Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Late August update

Here is an update of garden activities and observations for the month of August:

The beets and carrots planted August 15 began sprouting above the soil on 8/22 (7 days).

The first yellow pear tomatoes from our volunteer plants ripened on 8/19. The girls and I agree that we would like to plant Sun Gold next year, they are much sweeter.

Several half-pints jars of pesto were created on 8/19, another batch will probably be made this or next weekend. Through trial and error, we have discovered the importance of olives and lemon juice in our recipe. Also, we prefer parmesan over the batch made with romano cheese.

Some of the lettuce and chard became mature enough for picking about 8/25 which is about 45 days since they were started inside. The kale has another couple of weeks to go.

The green bean plants are reaching the top of the trellis frames, but no flowers yet

A new frame of lettuce and other greens will be planted this weekend.

The shorter days are definitely putting a damper on my gardening activities.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Succession planting

Our garden is the most productive it has ever been in the August time frame. The succession planting has worked well except for the second planting of mesclun that turned out to be mostly radicchio. We have lettuce that was planted mid-July that is almost ready for harvest, and the early June planting is still producing. We harvested about 20 carrots from garden frame 1-1 and transplanted another 32 lettuce seedlings there this week. The green beans in that frame are about 24" tall.

We have an additional 64 lettuce seedlings, 12 kale and 12 chard growing in frames 2-1 and 2-3 and just planted a new frame completely in beets and carrots. The kale from the spring are still going strong and the basil is coming into its prime. I am planning to add two frames at the beginning of September which will be planted with new varieties of greens for overwintering.

The days are quickly getting shorter. From the beginning of August to the end, the sun will set 45 minutes earlier at 7:51PM. I would really like to get some lighting set up this year so that I can continue to work in the garden at the end of each day.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Some growing, some harvesting, some storing away

Some of the newly planted green beans are already five inches tall! The new lettuce, kale and chard are also doing well, maybe another three weeks before the lettuce is ready. Last weekend, I pickled some beets just for the experience. I only had enough for one pint, but they turned out well. We also made some pesto for the freezer. I will be ordering some alternative greens (mizuna, arugula, savoy, pac choi) from the Johnny's catalog and planting an entire frame with them. I am also planning to start an entire frame of carrots and beets for fall harvest.

I finally made it to the Buffalo Garden Walk this year. We visited the cottages on Little Summer. The gardeners there have created some really magical spaces.

The Japanese beetles came out in force following the soaking rain we had last weekend.