What we are harvesting in the late July edible garden

Sunday, July 26, 2015

We continue to have a wet, but hot July.  Summer veggies are behind their usual production while spring veggies have continued weeks past normal.

Our tomato and pepper plants are smaller than usual.  The short, stocky plants are putting out a good output.  Fairly typical production for this time of year.  Getting about a quart of tomatoes a week.  We were getting 1 cucumber per plant.  Now that we had a week without rain, we are getting 4 huge cucumbers within the week.

The pole green beans are still giving about a half quart a week.  The bush beans of the same variety, Roma’s, have just started flowering and there is one bean on all of the 10 bush plants.

The sage, basil and parsley have loved this weather!  The basil is ready to harvest for pesto.  The other Mediterranean herbs have done fine, but not growing as quickly as usual.

Getting the first fruits on our tomatillo plant.  Nothing on the eggplant yet.  I replanted the zucchini that died.  Seeing the first flowers on them. This is a couple of months behind the norm.

Have already harvested the garlic.  Not seeing any action on the bulb onions.  The Egyptian walking onions did great.  Nice, big bulblets to replant.

Our lettuce has lasted a couple months longer than normal.  Most has bolted, but many leaves are still sweet.  Have re-seeded for the next crop.  In the meantime, will use cultivated dandelion, sorrel, baby chard, and sprouting broccoli leaves for salads until the lettuce is ready to eat.

To keep the greens sweet, cut them back.  The new leaves will be tender and tasty.  I also add sweet clover, salad burnet and tarragon leaves to our salads.  They have the flavor similar to a Granny Smith apple; very fresh.

The carrots, beets, and broccoli are not quite ready to harvest.  The cabbage is close.  The sunflowers no longer have the yellow centers and are making seeds.

So far, have only had to water the pots and fertilize everything once a month with an all purpose fertilizer and a side dressing of compost.  Been an easy summer in the garden.