Squashed Out Already

These are the squash from today's harvest. Thank goodness for my neighbor who is happy to unload some from my hands.

Harvest Monday

The harvest has been slow but steady for the last two weeks, The order of everything seems a little backwards has I have been picking squash for three weeks and just started picking my peas 4 days ago.

Many things don't get photographed because I am a constant harvester. Every walk through the garden yields something in my hand.
Among the harvest: greens, basil, squash, cucumber, peas, turnips, beans, tomatoes and onions and an eggplant :).

 

Small Plant and Fritters

I have already harvested about 12 squash from the garden. The mix of Patty pan and striped zucchini have kept my kitchen busy with a variety of recipes. In this house, we do potato pancakes twice a year. The frying just gets to me and I am not fond of the lingering oil smell. But, I needed a savory dish that was a little different then the ones I was making and so Zucchini fritters it was. Not sure how many went into the dish but I used a combination of the two squash and had a nice meal with a garden salad on the side. No pictures of the plate. I never get to the camera in time. Wendy has some other recipes on the GTTC every Saturday.

On another squash front - I planted two butternut squash. These are really my favorite squash. Last year I only managed to get four squash from the two plants. I was hoping for more this year, especially after seeing Granny's post last year on how many she got. The plant was growing nicely and one day I noticed about 8 female squash flowers with 1" squash attached. No male flowers were going to open for at least a week and I had to try to pollinate with the pattypan and stripped zucchini. My efforts failed as you can see below. At this point I have 4 that are pollinated and four that have died. I see a few more on the plant that may develop so i am keeping my fingers crossed.

Lastly, I have a Tumbling Tom tomato that looks like a picture from one of those magazines that promises high yield. I bought this plant from the Master Gardeners and thought it would make a nice addition to the patio. This plant is only 12" tall and will not get bigger. Already producing ripened fruit while some of the other tomatoes barely have fruit set on them. We picked one today and split it 3 ways. Not a lot of taste to judge by. I am sure they will get sweeter as the summer goes on.

Garden Happenings

I love this time of the garden when you can see growth day to day. The forever changing perennial garden. The air was so thick this morning with fog that you could see all these interesting webs on many of the plants.

Bean flowers are plentiful. Much different than last year when we had such a hard time getting the beans producing and when they did in August, it was a poor crop. This year I should be getting them in another week or two.

Peas are beginning to plump up.

The big news is that two female butternut squash flowers opened with no males in sight. I clipped one of the male pattypan squash flowers to pollinate the butternut. I hope it works. An unfolded squash flower.

Harvest and GTTC

Not a lot to harvest this week.
Waiting on the peas. I pulled some turnips and greens. They were not doing so well and I could tell they were not going to get much bigger. The squash continue to come in. Check Daphne's Dandelions for more harvests.

I made an excellent dish of caramelized onions (not from the garden) radishes and patty pan squash sauteed in balsamic vinegar that were great as a warm dish. The next day, I used it as a topping on a green salad. My first Garden to Table Challenge hosted by Greenish Thumb. Take a look at some other great garden dishes. YUM.

The Squash have It.

While I have harvested a little here and there from the garden in the last few weeks, this is my first Harvest Monday post compliments of Daphne. Check some others out. I finally got an overhead shot of the garden.

I never seem to photograph my lettuce and that is probably because I cut and eat it. It is supposed to be better if it stays in the refrigerator over night so I am going to have to cut a day in advance. I have never tried head lettuce and might do that for the fall since my daughter likes it so much better than the mesclun mix. I pulled all the radishes. Half last week and the rest this morning. I realized that they were not getting bigger and the timing was not right for them this year - only dime size. So much smaller than last year when I got quarter size radishes.

This week, I also pulled a bunch of garlic. The stems fell over and they never gave me garlic scapes. I was so looking forward to getting some this year to make the pesto from Happy Acres. I still might get some scapes from the garlic I planted on the other side of the garden.

I guess the squash are the winners for the week. I was not sure when to pick the pattypan squash but it looked about the right time. I know it is hard to tell size but it was about 4" in diameter. Nicely followed by striped zucchini squash, compliments of Robin. I will try to pick these small. I think it is better for the plant and they taste better also. These three are about 8" long.

Waiting Patiently

Curioso says it all. In a rare moment of compassion, I let one of my cats follow me into the garden while I worked. He was very content napping and keeping me company.

Elsewhere in the garden progress is happening despite my very late and unenthusiastic start.
All the plants are in and actually looking good and healthy.

Pattypan squash. I love these squash but never want to dedicate so much space to the plant since the garden is not that big. This plant is in the garden but I cleared out a section behind the garden and planted two others. We will see how well they do.

Eggplant is flowering and this is one of the 10 plants that I did not start from seed. I get them from the Master Gardener sale and they look so healthy when I buy them.

Stripped squash, seeds compliments of Robin and I know it is hard to tell but a female and male squash opening up on the same day means a baby squash.

The only purchased tomato plant. This is a Juliet. I love these for fresh salsa and sun drying.

The peony lasted for such a short time. The Iris is the ones I brought from Mexico and I like them because they bloom much later than the other ones I have. 

SUN SUN SUN

Working in the garden. Replacing some tomatoes that got ruined from the rain, planting new lettuce - AGAIN, putting the eggplants in.

Lots of Rain

The difference between where the garden is today and where it was last time this year is amazing. You can see last years post here. This is a general update of what has happened in the last month.

A slow start to planting seeds for lettuce has yielded practically no lettuce at all. Every time I plant, they seem to get washed away by the next torrential down pour. I am considering creating a cover for the lettuce bed to protect it from the pelting rain. Very scrawny looking.

 

Greens were planted in a slightly shady area and without the sun for the last week, they have not been producing. I will try in a slightly different area this week.

Peas are beginning to gain some height. I planted sweet peas a good two weeks before I planted the sugar snap peas which are just beginning to surface. Okra, planted very close to the peas, have germinated. They will have more room after the peas are removed but will act as a nice structure for the peas to keep them up against the fence. You can see the cat behind the fence, yearning to get into the garden.

 


The row of beans that I mulched with grass clippings managed to survive. The other row is having major difficulty. The pole beans are not surfacing at all and I am not sure what to do about it right now. Carrots and radishes are doing OK. I do not think that the radishes will get much bigger than a big blueberry. One set of carrots had a 205 germination rate while the other set is almost 100%.

 


Tomatoes are having a hard time. The slugs and pill bugs are doing a good job eating the green leaves on everything from turnips to tomatoes.

Cucumbers are looking good. I am glad that they did not sustain any damage.

 

Garden Time Again

I have obviously been checked out for a while.
Time to switch my gears from inside stuff to outside stuff.

Should start posting next week