Wow! This garden has a ton of tomatoes, but most are still green, some peppers, radishes, a few okra so far, and a hand full of yard long beans.
The garden is growing and I’m a happy camper. Here’s a look at what the garden looks like now. You can see the differences in this post, my last garden update.
Let’s start with the tomatoes.
I have 7 pink brandywines, 1 mortgage lifter and 1 large cherry tomato and the roma in the compost pile.
The pink brandywines are late blooming, but they’re slowly catching up. There’s plenty of tomatoes starting, but they’re small and still green. They seem to be about a month behind where they should be, but they’re getting there, so it’s okay.
In due time I’ll be canning and/or drying tomatoes. More on making sauces and paste from dehydrated tomatoes later.
The mortgage lifter has a TON of tomatoes on it. They’re not getting near as big as they’re supposed to before blushing and turning red. But what they lack in size, they’re making up for in quantity.
There are so many of them, the plant is covered.
The big cherry tomato isn’t over doing it, but it’s doing okay. Those are being real slow to turn too.
I’m getting 1-2 small tomatoes a day. So far that works. I’m just eating them as they come in almost.
Now the Peppers.
The peppers have made a come back. We had some really HOT weather in the last few weeks. Maybe that was it.
The peppers that were scrawny have begun to fill out and get more leaves.
I have 2 plants that are producing really well now. I have several peppers on both of those plants.
Then I have the 1 actual red pepper. It looks like it didn’t like the sun on it’s west side. Maybe sunburned?
The other plants have a lot of blooms on them and looks like they will explode here soon. I guess time will tell.
We’re really liking the banana peppers and I have 3 of those so I really hope they keep going.
The yellow pepper has blooms but I’ve not seen a baby on it yet. And then I have 1 more red pepper with a ton of peppers on it.
The 2 big ones are still green though, so I’m being patient.
Then we have the radishes.
You can see we’ve been picking the radishes.
Those are big and we’ve been using them like roasted potatoes. They’re so good that way, I just can’t get over that.
These radishes are really big. I’ve tried them raw a few times and I just really don’t like them that way. They have such a big bite, it’s just too much for me.
But when they’re roasted, they are just so good. A spicy potato is what it comes out like, we love them that way.
I have a ton more seeds for these, but I’m anxious to try different kinds next year.
The okra
The okra plants are so pretty. I’d grow them just to look at, if nothing else. I’ve only gotten 2 okra so far, but there are a few more coming on.
I’ve heard these were usually early to bloom. I haven’t seen that, but I attribute that to the rain and earlier temperatures. There are a lot of blooms just coming on.
I have yet to see a flower. They get to this bud stage and by the time I go back out to look again, the flower’s gone. That was just from morning to afternoon too.
Sometime this week we’ll fry them up. I really hope we like them, but if not, that’s okay. There’s plenty of family that like them.
The cantaloupe and pumpkins are coming along nicely.
We’ve had a major issue with squash bugs. I’ve sprayed neem oil, but that doesn’t get rid of them completely. I know you have to keep respraying, and I’ve tried to keep up with it.
I’ve learned to use a strong hose and cold water too. They really hate that.
They haven’t killed the plant yet. I’m kind of surprised how well it’s doing. It is time to spray again though. The thing about an organic spray is that it has to be done often.
We counted about 7 pumpkins, so far. Not sure what I’ll do with all of those. Most of them are pretty small, so I could probably cook several of them myself for pies, muffins and breads.
My daughter-in-law likes to make pumpkin soup and my grand-daughter loves it. Maybe she’ll like a couple.
I also saw I have several cantaloupe now too!!! That excites me. I love cantaloupe and this one was so good a few years ago. I’m dying to see what it will be like.
Hopefully they stagger themselves just right. One a week. Wouldn’t that be great.
The Chinese Yard Long Beans are beginning to come on.
I’ve picked a handful of these so far. I’ve been told you’re not supposed to boil these like you do regular beans. Just blanch them and then sautee or stir fry them.
We’ll I had to be different and try something new. I recently bought myself a fermenting kit. So I am making Dilly Beans.
I found a recipe using these kind of beans, with the Dilly Beans recipe, so I had to give it a try.
I’ve never tried pickled beans and it sounded good. We’ll see.
Out of the 7 plants we have, only a couple look like they are really growing well. I have one plant that has grown up the trellis and then started crawling sideways at the top.
Another one is almost to the top of the trellis and the rest are still pretty short. They’re almost all producing or have produced, so not sure what’s up there.
We’ll see if I want to keep growing these. I’m just not real sure about them yet.
The corn and carrots are still growing.
Both of these have a ways to go yet.
The corn has tassels on top now, so that was encouraging. They’re growing well too. Not sure how much longer that will take.
The carrots are growing well too. But they usually take a good amount of time, so I’m in no hurry to pick those either.
I’ve got a notebook I used when we planted everything that tells how many days to maturity and then I put dates to them all.
None of those dates have worked out this year. Everything is really late where maturity is concerned. So I’m not putting much stock into any of those dates.
I still want to plant a fall garden so I’ll have to go by the frost and maturity dates in getting that planted. I just hope the fall garden isn’t as late at producing as the spring and summer one or I’ll not get much.
I really believe that the 30 inches of rain we got and the really cool temps had a lot to do with what’s happening with my garden now.
I guess next year I’ll have something to compare to and we’ll see.
A random broccoli plant is still growing.
This plant has been here since the beginning, but it has barely been doing anything.
In the last several weeks, this thing has been going nuts, except there’s no broccoli head. But it sure does look pretty.
I hope you enjoy watching the garden grow as much as I do. We get a handful of things most days, and I’m happy with that, for now.
I’m learning something new every day is what’s most important to me right now. As long as I’m get anything out of the garden this year, I’m happy.
Next year will be another learning experience and will be even better. I hope.
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Until next time –
Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey