My first harvest of summer squash (Cashflow zucchini and Zephyr yellow squash)! The ultimate summer crop.
And beautiful beets (Detroit White, Chiogga and Lutz).
I'm very pleased with my beets this year. Last year they were misshapen and hairy. This year, they are growing fast and are very nicely shaped. I guess its paid off to prepare a bed especially for roots that wasn't amended with compost or manure. (Beets and other roots are light feeders and get hairy and misshapen with rich soil.) My corn, squash and greens seem to appreciate getting extra amendments.
12 comments:
What a beautiful harvest! Congratulations!
Your beets do look delicious!!! Do you eat the greens? I love them!!
Hello, I checked out your flickr photos and I noticed you harvested your garlic...how did you know when it was ready to be harvested?
Thanks in advance!
~Felicia~
Kathy those Courgettes look great, we have some yellow ones (Athena) coming along, I finally got some more in the ground yesterday. The soil is so hard we desparately need rain, the water butt is emptying fast!
Marian (LondonUK)
Kathy, that is a lovely 1st harvest. What did you do with your squash? Can't wait for our first harvest. We're just starting to form blossoms, so it will be a while.
Felicia,
Thats' cheating to look ahead at my Flickr photos! I will post soon, and mention a new book of mine (Complete Book of Garlic, Ted Meredith) where I have been learning about garlic types and when to harvest. There is a whole section on when to harvest thats very interesting to read. The ideal seems to be to harvest when 5 green leaves remain and the rest are brown.
I harvested an enormous amount! I'm so pleased. They ranged from 6-8 green leaves to no green leaves.
Since the leaves start at the base of the bulb, they are also the bulb wrappers. A green leaf means and intact wrapper, and a brown leaf means that wrapper has degraded. If there are no green leaves left, the bulb has no wrapper and the cloves are exposed and will not store well. Too many green leaves and the bulb has not reached full size and flavor (but is still great to eat as green garlic). The book has good photos and diagrams to explain this.
There's also a nice comment earlier on my blog from Patrick about harvesting garlic. He says, "Garlic can be pulled and eaten almost anytime! I start in the spring, when it's the size of spring onions and keep harvesting every few weeks. When it's too young to harvest the roots, you can harvest the greens. In this way you have fresh garlic almost all year round."
I am envious of your garden and Skippy's not bad either. You are having a great harvest. This is my first visit to your blog so I spent some time reading your earlier posts. I enjoyed my visit and will be back often, Have a great day. Blessings...Mary
Hello, Now that I know that's cheating, I guess I will not take a peak anymore.....or try not to... :)
Thank you for the garlic advise, ahead of time!
~Felicia~
Only kidding... cheating is fine :)
Pulled some "test" garlic today and looks AMAZING! Your harvests and advice are terrific!
~Felicia~
Hello,
this is awesome blog, I just find out this today. I start to do vegetable garden this year, the fence I put in did not work well. All my peas and beans has been taken by animals, they ate all the leaves. I am wondering I can plan some more peas, when I should plant that. Also, my soil seems very sandy, I know I should put in manure, any good advide is greatly appreicated.
Thanks.
Jin
I also just found your blog. I love it! I was googling squash to try to identify a wild vine in my yard and came across your pictures and your blog. I put a picture of the fruit(?)bearing vine on my Cottonmouth Creek blog http://wp.me/pD1iv-7W if you have any ideas on what it could be. It looks like some kind of tiny squash.
I wanted to plant some vegetables this year, but didn't think I'd have time to manage it... I had no idea I'd lose my job the first week of June and have all the time in the world to work in it. :-)
I can't wait to see your garlic book. I wonder if I can still get some garlic in the ground this year. I'll be subscribing.
Give Skippy a scratch and a hug for me.
Jan
That's why my carrots are hairy! DId not know that rich soil causes that... good tip!
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