After 10″ of rain in the past week, I was a little nervous about what I might find in the garden this weekend, but… I was pleasantly surprised. 🙂 I’ve posted some photo updates on Flickr, but will spare my dial-up friends the bandwidth here.
We are starting to get zucchini flowers on my two zuke plants. That’s a good sign. Looks like we’ll have more than enough to grill very soon. Bed #1 also has some Big Burger Tomato hybrids that I put in as transplants. Two are doing well, the others didn’t make at all. I’ll be freeing up that space and looking to try something different.
In Bed #2, the basil is doing it’s thing. I’m really surprised that the thyme that we planted way, way back when is still going strong. Merrin uses that a lot. The chives are doing great and I have thinned out the cilantro that I planted from seed. I think we’ll end up with 8-10 cilantro plants, which is just right for my big salsa plans!
Bed #3 is on auto-pilot. The sage is great. The peppermint, rosemary, red bell peppers, and oregano are doing great. The italian parsley plants are just going nuts. Merrin cuts those back about every two days. They survived the winter and have just been nuts this year.
Bed #4 is just about ready for harvest. Both the garlic and the shallots are starting to fall, so we’ll be pulling those out to dry right before we go to the Bahamas next weekend. I have already tested my drying skills on some shallot bulbs and they came out perfect. Looks like we’ll have about 100+ shallot bulbs, so the “best of the best of the best” will end up going back into the garden as bulbs this year.
Bed #5 has my great looking Fresh Salsa Tomato hybrids and the Mariachi hot peppers, plus a little garlic. The peppers and tomatoes look fantastic, with the ‘maters getting a good 5″-6″ growth in the last two weeks. There is a little space at the end of that bed that I will reclaim, as some of this spring’s garlic is not going to make.
Bed #6 is a lot of fun. Those Kentucky Wonder beans are just shooting right up. I’m using a string net instead of traditional pole/string for these pole beans. So far, so good. They’re jumping right on the netting and climbing up. This system – if it works for me – will let me grow 50-75 plants in the space that I would have used for 30 or so. My first impression is that we’re going to be learning how to can beans very soon. Those of you celebrating fall birthdays/anniversaries/Christmas/etc, you’ll be getting beans this year. 🙂
Bed #7 is out by the shed. It’s the spring shallots and garlic. Some of the garlic just isn’t making. That’s frustrating. Merrin uses a lot of garlic to cook with and I really wanted to give her 8lbs or more. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. We were worried about these bulbs when we got them because they seemed very dry. I’ll know better next time. On the other hand, the shallot bulbs are really going well in that bed, so we’ll have even more shallots this fall!
That’s about all for now. I’ve got to look into some spring/summer planting because we’re going to have about a bed & a half come open late this month. I’ll take some pics when we “harvest”!!!
Looking good dude!
Man, we so need to get our veggies and herbs into the ground.
Your garden looks great. I am so proud of you. We picked 3 zukes from our garden last night and then cut G a mini one for him to chomp on and he ate the whole thing! I was amazed at how beautiful they were. Not all beat up like they are in the grocery stores. We also picked a bean and tasted it and it was delicious. I ordered my pressure canner and two canning books last night so hopefully it’ll be here soon. One of the books is specifically for “summer harvest” crops.