Harvest Monday - August 16, 2010

It has been soooooo hectic here lately. And to tell you the truth, I'm really not sure why. We had an estimate done on remodeling our kitchen, recovered from the sticker shock and now I have to get more estimates...

We just returned from vacation, and apparently all kids (or at least mine) do not like to travel in backwards facing car seats. I have a house to clean, laundry to do and heavens only knows what else lurking and waiting. AND I have made no progress on the fall garden. But enough griping, it's Harvest Monday!!!! Let's see what happened the last 2 weeks. I have no idea if these numbers are for the last week or the last 2 weeks. I just know that this is my most recent tally.

Harvest totals:

Scalloped Squash: 2 pounds 1 1/2 oz

Tomatoberry Tomatoes: 2 1/2 oz
Super Sweet 100 Tomatoes: 4 1/8 oz
Cucumbers: 14 1/8 oz

Hansel (or is it Gretel?) Eggplants: 7 3/8 oz

Thai Chilis: 1 5/8 oz

Fairy Tale Eggplants: 2 5/8 oz
Japanese Eggplants: 7 1/4 oz
Beans: 2 7/8 oz

Scarlett Runner Beans and Burgundy Bush Beans

Cukes, Thai Chilis, Eggplant, SS 100 tomatoes

Scalloped Squash, Scarlett Runner Beans, Burgundy

Bush Beans, Cukes, Japanese eggplant, Fairy Tale Eggplant

My newest order of seeds arrived right before we piled in the car to head to the lake and I had to take them with me so I could drool all over what I want to plant. I have seeds, seeds, seeds galore, now I have to make time to plant everything. Did mention I am in the midst of training for the Marine Corp Marathon and I should be squeezing in a 14 mile run either today or tomorrow. Oh joy...

For the fall garden, I am thinking about planting Asian greens, collards, kale, carrots, peas, radishes, mustard greens, beets, spinach, lettuce, and maybe I will attempt a second crop of tomatoes. The darn ground hog/gopher has successfully eatten all of my heirlooms. I am not happy. Has anyone grown tomatoes as a second summer/fall crop? The seed description says that some CA areas can do this...

The container grown edamame are going great! I think we might have a great harvest in about 2-3 weeks. Very exciting. We munched on the ones originally grown a few weeks ago, and we all had 1 pod, except for the little one, he got 4! It was delish and we can hardly wait for the others to get ready for picking.

We have corn! The hubby said that he thought it would be cool to look out the kitchen window and see corn, so now we can. I have no illusions that these will break any size or beauty records, but it's fun, and that's all that matters. We have cute little ears and the stalks are tall!


And, to add insult to injury, the darn rodent/varmit has a new dirt mound within 2 feet of the rodent deterrent, time to seek other options. My Early girl tomatoes (in addition to the heirlooms) have fallen prey to this creature and we are no longer able to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Darned Varmit.

Ak! Oh ick!!!

We discussed how I don't like icky gardening stuff, right? When I stepped out to water the garden today I discovered a NASTY surprise.... Can you see him?



Ugh! This cutworm is about as big around and as long as my pinky! He devoured all of the scallions I had sown in the planter with the japanese eggplant, down to the soil line (as cutworms do). I first noticed the droppings and then couldn't figure out what was different at first...then I saw HIM. Oh man, I'm such a wuss. I dropped the hose and ran for the camera and then my clippers. Ugh, still grossed out!

On a better note, I see 4, count 'em, 4 baby eggplants. Whoohoo!!!! Yum, yum, yum!! Lots more flowers, but you aren't guaranteed anything yet...


My Scarlett Runner beans are flowering, they are only about 3 feet tall as a whole, but there are runners who have reached the top of the fence. I am just waiting for the foliage to catch up.




And the edamame are getting pudgy! No seed pods on the most recently sown edamame yet.



My cucumbers are pulling down on the stakes I used, so I think this weekend might be a good time to get better stakes and do a little tying up. They seem to be doing great given the light support they have had. there's a big cuke hiding and about 4 that should be ready to pick any day now. Everytime I see my son eating something in the yard I have to interrogate him to make sure it gets washed first! Time tp pull out the flowering arugula and plant something for fall... hmm, what to plant?



The tomatoes may not be doing great, but the basil sure is going gang-busters! Maybe some pesto might be in my future.



Well, it's off to play with the kiddos. Reading time maybe? My youngest one turned 8 months yesterday and I definitely think he's saying "Mom-ma" and "Da-da". He can't crawl, but he can "talk".

Harvest Monday July 19, 2010

Harvest Monday is Hosted by Daphne's Dandelions, to see a list of what other gardeners around the world are harvesting, click on the link and check it out!

What a crazy hot week it's been here is beautiful sunny SoCal! It's been in the 90's here, which was great for the summer veggies, but not so great for running. Phew! Here's some of the things we pulled from the garden this week. (A lot of things not pictured, I got lazy).

Super Sweet 100's: 4 11/8 oz
Early Girl Tomatoes: 1 7/8 oz
Gretel Eggplants: 3 1/8 oz
Celebrity Tomatoes: 9 3/4 oz
Ronde squash: 5 3/8 oz
Scalloped squash: 13 7/8 oz
Natsu Rakuten-Summer Fest: 4 oz
Swiss Chard: 10 oz


We also found another running friend who was willing to take a lot of the veggies we didn't think we would be able to use. I can't wait to hear how it's put to good use.

Well, like I said, this week has been hot, not Atlanta hot, but hot! We reached temps in the 90's (or 110 if you believe our thermometer... which I don't...) and I don't think my tomatoes enjoyed it. It's crispy city for their leaves. I spent a good hour removing scraggly dried out leaves. Which left me with some nude and funny looking plants.



The eggplants are handling it well though! Lots of little Gretel eggplants and more flowers. The japanese eggplants are starting to flower and I'm hoping the next few weeks will give us a good harvest.

I'm saving this baby for my in-laws visit next week. I think my MIL will enjoy tasting a home grown eggplant.



This scalloped squash plant has only been in the garden for about 6 weeks, and it seems to like it a lot! We've already had 3 squash harvested and I see 3 more that will be ready within a week and lots more that I can see that need to be pollinated. What a good buy!



Asian greens have been treating us well. I pulled some for my friend, but I still haven't tried it myself. Here are some Natsu Rakuten-Summer Fest and Tatsoi.



AND I saw something super exciting in the garden..... baby edamame! Whoo hoo! These two plants were the only ones to survive the first planting. Between the slugs, critters and just plain rotting before they emerged, he first planting was not stellar. But I have ore plants that seem to be doing well, but these babies have flat fuzzy pods that I am going to watch swell.... and then I will probably watch my oldest son devour them and not share them with the hubby, the in-laws or me...


Ok, back to spying on the garden! Happy gardening all!!!