What we are harvesting from the late May garden

Chives and sage in bloom

Sunday, May 31, 2020

There are still greens for salads or steaming.  Herbs are growing robustly with plenty for salads.  By this time of year, we no longer need to purchase produce from the grocery store and can get fresh herbs to add to ordinary dishes that make them taste wonderful.

The greens we are eating-French sorrel, chard, spinach, dandelion greens, corn salad, chick weed, sweet clover, green onions, tyfon, Giant Red mustard, sprouting broccoli leaves, snow pea leaves, beet greens, kale, cabbage.  Growing fabulous lettuce and greens

Herbs to add to dishes and salads-chives, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, oregano, thyme, horseradish, overwintered leeks, Egyptian onions, tarragon, sage, dill, young garlic, fennel.  The fruits and veggies-radishes, beets, strawberries, baby carrots.

The flowers that are blooming-spiderwort, marigolds, petunias, roses, and the herbs and veggies going to seed-white flowers on the cilantro, the sage has beautiful purple flowers, the white flowers of thyme and bolted carrots, lavender chive flowers, yellow flowers on the sprouting broccoli and broccoli raab.  All veggie and herb flowers are edible.  A fun way to add flavor and beauty to salads or other dishes.  The flowers typically taste like the leaves. 

Potted lettuce bolting

The lettuce is in full bolt so soon there will be the white, yellow and blue flowers from the different kinds of lettuce.  Carrots if not pulled, they have beautiful flowers resembling Queen Ann's Lace, which they are from the same family.  

The tomatoes, eggplants, and squash have flowers so tiny fruits should be appearing soon!  Peppers, summer squash and eggplant typically can be harvested in June and tomatoes around the 4th of July. 

Everything was fertilized with a balanced fertilizer when planted.  I'll do another round of nitrogen fertilizer when the fruits appear on the tomatoes.  I also sprayed a natural fungicide, Serenade, on all the tomatoes, squash and watermelon leaves.  I spray when it is cool outside so the plant leaves don't get scorched.  The bush zucchini looked like they were starting to get the white from fungus on the leaf veins.  I sprayed the tops and bottoms of the leaves.  Will spray every 7-10 days as a preventative.

The flea beetles are going to town on the a few eggplants.  They love eggplant leaves!  The leaves are pretty chewed up.  I will spray with an insecticidal soap when beneficial insects are not around to get them knocked back.  I usually keep a close eye on them and squash the tiny black insects to keep them in check.  You can also plant nasturtiums to attract them away from the eggplants.

Once the plants get up to a decent size, they will no longer be at risk of being killed or stunted from being an insect's meal.   Natural, organic pest strategies and how to make your own bug sprays

I have also had a very enterprising mole in the garden over the winter.  The good part of this is that they do a great job of loosening up the soil.  The bad part is that if there tunnels go under your plant, there is a good chance, the plant will die.  I got out the mole deterrents and put them in the garden.  It is just a round metal tube that vibrates and makes a buzzing noise a few times a minute.  Hopefully, they will keep the mole from the garden!

Spiderwort blooming on left, allysum on right with kale and turnip leaves

I have been harvesting the extra greens and freezing them to use when needed.  By harvesting, it stimulates the plant to grow even more leaves.  My spinach did much better this year in the pot.  I was very generous with the fertilizer!  Preservation garden

I am growing substitutes for spinach.  The New Zealand spinach is almost ready to start harvesting.  I just got seeds in this week for Red Malabar spinach.  It is a vine that did great in a pot last summer.  It's leaves are slightly more succulent than spinach and are great in salads.

On the back patio, I have re-seeded summer lettuces.  Lettuce in general likes cooler temps.  When it gets up in the 80's, they bolt, sending up a stalk that then flowers.  You can let them go to seed and then save seed for re-sowing.  Most lettuces start to get bitter when they bolt.  Red Sails is one of the few that stays fairly sweet even after bolting.  This time of year, re-sow every 3 weeks to keep in lettuce.  Also, sow the most heat tolerant varieties you can find to extend how long you can harvest.  Bolt-free, sweet summer lettuces

Lettuce seedlings