garden check

I have been dutifully taking garden photos, but then the day/week gets away from me and no post. There has been quite a change in the past few weeks.

The beds look great.

We have been harvesting greens for quite awhile and had our first squash last weekend.

The tomatillos are a surprise. When I planted them I had no idea if they would grow in this cool, damp climate. Seems they like it just fine. The plants are not as large as those grown in the southern part of the country, but I should have enough for a batch of Salsa Verde. Next year I will put them in cages as some of the branches are pretty floppy.

This my friends is corn! Can you believe it? I am guessing two more weeks and then the corn will go directly from the plant to the grill. I can hardly wait!

The yellow squash is doing well. We have only had one fruit big enough to harvest, but there are lots of little guys on the plants so I am trying to be patient. Last weekend Youngest Son used his trusty pocket knife to cut the squash and I used it to make a hummus pizza. Wow was it good. Recipe in the next few days.

The zucchini are not growing at all. I planted three starts and they have grown very little while producing flowers, but no fruit. Can they all be boys?

Some of the onions are ready to be pulled.

The two main types of lettuce I planted are Red Oak and French Crisp. Turns out that even though I like red lettuce, I did not like the Red Oak at all. The plants that are left have bolted and I will pull them out this weekend. French Crisp has been a huge hit. Big, beautiful, and tasty.

The chard has been trying to flower since the moment I put it in the ground. I really like chard and will need to read up and learn more about how to actually grow them.

One lone beefsteak tomato, but plenty of flowers. A nice fall would help. Tomatoes are always a crap shoot here in Seattle, but we are an optimistic people and plant them every year.

This tomato plant is about five feet tall and has just produced it's first wee fruit.

The romas are doing fine, assuming we have enough summer left to actually let them ripen.

I cut the garlic scapes last week and need to use them. Maybe I will let them flower?

The last of the strawberries.

How is your garden doing?

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Comments

[kate]

Oh I have so much to say!
1. zucchinis - I love telling people about sex and squash! So, the deal is that female flowers have little bumps right below the flower that are basically mini fruit. The male flowers are all skinny stem. You may be getting all male flowers (it happens to all of us) or even all female flowers. Or, you may be getting them not flowering at the same time. One thing you can do is pick a male flower, keep it fresh in the fridge, and then when you get a female flower open you can pollinate the female flower with the male flower.And thus ends the squash sex ed :)
2. Swiss chard - much prefers early spring or late summer/fall. I've had fabulous chard that has overwintered and been at its best in March! That said, my spinach does the same thing and tries to bolt from 2 inches high, even in April.
3. Gorgeous garden!!!
4. We are eating green beans fresh every day. Raspberries are done. Green tomatoes, cucumber flowers but no cukes as yet. Like you we are hoping for a good, dry fall!

[Patty]

Wow, I'm impressed. It looks so good and fresh and yummy!

[Knitting Needle Sizes]

Great! I'm so impressed! I love to see those fresh and grown garden plants and veges! Well, I appreciate the time you take for your garden. I wish to have that tomatoes in my garden too.

[Sonja]

never heard of garlic scape-I'll have some next year! Without a garden this year, we're surviving on the kindness of friends. Lots of tomatoes, zuchinni, tomatoes, kohlrabi, but no corn. I'm craving fresh corn. We'll have to hit the farms today looking for a stand.

[Toby]

Yum! There is nothing better than the freshness of veggies harvested from your own garden. I see you've already gotten fantastic advice on the zucchini situation.

My garden has always been hit and miss, will have photos to share on my blog soon. This year the zucchini is producing like crazy. It's my first success with it, probably due to black plastic and composted horse manure. Past years I would only get 1 or 2 small ones.