Gardening: Veggies and Flowers 2012

[JLives]

Today`s purple and orange carrot harvest.

[Queen K]

Oh yummy JL, nothing like fresh.

We've harvested several cherry tomatoes, apricots, and are watching our zukes. I think I may get some this year, last year they were a disaster. I have one cuke to pick today and the green peppers are rocking once I cleaned out volunteer tomatoe plants that were choking them out. Big mistake to let them mix.

All greens have gone bitter with the heat, but the garlic is all harvested now. I did go to harvest the shallots and even tho they look finished, the one I took out wasn't, so they are all still in.

[ok-kel]

Thank you all !
Bylands had the head lettuce seeds, as does Dogwood nursery....

[M and M]

Any new gardening stories or pictures.
It has been a while and lots must be going on.
The corn is done, blackberries are ripening, the young hens are laying, turkeys are getting fat,
tomatoes everywhere, cukes are a failure this year, beans are still coming, beets are sizing up, carrots are delicious,
garlic is waiting for late planting.
I'm noticing the weather changing as it gets cooler in the evenings now, so I expect it won't be long until I am dealing with the mess left by the 'F' word. Frost that is.

[Queen K]

My cukes failed too. And tomatoes may as well be declared dead now. So few are left to harvest. I like to leave live vegetation out there til frost gets it if only to get the oxygen it gives off.

We did get a lot of good stuff out of the garden, our scallions are doing great, and we finally have the correct formula for planting garlic, as in, not so late as last year.

We have lots of carrots still in too. Many cherry tomatoes are going into our chili tonight, if only to use them up.

Next year we'll have a new spot for young greens all made up.

Potatoes did squat this year, hope others had more success.

[JLives]

My second planting of spinach, Swiss Chard, carrots and romaine should be ready in a couple of weeks. All of our squashes sucked but we do have one huge pumpkin growing. I haven't harvested my potatoes yet but the plants grew over 7 feet tall in the potato boxes. I have plenty of peppers left to pick and they are still flowering. Tomatoes were a bust this year. I did mainly Brandywines and while they are a flavour explosion they are not big producers. I'm going to go buy a couple boxes soon to do my canning and make salsa.

[Lady tehMa]

My squashes went nuts, but my pumpkin has one lone fella I hope will grow bigger - not so big right now. My cukes and my tomatoes did well, I was pleasantly surprised by the Amish paste. Roma's didn't do much, got tons but they're all green still :s Sweet millions produced well, as did the indeterminates I got from a friend. Old German was a bit of a bust but Brandywine did well. Rutabagas did squat. Kale went wild, so did chard. Beets and carrots and zucchini did okay. Strawberries are still producing as are the blackberries (not a lot yet, expect more next year). Corn was an epic failure. Scarlet runners produced lots of flowers and very few beans, but the bush beans I planted did rather well. My potatoes were a complete loss.

My roses did well this year, including one I got as a transplant from QK and was sure had died. It decided 2 weeks ago to start sending out shoots, it had been dead looking since May-ish.

[Queen K]

And guess what, a shoot is coming up where you dug out that rose.

My carrots are smallish, we are down to the last of the last of everything and I have lots of squash blossoms which will amount to nothing. But we are letting it all bloom for the bees.

[pbear]

My tomatoes that were in containers are still going strong. The raised garden beds I stopped harvesting because I couldn't keep the cats out. With a family member that has a compromised immune system I don't want to chance using anything in there. I may just plant those beds into flowers and grow a few more things in containers next year.

[Lady tehMa]

And guess what, a shoot is coming up where you dug out that rose.

My carrots are smallish, we are down to the last of the last of everything and I have lots of squash blossoms which will amount to nothing. But we are letting it all bloom for the bees.

I can't believe there is a shoot coming up! That is one determined rose

My carrots are hit and miss, but hey, did you know you can eat squash blossoms? http://www.thekitchn.com/five-ways-to-eat-squash-blosso-87564

[grammafreddy]

My carrots are hit and miss, but hey, did you know you can eat squash blossoms?

Just eat the male blossoms - otherwise you won't get the squash. The female make the fruit, the males are the pollinators. it's easy to tell the difference. The males are on a long slim stalk while the females have a "bulb" right below the blossoms (which grows into the fruit).

Squash blossoms are excellent done up like cabbage rolls. Just stuff the cabbage roll filling into the blossoms, twist to close them and bake.

[Lady tehMa]

This good weather has been phenomenal, if it lasts through the weeked I'll have tomatoes to can!

[Queen K]

Awesome! After 10 days of being away, I can honestly say I'm happy to get out there now to harvest new swiss chard leaves.

Oh, and now is the time to plant large sized garlic cloves to make sure they reach full size for next July/August harvest.
We made the mistake of planting too late for two years in a row, resulting in substandard, but edible, sizes for the cloves.

[Lady tehMa]

oh, good reminder. I need to get some garlic to plant (I have some, but not as much as I want)

[Bpeep]

My corn is about done. I had 178 plants, and ate at least 4 cobs off them daily for over a month, and gave tons away.
Theres a few left, but coming down to the end of it. Gonna miss the fresh corn.
My peppers are all getting mature, I picked 31 monsters last week, and didnt count this week's. Im actually starting to get sick of them. Guess whats for dinner tonight...
Haha, my purple kale is almost 5 feet high.
All in all, there was a bountiful harvest.