Spring crops ending and summer crops taking their place.

I have been having a choi salad every day this week. By tomorrow it will be the end of the choi harvest. Here is the recipe for my salad:

- 1 or two heads of Joi Choi chopped bite sized
- 3-4 T of homemade carrot/radish/cabbage sauerkraut
- roasted sunflower seeds
- 1/2 avocado
- 1/2 C black beans
- Brianna's Honey Mustard dressing

I haven't really harvested any peas since June 21, but there are more flowers developing. I will be making tabouli this weekend with the last of the parsley and then planting out celery from the basement. I will also be making pesto with the first basil pickings. There is still plenty of romaine and leaf lettuce, kale and chard to be harvested. Also, it appears that the beets and carrots are about ready.

The cucumbers, beans, peppers, tomatoes and squash, all of which will be supported by trellises, are becoming more prominent and in a couple of weeks will be shading the other crops. It is time to fertilize all of these.

It is time to start some more choi, lettuce, kale and parsley in the basement for the fall/winter.

This weekend we are expecting temperatures in the 90's. I was going to cut back some branches from the maple tree overhanging the garden but now will probably wait until the heat wave has passed.

I am hoping to install automated watering and build more frames over the next three weeks.

Here are some photos of the garden:

Far frame with carrots, beets, peas and parsley

Grow boxes with Cherokee tomatoes, basil, Sun Gold tomatoes,
 and sweet peppers from right to left

Middle frame with squash, pole beans, lettuce,
peas, garlic and marigold

Near frame with kale, chard, choi, lettuce, cucumbers,
peppers, catnip, pole beans and peas

I had nowhere to put tomatoes so this small frame
currently holds tomatoes, garlic, chard, kale and lettuce.
Once I have new frames built, everything except the tomatoes
will be transplanted.

Peas be with you

We have harvested about 4 quarts of snap peas over the past two weeks. A little more than half of that was gathered in two separate harvests. Other than that it has been a cup here and a cup there.

We continue to harvest lettuce, choi, chard and kale. Johnny's Joi Choi with whiter stems appears to be most resistant to bolting. Mulberries were enjoyed last week as a sweet addition to our breakfast muesli. I did not bother to try covering them this year and the birds took their share.

Cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, basil, summer squash, and green beans are all becoming established now. They will be taking over the trellises currently adorned by the snap peas and should all be flowering in about a month's time.

Current projects include building additional frames and setting up automatic irrigation.

Choi and Snap Peas Harvest

Snap peas and Mulberries

Tomatoes, Basil, Squash, and Cucumbers planted out

I finally got all of the tomatoes, cucumber, summer squash and basil planted out today.

Cherokee Purple tomatoes

Kale, Choi, Mizuna harvest

Lettuce, Chard, Choi and Peas,
and Green Beans and Cucumbers too small to see

Tomatoes interplanted with lettuce and garlic

Super Sugar Snap Peas

Cabbage Aphids

 I found a small infestation of cabbage aphids on a couple of my kale plants. The best defense appears to be to harvest those plants and dispose of the affected parts.

Cabbage Aphids

Lettuce, Kale, and Choi

Flowers

Poppy, Iris, and Peony in EA

Rhododendron, Iris, Coral Bell

Sage blooming with Columbine in the foreground

Cool weather returns

This weekend brought a welcome relief from temperatures in the 80's. Perhaps strange that I would welcome clouds and lower temperatures, but my productivity outdoors does take a hit when the comfortable working hours are reduced to before 10 am and after 6pm, not to mention the struggle to keep plants well-watered and from going to seed prematurely.

This weekend was productive. I managed to clear all of the frames of abundant maple seeds, signs of a "mast year" when trees produce an abundance of fruit. I also weeded, removed excess parsley and mizuna plants, finished the final trellis and replanted several lettuce that were suffering from overcrowding. I harvested about a dozen choi with the intention of turning half of them into sauerkraut and eating the rest fresh.

In addition to the choi, I harvested mint, Italian and curly parsley, kale, and the first Super Sugar Snap pea pods. The peas were not very sweet, hopefully they will improve when allowed to grow to full edible plumpness.

Zucchini, Blue Lake green beans, slicing cucumbers and basil were planted out. I would have planted out the tomatoes also, but decided to wait until after the forecast thunderstorms.

It looks like my beets have a serious infestation of leaf miners. This is the first year that I have recognized and learned about them (http://freespiritgardens.org/leaf-miners-and-garden-loss/).

I noted several events that should have occurred around Memorial Day that I would like to remember for future years:

• it would have been the ideal weekend to plant out tomatoes and peppers if I had the space available (3 cherry toms in grow box, 2-3 cherokee purple in grow box, 6-8 more in frames)
• I should plan to do a lot of processing on that weekend (tabouli/parsley, salsa/cilantro/onions, sauerkraut-kimchi/chinese cabbage (choi), mint tea/dehydrate leaves) and then succession plant
• the weather may turn hot, it would be best to have all of the irrigation systems in place by then
• it would be a good weekend to start more lettuce and other greens for midsummer (using elevated seed starting bed inside greenhouse entrance) [Note from the future (7/25): I still have plenty of lettuce, kale and chard so later in June/early July may be better for starting more lettuce)
• keep the gardens covered with Agribon until after the maple seeds have fallen [and beyond for insect control]
• trellises will be needed by then

Choi/mint harvest

Most of the garden frames

Leaf miner damage to beets