The harvest thus far

[jaunthie]

It's been an odd summer, weather-wise. A definite contrast to last year's overly hot and dry weather, that's for sure. So things that did extremely well last year (cucumbers, peppers) are a total write-off this year, but I'm up to my eyeballs in things that did poorly last year, like lettuces and peas. A quick rundown on this year's produce:

• Peas: Epic. They got off to a slow start, but I'm still harvesting and eating sugar snap peas by the double handful on a near-daily basis. Yum!


• Beans: Very slow off the mark, and the first batch died of the cold, but the second planting is fruiting now, and I've had two meals worth of beans off of the vines in the last week. The aphids are atrociously bad on them, though - not a problem I've ever had before. I'm wondering if the violet podded are more vulnerable to this than the blue wonders.


• Lettuces: Up to my ears in the stuff. Can't eat it fast enough.


• Cucumbers: *snort* What cucumbers? The first batch of starts died after being set out, even with cloches; the second batch mostly died, and what few survived are still only inches high. No homegrown cukes for me this year, alas!


• Garlic: Not as epic as last year, but good grief, didn't need to be. I have a four-foot long softneck braid, two bunches of hardneck varieties, and another two braids of elephant garlic. That should get us through to next year. Oh, and I have more out in the yard that I haven't harvested yet.


• Onions/Leeks: Well, I just harvested a braid's worth of onions, but they're very small and I'm not sure they're going to cure worth a darn. The rest of the onions and leeks are too small to harvest yet. We'll have to wait and see.


• Potatoes: I didn't think it was going to be a good harvest. Then I dug up about twenty pounds of fingerlings today, without half trying (i.e., there are plenty more in the bed, but I didn't want to disturb the pumpkins, and the blues aren't ready yet.) I've got more in the back bed, but it's also not quite ready. The fingerlings are pretty small, but I'm hoping they have a good flavor, and that the rest of the potato harvest produces bigger spuds.


• Pumpkins: All volunteers from the worm bin (I didn't plant a single seed, at least not on purpose). I have at least one pumpkin forming. I'm hoping there are more.


• Broccoli: Small heads, but tasty. I've had a few meals worth out of the patch, and I really need to harvest some more heads before they can flower.


• Radishes: Did well, but I let them sit too long and the old ones developed a nasty infestation of some kind of burrowing pest. I've stripped the bed of them for now, and will try again in the fall.


• Spinach: Disappointing this year. Maybe I planted it too close to other things, but it looked weedy and bolted quickly. Also didn't like one of the two varieties I experimented with. Next year, I'll stick with Olympia.


• Swiss Chard/Kale: The chard looks small and stressed right now, but it'll perk up with a little more water. The kale is volunteer, and looks good. The cabbage is being eaten alive by aphids. Argh!


• Melons: This was so NOT the year for this experiment. The cantaloupes all bit the dust. I have one watermelon vine that's survived, but it's tiny and unlikely to do anything. It's dwarfed by the nasturtiums (which admittedly have taken over that bed and vined up the trellis 5-6 feet in the air. Tasty!)


• Roses: I've got 12 jars of jam in the cupboard, and I'm seeing a pretty decent rebloom on most of my varieties. A pretty good year for roses, I think.

Sometimes I forget just how much produce I try to grow. I'd like better yields, but I'm eating the food I grow several times a week on average during the spring and summer months, and that's not bad for a city girl.

Comments

[fisherbear.livejournal.com]

We don't seem to have a local population of squash bees. I've seen a few bumblebees checking out the pumpkins, but they're not very effective pollinators.

[jaunthie.livejournal.com]

I suppose not - but we've got at least three pumpkins going, so *something* is getting the job done, at least in part. ;-)