Late-midsummer review

The Spring kale and chard appear to have given everything except for one more harvest. The second planting of lettuce is almost in full swing, providing enough for a respectable salad this morning. I will definitely want to have more garden space next year and more frequent plantings of cooking and salad greens.

Cute carrot

I was able to spend several hours working on the garden this weekend, though I became thoroughly drenched with rain and the mosquitoes were doing everything they could to bite my ears. Three of five garden frames now have trellises. A final handful of broccoli was harvested (not shown) and the plants finally pulled to make room for more Fall crops, 16 parsley and 8 lettuce. The lettuce seeds that were planted earlier this week are beginning to show. I also planted several squash plants that have been languishing on the front porch. These were planted directly in the ground beside the frames.

First Fall planting

This past weekend, I managed to get a trellis completed and tomatoes trimmed and tied in frame one. Some of the cherry tomatoes are beginning to ripen. More trellises are planned this week for frames three, four and five. This morning, I harvested mostly parsley with a little lettuce, kale, broccoli, basil, marigolds and chard. The cucumber plants are beginning to fruit. The watermelon and pepper plants are growing very slowly. Hopefully that will change as the weather warms up in August. Also this morning, I seeded about 25 lettuce, 9 spinach, 6 chard and 16 carrots to fill up empty squares for the Fall harvest.

Diversity

Though this morning was not our largest harvest, it may be our most diverse. We harvested peas, chard, kale, beet greens, cabbage, broccoli and marigolds (and I was tempted to pick a few lettuce leaves but decided to wait another day or two). If we had planted summer squash, we might be harvesting them now, but there is always plenty of squash to go around. The previous two cabbage heads were delicious in stir fries. I think I forgot to mention that we harvested a couple of carrots when the potato frames were put in place. They were tiny, but delicious. I am looking forward to harvesting more carrots and beets, perhaps in August.

Penthouse potatoes

This past weekend, we pulled the remaining three lettuce plants from the original planting. Fortunately, the 26 new lettuce plants will be ready to begin harvesting soon.

The potatoes that were planted a couple of weeks ago are growing well. I added an extra 1x4 frame around them so that they will produce more.

We visited friends in Dansville where we sampled raspberries, blueberries, and currants from their garden and had a nice picnic including homegrown crookneck squash and broccoli.

I am hoping to plant the Fall vegetables this weekend and add a couple of trellises for the burgeoning tomato plants.

Final big lettuce harvest

We had another good harvest this morning, the last of the original lettuce plants, except for three plants left in frame three. I pulled about 24 lettuce plants that were near bolting. Our Fall plantings will replace these soon. The recently planted potatoes are coming up well and some of the cabbage looks about ready for harvest.

Wild raspberries

Today we harvested more peas and broccoli and lots of wild raspberries. There is also a bowl of mint leaves in the picture which were later dried in the dehydrator for tea.

How much is it worth?

My Master Gardener sister-in-law just sent me a fascinating link to the story of one family who potentially saved $2,150 at the grocery store by growing their own fruits and vegetables. Note that the family lives in Maine! So no excuses about a short growing season :) This will be especially true when we begin experimenting with extending our season with row covers and simple greenhouses this Fall.

20 Garden Veggies That Could Each Save You $25 or More (Including One Worth $600)

Original article by Roger Doiron:
What’s a home garden worth?

Raw data and lots of interesting comments and references from other gardeners:
Economics of home gardening

Saturday is Food Independence Day! -- for some people at least :)