My "driveway garden" has Amish pie pumpkins, sunchokes, German butterball potatoes, eggplant, and three mini winter squash growing in Smart Pots.
- One day’s varied harvest: red and yellow onions, komatsuna, a Valencia orange, eggplants, peaches, tomatoes, a lemon, eggs, and purple broccoli.
This was a good week in the garden, with both harvesting and summer planting. I’m way behind in my summer planting I’m afraid. I have some Amish pie pumpkins that I just now started in Smart Pots. They take 90 days to harvest and can weigh up to 90 lbs. Given my late start (they should have been planted in June), I kind of doubt that I’ll get a pumpkin. But if I don’t plant the seeds, for sure I won’t get a pumpkin. Hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
My late-planted miniature Red Kuri, Green Kuri, and Mini Blue Hubbard squash are showing their first female flowers, so I have some hope of getting a winter squash or two.
For planting tiny seeds like carrots, I put down a row of toilet paper, sprinkle the seeds on top, fold it over, cover with dirt and water. The seeds stay in place and I'm getting better germination with this techique.
My second planting of Blue Lake pole beans is up. I planted Cherokee Trail of Tears black pole beans, a new variety for me. In front of the beans, I planted some late carrots and beets.
Scarlet runner beans
Is anyone else out there growing sweet potatoes? This is my first year growing them and I don’t know when to harvest them. Do I wait until the vines die back like with white potatoes?
blackberries
Blueberries
A small handful of blackberries and a small handful of blueberries every few days may not seem like much, but when I put homegrown berries on my cereal, that’s a day when I don’t use a banana shipped up from Central America. Every little bit helps combat global warming.
This Mediterranean buffet feast features tabbouli, a Sicilian double-crust pizza filled with potatoes, chard, onion, garlic and mozzarella, salad Nicoise and pita with hummus.
We had friends over for a vegetarian Mediterranean feast that used a lot of my garden produce: eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, green onion, chard, garlic, lemon, mint, and parsley. I’m out of lettuce and my green beans weren’t quite ready yet, so I used store-bought for the salad Nicoise.
Here’s the week’s harvest for the week ending August 1, 2010.
FRUIT
2 oz. Blackberries
0.5 oz. Blueberries
10.5 oz. Lemon, Eureka (1)
4 oz. Orange, Valencia (1)
12 oz. Peaches (3)
Subtotal fruit 1 lb, 13 oz.
VEGETABLES
4 oz. Broccoli, Purple (1 head)
9 oz. Chard
5.5 oz. Cucumber, Boston Pickling (2)
10 oz. Eggplant (Millionaire and Pingtung Long) (3)
1.5 oz. herbs (mint and parsley)
4 oz. Komatsuna
12 oz. Onions, Red
2.5 oz. Peppers, Bell (2)
1 lb 4.5 oz. Tomatoes (13)
Subtotal vegetables 4 lbs 6.5 oz. (69 oz.)
TOTAL PRODUCE 6 lbs 3.5 oz. plus 9 eggs
