September 22, 2016 - the autumnal equinox

First day of autumn and the plants are showing it to indeed be the end of summer. The beans have stopped producing flowers and the harvest is getting to be too fibrous to eat. The tomatoes are starting to ferment and we're getting some pests on the herbs.
We've started pulling the ripe tomatoes from the bushes in order to peel and freeze for later. I've been organized enough this year to freeze the varieties separately so we know what we're using when we pull them out of the freezer later on.
The chives that thrived so well all year was suddenly infested with aphids. Next year it might be best to keep it pruned a bit so that I can keep an eye on it.

Carmelo 

Costoluto Genovese

I had to pull the chives as they suddenly succumbed to a severe attack of aphids

This padrón pepper plant seems to be stressing for some reason although still producing heavily.

This padrón is doing fine.

This calabrian has been flowering but no fruit yet.

The tomatoes are still hanging on but time to pull the fruit.

September 11, 2016 - end of summer

Lots of photos today since we're fast approaching the turn to autumn. I wanted a pretty good documentation on how things have fared this summer.


Box 1
The beans have done spectacularly well. Unfortunately I over-planted in reaction to last year's poor yield, mainly due to my unfamiliarity of working with the new beds and the drip irrigation system. Most of the beans I've been harvesting are the Italian Romanos since they're so easy to pick out and have tasted so good. Next year it would be best to establish a separate zone for the thin beans and the broad beans on opposite sides of the bed so that they won't be quite as intermingled. I also think it would be better to plant 4 beans per batch then 8.

Box 2

The tomatoes have also done very well. The schedule of hand watering and drip that I used this year seemed to be a good approach, pulling back gradually on the hand watering as the summer progresses. I now know that the greenery dies back due to the plants moving to fruit production and maturation, not due to neglect. Fruit drops before maturation were not uncommon but probably due to both the heavy yield as well as the prevalence of cool temperatures this year.

Box 3
I finally planted the broccoli seedlings on Friday, Sept 9 - DeCiccio and Calabrese. They germinated only a couple of days after planting this time, not quite sure why so quickly but glad they did. I've also seeded greens, radishes, kale, chard, and beets here.

Box 4
Despite the cool daytime temperatures the evening temps have remained high enough to allow the peppers to fruit. The padróns have really kicked in now as well as the other plants. Some are just now starting to redden. The basil in the back row has been insane, hopefully I can cut back next year on them to have more room to grow other plants.

Box 5
The herbs have remained very healthy this year. The parsley is as large and healthy as any I've ever grown, the sage, summer savory, chives, and thymes have also thrived. The oreganos have done well proving that cutback is key to keeping them growing.

August 25, 2016 - Rounding the corner on summer

In mid-late summer now and the tomatoes are just now ready for picking. The weather has remained surprisingly consistent with the cool days below 70°F and the nights just below 60°F with lots of overcast well into each afternoon. Cooler than average days all around the bay and just a tad warmer than average at night. No heat waves and none on the horizon at all, in fact mostly the opposite.
The beans are still going full blast as are the peppers and the herbs. The broccoli seeds have progressed, I'll probably try putting some out next weekend, Labor Day, adding rows of kale, chard, and greens.
I'm thinking about not planting either garlic or onions over the winter as I've been less than thrilled with the results this time. The garlic harvests well but they don't seem to keep more than a few months. The taste of them isn't any more than I get at the markets either, unlike tomatoes, beans, herbs, or greens that are so much better from the garden. This would also leave me an extra box to experiment with over the winter and spring. The onions are also indistinguishable from what I can buy in the store. I keep hoping to use the spring garlic or onions but never seem to get around to doing so all that much.

The tomato plants are dying back and the fruit is starting to come now.

The peppers are doing well. I'm looking forward to stretching them out to get some good red ones for frying and pickling.

The herbs are filling the box. The diligent pruning I've been doing on the oreganos and thymes have really improved the results. I'm so hesitant to discard the flowers and tops but there's nothing to do with so much and the plant will really halt production if I don't keep at it.

Definitely planted too many beans but I'd rather have too many than not enough.

Just started some beet seeds in Box 4 where the lettuce was. Also seeded some methi in its own pot to see if we like using the greens.

August 14, 2016 - tomatoes ripening

Summer weather has remained quite temperate, the beans are coming strong, the remaining squash plant has pooped out unexpectedly early, and the tomatoes are just now starting to ripen.

I started some broccoli seeds last week as there are still no plants for sale in the nurseries. They really germinated quickly within just a week so I may be able to thin out transplant by the end of the month into Box 1 for Autumn.

Box 1
The squash is done, not sure why it pooped so early. Other than rather severe mildew which I tried to control with pruning, the plant seemed ok. We got a good harvest but it only really lasted a bit more than a month. The box has been getting drip @60 minutes 3x's a week all summer. The squash had bubblers and the beans had the drip. Now I've turn off the bubblers and cut the time to 45 minutes per session.

The beans are full on now. Next year I should plant half as many as it's too hard to find the beans within the canopy and we can't eat them all anyway.

Box 2
The cherry gold tomatoes are coming now and quite tasty.

These are the first full tomatoes to ripen, the Carmellos. Early Girls are turning as well as one of the Better Boys. Full on harvest for all plants within two weeks it seems like. As I noted earlier, the plants will stay lush with regular watering just until the fruit is ready to ripen. At that point the greenery starts to die back regardless of how much water the plants are given. It actually seems like keeping the same watering schedule at this point would be too much for the plant and would hurt the harvest so I've cut back from two hand waterings and one drip @60 minutes per week to two drips @45 minutes per week while keeping an eye on them.

Box 4
The padróns are coming, plenty of flowers but fruit is taking its time to ripen. Drip has been 60 minutes x 3 times a week, now down to 45 minutes x 3.

Box 5
The herbs are shoulder-to-shoulder in the box, everything doing very well. Drip has been 60 minutes x 3 times a week, now down to 45 minutes x 3.

I decided to put dill and cilantro into their own pots since I was having such bad luck with them in the boxes. I'll be trying to stagger seedings as long as it works. I also have some methi (fenugreek) seeds coming in the mail and will try a pot of those as well in the same manner when I get them.

August 4, 2016 - mid-summer

Here we are in mid-summer and most everything is busting out pretty well. The weather this year, unlike the past couple of years, has been very consistent - very mild days in the low 70's and evenings bottoming out mid to high-50's. However the peppers and tomatoes have been doing very well although there still hasn't been a whole lot of either to pick yet. The beans are just starting to come consistently. And although we had quite a bit of the crookneck summer squash, it seems for some reason that it's already starting to stall. I expected it to last at through September so not sure what's up with it.

Box 1

The beans are really coming out now but it's pretty obvious to me that I planted way too many. I tried setting space for four separate plantings but could only get in two. I staggered two rows and kept the poles about a foot apart and put 8 seeds per planting. Next year I should go with four at most and add better support for the poles. As for the squash, although we're still getting fruit, they are not growing quite as quickly and the plant itself seems to succumbing to severe mildew and growth is slowing down considerably.

Box 2

The tomatoes have grown so much better this year but it's just now that the fruit is starting to ripen. Again I think that a healthier plant will take its time to set out fruit as long as it has the means to keep growing, that once the fruit is set the plant changes direction and halts the process. That would explain why we got fruit as early as the end of May last year. The fruit looks fantastic and should lead to a bumper crop within a couple of weeks and hopefully last well into October. I've kept up a thorough schedule of watering - hand watering on Monday and Thursday with drip irrigation at an hour on Saturday morning with two leads into each plant's reservoir. I also fed with the neutral fertilizer back at the end of June.

Box 3

I just removed the remaining onions to store inside and will be preparing the bed for cole crops this weekend - kale, chard, broccoli, etc.

Box 4

The peppers are starting to set fruit. We got one crop of padróns so far with plenty more to come. There is still a bit of lettuce to go, I added a new set of seeds yesterday to fill in the spaces along with some beet and radish seeds. There is a new crop of beets ready to pull and the basil has done very well.

Box 5

The herbs have done very well I think due to a more diligent pruning on my part especially of the oreganos and thymes. I've had some trouble getting a good bunch of parsley going but I've had enough to work with so far. Replanting a new herb box each year seems to be the way to go from now on.