I've been experimenting with ways to photograph my vegetable garden. Above is a "panorama photograph" using my i-phone. And below, a regular photo.
Monday, August 31, 2015
my vegetable garden
I've been experimenting with ways to photograph my vegetable garden. Above is a "panorama photograph" using my i-phone. And below, a regular photo.
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Monday, August 17, 2015
Thursday, August 13, 2015
just picked apples
This is my apple harvest this year. I'm so pleased. Five Liberty apples. Really tangy and crisp. I probably picked them a bit early, but they're fantastic in a martini!
Friday, August 07, 2015
fall seedlings
I've been starting up a bunch of fall seedlings this past week. I used tape for tags instead of pretty wood labels.
Looks like I'll be eating a lot of Bok Choi! The BoPak is a new experimental variety that I'm trialling, Mei Qing and Win Win are my old favorites. And then I found a package of Pechag that I couldn't resist buying. I love stir fried bok choi.
I'm hoping I can get a big crop of fall cucumbers for pickling. All my summer vines have died from wilt. I'm hoping that the beetles that carry the wilt (a bacterial disease) will have moved on by September. (I didn't want to use a beetle spray like spinosad because of my bees.)
I don't want gardeners to look at my list and think - "Oh this is safe to plant now." Some of these will likely not produce a harvest before frost. I am planning a winter tunnel, and will move slower plants into that.
I've added the time to harvest by each variety. It's about 65 days to frost here now. You should generally add two weeks when calculating fall planting times since, plant growth slows as light decreases. Also, some plants here are frost hardy (like escarole and broccoli) and some not (cucumbers). Greens, like lettuce or bok choi, can easily be harvested early.
Variety list:
August 1
Happy Rich (55 days)
Bok Choi, BoPak, 2015 AAS winner (60 days)
Bok Choi, Mei Qing (45 days)
Bok Choi, Win Win (52 days)
Bok Choi, Pechay (60 days)
Escarole, Natacha (50 days)
Lettuce, Skyphos (47 days)
Lettuce, Oakleaf (47 days)
Lettuce, Sylvestra (52 days)
August 5
Broccoli, Bay Meadows (60 days)
Broccoli, Artwork, 2015 AAS winner (85 days)
Broccoli, Arcadia (63 days)
Cucumber, Miniature White (50 days)
Cucumber, North Carolina Pickling (60-65 days)
Cucumber, Salt and Pepper (49 days)
Endive, Tres Fine (45-70 days)
Endive, Dubuisson (50 days)
Radicchio, Indigo (65 days)
Napa Cabbage, Mini Kisaku (50-55 days)
Looks like I'll be eating a lot of Bok Choi! The BoPak is a new experimental variety that I'm trialling, Mei Qing and Win Win are my old favorites. And then I found a package of Pechag that I couldn't resist buying. I love stir fried bok choi.
I'm hoping I can get a big crop of fall cucumbers for pickling. All my summer vines have died from wilt. I'm hoping that the beetles that carry the wilt (a bacterial disease) will have moved on by September. (I didn't want to use a beetle spray like spinosad because of my bees.)
I don't want gardeners to look at my list and think - "Oh this is safe to plant now." Some of these will likely not produce a harvest before frost. I am planning a winter tunnel, and will move slower plants into that.
I've added the time to harvest by each variety. It's about 65 days to frost here now. You should generally add two weeks when calculating fall planting times since, plant growth slows as light decreases. Also, some plants here are frost hardy (like escarole and broccoli) and some not (cucumbers). Greens, like lettuce or bok choi, can easily be harvested early.
Variety list:
August 1
Happy Rich (55 days)
Bok Choi, BoPak, 2015 AAS winner (60 days)
Bok Choi, Mei Qing (45 days)
Bok Choi, Win Win (52 days)
Bok Choi, Pechay (60 days)
Escarole, Natacha (50 days)
Lettuce, Skyphos (47 days)
Lettuce, Oakleaf (47 days)
Lettuce, Sylvestra (52 days)
August 5
Broccoli, Bay Meadows (60 days)
Broccoli, Artwork, 2015 AAS winner (85 days)
Broccoli, Arcadia (63 days)
Cucumber, Miniature White (50 days)
Cucumber, North Carolina Pickling (60-65 days)
Cucumber, Salt and Pepper (49 days)
Endive, Tres Fine (45-70 days)
Endive, Dubuisson (50 days)
Radicchio, Indigo (65 days)
Napa Cabbage, Mini Kisaku (50-55 days)
Saturday, August 01, 2015
today's harvest
Carrots: I'm just thinning them so for, but the little ones are tasty. The varieties from left are: Bolero, Mokum, Oxheart.
Beets: This is my first beet harvest. Four varieties from left: ???, Chiogga, Blankoma, Merlin.
And it's my first TOMATO of the season. Yippee, but WOW, really late. (A previous harvest photo had a couple tomatoes that another gardener gave me.) The tomato variety is Tiren. The seedling was grown by Jane, a friend of my mom's. It's a Roma type. A super looking plant with fruit hanging heavy.
Cukes: These are both Corinto cucumbers. My Corinto vine is producing best in spite of serious wilt issues. I don't really know if it's "wilt" per se, not having had experience with this before, but that's what's going on - beetle damage to leaves without seeing the beetles (cucumber beetles carry the wilt bacterium), the leaves wilt, then the plant dies. None of my cucumbers have wilt resistance.