[pumabearclan]

We don't really have any produce from the garden right now. I scoured everything I could find and have this basil, onion and garlic greens, 1.5 jalapenos, and oregano and sage from another plot. It doesn't look like much but it's pungent! The garlic tops are very strong. I'm going to use this instead of celery and onion (which I'd have to buy) in potato salad. It also would be good in eggplant parm or rice.

The tomatoes are very large but not as numerous as I'd hoped. Does any gardener ever think they have as many tomatoes as they hoped?? The best producing tomato I've grown is Amish Paste, which is a pulpy roma style tomato. The taste was fine but we thought they weren't as good as the large red or yellow "sandwich style" tomatoes.

I cut down the cucumber and planted cilantro seeds in the barrel yesterday.

 

[pumabearclan]

The potatoes were fresh and looked nice but after boiling them I could tell they were tart and not going to be good in cold salad. I added the herbs & peppers, one tomato we bought, a lot of salt, and some chicken broth and cooked it down. I'm going to freeze it as is. I expect to use about half as side dishes for sausages and also add to scrambled eggs & ground beef casserole. Smells good!

 

[pumabearclan]

Made another batch of succotash today, 1 dozen ears of corn, 1.5 tomatoes, olive oil, and salt was purchased, the rest was from the garden: 2 chilis, 1 jalapeno, 1.25 cup basil, 1/4 cup peas, 1 cup sage, 1 cup oregano

Made up 8 freezer dinners with a piece of sausage in each dish and the remaining 1.5 cups we are having on another of those wonderful pizzas!

I was surprised to find anything at all but things are growing and ripening well. Also had 4 yellow bottle tomatoes.

 

[pumabearclan]

Every other day we've gotten 4 yellow bottle tomatoes and several chilis. I had enough to share a little. The yellow bottles fall off the vine if you don't pick them right away, so we never have enough at one time to do anything with them except just eat them as we pick them off :thumb Next year I'm not going to plant a bush tomato. In this corner at the lower left where the yellow bottles are I'm going to plant more peppers. My husband keeps saying "add more pepper" to the point I've had very few to freeze or dry, expect in succotash. This is the first year I tried to serve them raw and whole as possible, especially in chili and egg salad, they're hot but really stretch out the flavor.

I just cut a lot of basil for the last batch of succotash.

 

[pumabearclan]

HARVEST DATA:

Day 71 (?) started June 1:

Basil, washed & chopped, cups: 12
Onion greens, washed & chopped, cups: 9
Peppers: 41
Yellow bottle tomatoes: 25
Goliath tomatoes: 1

cucumbers, ~3 inches: 48 - finished for the season

Peas, shelled, cups: 3

 

[pumabearclan]

Day 74

Cut down the peas today. The remainder had mildew and the vines looked finished.

Total Harvest: 3.5 cups in 74 days

Planted a new batch of peas in the plot, no fertilizer, just a lot of water.

In 74 days it will be late October, plenty of time to grow 3.5 more cups this year.

 

[Steph Anie]

Day 74

Cut down the peas today. The remainder had mildew and the vines looked finished.

Total Harvest: 3.5 cups in 74 days

Planted a new batch of peas in the plot, no fertilizer, just a lot of water.

In 74 days it will be late October, plenty of time to grow 3.5 more cups this year.

You keep such good records! I tried to keep track of how much we harvested this year, but only remembered to count/weigh foods about half the time.

What hardiness zone are you in, if you don't mind saying? I need to calculate whether we can get another sowing of carrots in here this year.

 

[IsaFrench]

my spring onions are not doing so great
planted a few wheat grains for indoor decoration (after refusing to have indoor plants for 15 years plus, tired of picking up soil when the children knocked them over ....) and that is doing great
am still thinking of getting kale going ... but could be going away for a few days & not sur DH would actually water the boxes ...

 

[pumabearclan]

The coriander/cilantro is sptrouting in the barrel already. No new peas emerging yet. Both are taking about 3 gallons of water every 2 days.

Lots of Goliath tomatoes ripening! We've had 3 and the flavor is very good :thumb

What hardiness zone are you in, if you don't mind saying? I need to calculate whether we can get another sowing of carrots in here this year.

I'm in 6 but I can grow like zone 7 due to the heat island effect of pavement and the copious reflected light from the glass of surrounding buildings.

I haven't tried it yet but I read that certain veg do better in spring or fall. I was planning to do radishes in the barrel this spring, since I read they can get bitter in fall. Is carrots one of those? If you use the carrots small and also the greens and can keep it watered why not try.

 

[pumabearclan]

wheat grains for indoor decoration

It's a beautiful plant, neat idea!

 

[Steph Anie]

I haven't tried it yet but I read that certain veg do better in spring or fall. I was planning to do radishes in the barrel this spring, since I read they can get bitter in fall. Is carrots one of those? If you use the carrots small and also the greens and can keep it watered why not try.

I think carrots can be sown every two weeks for the whole growing season here (zone 5). Actually just tonight planted turnips and radishes instead of carrots; have a couple varieties that say they are good for fall plantings! Hopefully that's true because our first frost last year was 11 Sept.

 

[pumabearclan]

We've had 5 Goliath tomatoes and more will be ripe soon!

 

[pumabearclan]

Busy harvesting! Trying to freeze as much herbs and corn as I can manage (corn we buy and then add herbs and peppers to the batches). There have been about 2 Goliath tomatoes per day and a handful of yellow bottles. I've sundried 2 plates of chilis so far and the third is still out, there will be another plate full probably. At least 1 jalepeno or banana pepper ripens daily also. I chopped up a jalapeno into the dish of hard boiled eggs I keep prepped for lunches and we love the combination so it's a good way to store & eat the peppers raw as they come. The second (third, if I'd been on the ball this spring) batch of peas is growing well.

 

[marywash]

Mmmm those peppers sure do look tasty!!