Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

In the garden... Summer 2011

Even though it's early July, everything is running weeks behind in the garden. Our strawberries are finally getting ripe and our cherries are probably a week or two away from being edible. Our greens are doing well, but things like cucumbers and zucchinis are still tiny and look very unpromising.

I finally got around to planting our three tomato plants yesterday. Two of them had some fruit on them already even though they were dying on our deck. Hopefully they'll survive the transplant. They all are early or ultra early varieties.

I also finally got around to planting my myriad of Cinderella pumpkin plants. I don't have high hopes for these because generally pumpkins don't like being transplanted and they've been suffering with the tomatoes on our deck. At the least, they'll do better being in the ground than in tiny containers.

I clipped all our garlic scapes and put them in a glass like a floral arrangement. I got the idea from the blog, The Art of Doing Stuff,(see picture at top). We've been eating them with our Swiss chard and kale. What do you like to do with your scapes?

I also clipped a bunch of lavender to dry for future culinary uses. We have a bunch of weeds that I generally pull up every year, but didn't get around to it this year. It turns out that they are some sort of day lilly with beautiful flowers, so I clipped those as well to enjoy inside.

Our potato plants are as good as dead. I will go rummaging around in the potato bins this week to see what's going on. Also dead is our mint. I have a black thumb when it comes to mint. It started off promising and then I think they just got too dried out or something.

In any case, it's hit or miss out there!

Photo courtesy of The Art of Doing Stuff.

12 comments:

meg- grow and resist said...

I tried pickling ours this year- mostly because I noticed they were there right before I was headed out of town and no one else here cooks. I like to cook them up in greens too.
My cucumbers and squash are just plain sad. The eggplant is itsy (I'm about to pull it). Everything is slow, slow, slow.

Barb @ A Life in Balance said...

We're in southeastern PA where it's really dry right now. However, we've been picking beans and tomatoes, and our broccoli is still producing an amazing amount every other day. I did my first batch of pickles for the year on Sunday.

Every year is different. We will have tons of grapes in August, and yet, very little from the black raspberry plants which normally produces pounds of berries.

Lisa Under the Redwoods said...

My garden is similar to yours. Almost all of my potatoes rotted in the ground after an unusually cold and wet spring. I replanted that area with chard which is thinking about maybe getting bigger.

My cabbage is doing ok, as long as I can keep the bugs out of them. All of my herbs are doing well and my zucchini has lots of flowers on it, so there is hope there.

My nasturtiums are going crazy again this year. My mom has a recipe for pickling the seed buds and I want to give that a try this year. They are supposed to taste like capers.

Green Bean said...

What? Dead mint?! Ours probably cannot be killed. Must be climate.

My pumpkins are pathetic but the peas - just finishing up - were great. It looks like I'll have summer squash ready to harvest in the next few weeks. Other than that, I'll need to wait out the tomatoes. Ours aren't usually ready until at least August.

nantuckettiechic said...

We are harvesting bushels of potatoes. Our blight year was two years ago, now we're golden. the basil tho' is just sitting there. I need a LOT of basil for pesto. That's what I love about gardening. When I feel bleah there's something doing badly to dwell on. When I'm tight with the Lord there's something doing great. Off to spread some diatomaceous earth or the cucumber beetles will take over.

Hazel said...

Lisa- pickled nasturtium buds are fabulous and taste close enough to capers for me! Hope you enjoy them too.

Our weather has been all over the place this year, so plants don't know if they're coming or going. Peas have done really well though, especially my yellow mangetout (snow peas) in the front garden which have been much admired as an unusual sweet pea!

auto windows said...

They can be perfect for our weather. I can even put them inside the hose without compromising anything.

Lucy (loves surprises) said...

Last year our tomatoes survived two violent transplants, and still came back to be over 5 foot tall with tons of tomatoes on them. Yours should make it!

Susannah said...

Sauté those scapes in butter and olive oil! Pick them young, before they straighten out and skip the last 2-3 inches of stem as it can be too woody. Delicious with scrambled eggs :)
Also make garlic scape pesto - yum.

Dmarie said...

here in western Kentucky, our yellow squash and zucchini are coming on now...I'm keeping up so far. wish me luck! this is not the first I've heard of garden troubles tho'. Guess we'll all get some lean years before it's all said and done.

Emily said...

Mint likes to be watered daily, esp. if hot.

Sorry the weather did not cooperate with your garden this year. I know that's a bummer.

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