers are finally done due to blight. We had enough overlap to get a few tomato and cucumber salads, but I certainly wouldn't have minded a few more.

How is your garden doing?

22 comments:

Dawn said...

A nice variety, what is Amish Paste not come across that before, I am picking lots of Blueberries a few tomatoes onions potatoes and courgetts (zuchini) limited this year as its only what we grew in containers and brought with us.

Unknown said...

Not picking anything, hibernating inside BRRRRRrrrrrrrr

Sue in Suffolk said...

Our cucumbers have come to an abrupt halt with some nasty thing thats made the leaves shrivel up. I'm cross with myself for not watering them enough this year.

De said...

We got our garden in late this year so I just canned our first green beans yesterday. The tomatoes are just starting to ripen. The paste tomatoes are ripening first. The peppers and cabbage are doing well and we've enjoyed the first peas. Unfortunately, some of the corn is starting to tassle and it is only waist high. I'm not sure we'll get anything from it. Boo.

Leigh said...

Dawn, Amish Paste is another pear style sauce tomato. I think they are much better flavored than Romas, and I have to say that they produced faster growing and more vigorous plants from direct sown seeds. I'll probably forego saving Roma seeds this year in favor of the Amish Paste.

Limiting courgetts probably isn't so bad, considering how many of them most of us usually end up with, LOL

Lynda, for you it's that time of year!

Simplesuffolksmallholder, sounds like you had a similar problem to me. I've recently found two varieties of summer squash which seem disease resistant, but cukes are another matter.

De, hurray for first cannings! Strange about the corn, but maybe you'll get at least a taste.

Sarah C. said...

Where did you get your zuchetta seeds? They looks great and I would love to try some next year. Alternatively, would you be interested in a seed swap???
I know the Amish paste tomatoes are supposed to be pear shaped but mine are GIANT this year, seriously softball sized so I don't know what happened. I have a photo on my blog as proof if you click my name. :)

Farmer Barb said...

Well, the truth is, that my garden is so full of arugula that it is shading out almost everything. The beets are getting ready. The green beans are flowering. The raspberries are loading up. Some slug or another ate the winter squashes on the inside. The Mystery Seed planted out in the pasture has been surreptitiously avoided by the grazers. It must smell bad. The birds got all eight of my blueberries. I did, however, get some wild ones. A first in four years. The tomatoes are starting to come.

I'm with you on the Amish Paste. The ones I got were streaky and torpedo shaped. The plant closer to the water table is very big. The drier one shows the need for irrigation. All good things to know...

Michelle said...

I've harvested a couple wee jalepeno peppers, our first two tomatoes, and the summer squash is coming on daily now. There's more rhubarb for the picking. (Strawberry and currant season is over, the raspberries are winding down, and I'm still getting boysen and marionberries.) Unfortunately, the ground squirrels who moved in this year have a preference for cucumber seedlings, green bean leaves, and carrot tops. :-(

Sandy Livesay said...

Leigh,

Now that's a nice July harvest, including making blueberry pie!!!

My garden is doing very well for July. I'm on my second planting of green beans. The squash vine is growing everywhere but hasn't displayed blooms yet. The watermelon and pumpkin is growing like crazy producing these little adorable fruits. My cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, and peppers are still producing beautiful fruit making for several more harvests.
I really think all this rain has helped this July. Usually it's extremely hot by now.

Nina said...

A desperately cold winter, a very late spring and a cool summer have been hard on some plants but good for others. Currant harvest was down by half this year. Lettuce, chard and beets have been spectacular though. The beans were eaten by the bunnies, so none for the freezer, but they left enough for fresh eating. They also ate the pumpkins and zucchini but the second planting of cuks are just starting to bear fruit. Tomatoes are ripening well and we might actually have blackberries and raspberries this year - so I'm not complaining. It's better than the year of drought when nothing grew but the weeds.

Mark said...

Our NE Indiana hard winter and late start on the garden have put us behind, but most things are starting to come around. De canned our first 15 pints of green bush beans yesterday, and soon we'll have lots of both bush and pole beans.

Tomatoes are doing ok, but not as good as last year. We've harvested a few small tomatoes, but the larger varieties are still green. Peas are a little skinny but not done yet, radishes are good but we didn't a good stand. Lettuce and spinach failed entirely. Beets look really good but, again, not a great stand. We will likely find ourselves happy but weary from lugging potatoes when harvest time comes. Cucumbers seem to be coming on ok, and the yellow squash are just starting, but the rest of the viney stuff has us a little worried, as does our sweet corn. We need some 'real' summer to get those moving. My one raspberry plant the survived the hard winter finally died a horrible, lingering death so I'm rethinking what next year's restart will look like. Not really garden, but we could get our first eggs in the next few weeks!

Good yields or not so much, I do love harvest season!

Harry Flashman said...

My little test garden was destroyed by rain. All the boxes washed out.

Anonymous said...

Nice harvest! Nothing much to harvest in my garden here at the moment and it's too cold to plant out anything else right now (although I'm hoping to get some carrots in today). I've a heap of garlic growing, Egyptian walking onions, potato onions, some cabbages that I guess are getting close to picking size, my caulis were a fail although the chooks lvoed them. My brussels sprouts are still not near mature, broad beans are about a foot high and I have a handful of pea flowers out. Harvestwise, it's turnips and parsley and a few spring onions. That's it! Despite the cold though, my hens are in top form and we get 4-5 eggs a day. :)

Tuesday said...

Beautiful harvest! Here in Florida we are getting ready to put our garden in. This year we'll have tomatoes, kale, lettuce, Brussels sprouts, and maybe a few other things. By June you can't get anything but cow peas and sunflowers to grow.
Hopefully this time next year we'll have a bigger garden plot ready at our new land!! Lots more room, lots more potential!

Ed said...

I need to plant me some blueberry pie plants!

Leigh said...

Sarah C., This is the third year I've grown Amish Paste and have to say they are very inconsistent in size and shape. Some of them are pear tomato like, others are huge and round like yours. But they are so tasty, fresh, canned, or as sauce.

I got the Zuchetta seeds in a seed trade. :) So of course I would be happy to trade with you as well.

Barb, sounds like you're making progress :)

Michelle, you get all kinds of things I can't grow! Would love some of those berries.

Sandy, I'm glad to hear your garden is doing well. Living in a part time dry zone is certainly a challenge!

Nina, it's funny how some things do well one year, something else another. I have to agree that drought is the worst for gardening.

Mark, it's interesting to hear how everyone else's gardens are doing and I have to admit there's a bit of relief that I'm not the only one with varied harvests!

Harry, that's tough. I hope it wasn't totally discouraging though.

Rabidlittlehippy, thanks! Sounds like you've got a wonderful variety of cool weather crops. That plus those eggs makes for good homestead eating. :)

Tuesday, at the rate you're going you will definitely have a garden on your own land before you know it. :)

Ed, I've both frozen pies ready to bake and canned blueberry pie filling. But nothing tastes as good as a fresh blueberry pie!

Chris said...

Berries elude my garden (too hot) so I admire others. We do get to grow pineapples though, which are sweet and juicy in season.

At the moment we're harvesting wom bok leaves for the guinea pigs. I eat a couple of leaves raw myself, and what has done really well is chick weed. I eat that raw too. If it will grow here and isn't poisonous, I will eat it, lol

I do have cauliflower, beans, garlic and silverbeet on the brew however. I just hope they don't bolt to seed because winter has been so strange. We've been getting lots of hot wind. That's a summer deal, not a winter one.

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Sorry your cucumbers are about done. Mine have finally gotten a couple little cucumbers on them Sadly my garden has not done real well this year but have gotten a little. Looks like you harvested a nice variety! Nancy

Renee Nefe said...

I'm still waiting for my garden. I had a few cherry tomatoes that were almost ready and then we got hit with a 3 day monsoon. One of the tomatoes split (too much water, I think).
The roma tomatoes are loaded with green fruit as are the yellow pear tomatoes.
The peppers are peppering and the green beans have a few (2 or 3 each) beans on them.
the chard must have gotten too much water as it is brown and cripsy this morning. :-/
The aphids are loving the brussel sprouts. Zucchini & pumpkins are plugging along. sigh

Monsoon season for Colorado is supposed to be in June...so this continued late water is a surprise and frustrating.

The Stay @ Home-Gardener said...

Oh! Look at those berries, Leigh! Delightful. I've never heard of a multiplier onion. Interesting. :)

Leigh said...

Chris, that's too bad about berries. I can't grow all kinds; too hot for gooseberries and currents, so I'm thankful for what I do get. Your statement makes a good point, we just have to eat what we can grow.

Nancy, sorry to hear your garden hasn't done well! Gardening is so unpredictable, isn't it?

Renee, it seems to me that you've had more challenges to gardening over the years than anybody. It's a credit to you that you hang in there with it!

Cloud, good to hear from you! Yes, we are fortunate with our blueberries! The multiplier onions were a great find for me. I've never had success growing globe onions, but the multipliers (besides producing multiple bulbs) do much better. I just have to get to the point where I'm growing a year's worth.

Unknown said...

Nice haul! My peppers are late for some reason, but my tomatoes are going strong.