Garden Update

After 4 days away from the garden, lots of work to do this morning, both weeding and plant care.

Still not sure what is going on with the cucumbers. Might be bugs but I don’t see any, so it may be a disease. I have gotten half a dozen really nice tasty cukes and there are lots of babies on the vines, so I will wait it out a little longer. It is odd because the winter squash, which is next to the cucumbers is thriving; I am not being too gentle with it, trying to keep it contained in its section of the garden. Never an easy task.

The zucchini plants seem to be past their early issues and are producing nice fruits now. Arielle made zucchini bread this morning and I will make a zucchini frittata for dinner. Even the plants I tossed into the old compost pile are bearing – see pics:

The 2 half-rows of bush beans I planted 2 weeks ago have survived the birds so far, so today was thinning day. I am hopeful that I may have some beans later in the summer. I planted a few different types interspersed, so I will not know which they are til they start bearing their pods.

My main work was with my tomatoes. When I went out this morning, the branches of every tomato plant were so heavily laden with tomatoes that many had broken or bent and were now resting on the ground. I removed some of the broken branches and am ripening those tomatoes in a paper bag. The rest I tied to the plant supports with garden twine. THe plum tomato plant is especially vibrant, lots of sauce will be made!

tomatoes1 — You can just barely see the brown twine in the center of the photo

tomatoes3 — Just one little section of the plant, the whole plant has between 75 and 100 tomatoes on it

Still have some swiss chard – now it is the second round of the already harvested plants. The okra plants are growing nicely now that they have sun exposure since most of the swiss chard is gone. The leeks are getting thicker. I have a variety of sizes now, so I will be able to harvest over a period of time instead of all at once. There is plenty of parsley and basil. And the pepper and eggplant plants all have fruits, just waiting for them to mature.

It is a fun time in the garden now. A time of anticipation and the beginning of variety in my harvest.