Saturday, August 26, 2017

August 26, 2017 - mid/late summer

Yeah it's been a while, much to catch up on. We had a shitload of rain the past winter that lasted well into April. Since we were back East the last couple of weeks in April, I couldn't get the tomatoes planted until the first week of May. I'm not sure if that or the fact that I tried using the drip irrigation to handle their water made the difference but the plants never quite got going, certainly nothing like the bumper crop last year. The squash has done ok but I think trying to grow 3 of them in half of a raised bed might have been a bit too much for them. No more than two for that amount of space from now on. The herbs, peppers, and beans have done fantastic however. I think I'm getting a handle on growing those now. The fava beans we grew in Box 4 during the winter did amazingly well. We filled 4 buckets with pods during the harvest.


Box 1
We had a good crop of lettuce and beets which I just dug up a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm going to try those again along with some kale and chard.



Box 2
The garlic was ruined by a bad case of rust from the heavy rains all winter. It was too late to save once I noticed it so they were pulled before making just a few green garlics. The onions survived ok but they flowered so heavily that, even with my diligence in pinching them, they still compromised the yield significantly. I'm still pulling them to use but even with their large size, I have to remove the stunted flowers from the middle of the bulbs in order to cook with them.

The squash has done ok but not terribly prolific.





Box 3
The herbs have done well. The chives will get aphids but if I cut them all the way back and spray with the soap solution, they die and the plants revive quickly. There is a volunteer Sungold tomato in the middle of the parsley that I decided to let grow as the cherry tomato I planted, Isis Candy, never did anything. They're just starting to ripen now.






Box 4
The beans have performed as well as last year and the peppers have done phenomenally well also. I squeezed in a row of basil that's done just well enough to provide some as an herb.






Box 5
The tomatoes are ripening now but nothing like last year. I'll probably have to hand water them during the entire growing season next year to get a good yield like last year.



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