Thursday, July 19, 2012

summer abundance

 Copy of 117

Today's harvest:

1 head cauliflower
5 red and white beets with greens
a bunch of carrots
3 heads of red lettuce
1 chili pepper (the season's first)
3 Costata Romanescu zucchini
a couple green pattypan squash
a couple yellow crookneck squash (season's first)
some bunching onions
4 cucumbers
and a very pretty radicchio (season's first)

Copy of 113

7 comments:

Mary S. from Toronto said...

Fabulous! Kathy, how do you get your radicchio to head up?

becky3086 said...

Very nice!

Anonymous said...

Hi Kathy, it's Marie in Boxford, I have not checked in with your blog in a while and as always, I am so envious of your greenest of thumbs! You are truly my idol. You grow everything and it all looks so healthy and yummy!

I had a late start this year since my old beds got away from me and I hired someone professional to come in and give me raised beds, so I wasn't putting anything in the ground until the 1st week of June, and I had some straggling tomatoes that were dying to be transplanted.

Finally I transplanted the tomatoes, and seeded with lettuce, cabbage, pumpkins, beans, peas, zucchini and eggplant. Went away for the first 2 weeks of July and came home to a nightmare of weeds! When I finally got through the weeds, I was surprised - no cabbage came up and only 2 lettuce plants. I have about 10 each of peas and beans, but they look a little hesitant, although one pea plant near my tomatoes is flourishing.

My biggest surprise was that some 2010 eggplant seed I'd saved from a small fruit I had that year (a single, and my only eggplant I ever grew), came up EVERYWHERE. I have fully counted 62 eggplant plants, several with stalks already as thick as a nickel. It's quite amazing as I've never been able to get eggplant to germinate before, and all of a sudden I have an entire crop of it on the horizon.

Just wanted to share with a fellow gardener. Every year I manage to not grow something, and every year I have a surprise. No peppers or cukes came up this year, either, and I have one lonely cornstalk. I think my seed must be old.

Best wishes for a lovely summer of harvesting!

Cherry's Prairie Primitives said...

Looks delicious!! Plenty to eat!!

kathy said...

I don't know how I get the raddichio to head up. I have about 10 plants growing now and they all seem to be doing different things. often about half of my crop bolts, the rest head. Sometimes round and red, sometimes green and oval. High temps and long days cause bolting, bitterness and make the leaves greener rather than red. Probably the plants that mature sooner - before the long summer days come - are the ones that head. If yours aren't heading, my guess is to start them sooner. I also plant them in a few different places in the garden. I have some in a shadier spot by the squashes and some in full sun. the ones that bolt add to the compost.

kathy said...

Marie, what a great idea to save eggplant seeds. I just looked up how to do this and it sounds pretty easy. I look forward to trying this.

I always seed in trays inside and baby the seedlings. It's hard to plan around a vacation. I went away for a week this spring and so I waited and planted several types of plants late. My peppers especially were late and are smaller than usual. I have reall bad luck with direct seeding in the garden.

Get the eggplant Parmesan recipe ready!!!

Diary of a Tomato said...

Thanks for info on the radicchio, I was wondering the same thing! We planted it for the first time this year, and just got a jumble of coarse, tough, bitter breen leaves...