What's happening in the late July edible garden

Butterfly on zinnias in the garden

Sunday, July 22, 2018

We are harvesting eggplants, summer squash, peppers, sprouting broccoli, herbs, onions, cucumbers, carrots, cabbage, and lots of tomatoes.   We are getting steady amounts of rainfall on most weeks so only the pots are needing water consistently.  Have had to water the beds twice all summer.  The flowers are very happy, too! 

Both the hot and sweet pepper plants have peppers on them.  Am getting ripe peppers consistently.  Peppers are for every taste and garden

Tomatoes are producing very well this year.  We have gotten more rain and heat than usual this year.  Our grass is still green in late July!  The plants greenery are full and tall.  We started getting tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers since the first of July.  The cucumbers just started producing.  The bumblebees love them!  The vines are alive with buzzing with lots of bees every morning.   

Oregano in bloom

I harvested our garlic a couple of weeks ago and is getting hardening in the shade on our outdoor, covered deck.  Garlic harvest time is near!

Our basil has been slow to get started but is now off to the races.  I will take my first harvest next week end, cutting down to the first few sets of leaves.  It will regrow to give me at least one more good harvest before fall.  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

Oregano is in full bloom.  The bees love the purple flowers!  It could be cut and dried now, but I love the flowers and will wait until fall.  Harvest and preserve your herbs

Lettuce gone to seed

I fertilized all the pots again as well as the veggies in the garden.  It is good to fertilize pots biweekly and garden plants monthly during the growing season to give them the nutrition they need to produce well. Summer garden tips

  

The lettuce has gone to seed.  When you see the white fuzzies, they are ready to save.  I just pull the seed heads, break apart, put in a ziplock freezer bag, label with type and date, and store in the refrigerator.  I also re-seeded our Earth boxes with some of the seeds.  I had a few small volunteer lettuce plants elsewhere in the garden that I transplanted to the Earth boxes as well.  The lettuce seeds I planted last month are full size and I have been harvesting from them for a couple of weeks.  I could also transplant them to the garden.  Never ending salad from one packet of seeds  Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver

In the greens department, summer is a hard time for most greens.  Sprouting broccoli, different types of sorrel, arugula, dandelion greens, corn salad and herbs are all available.  The heat increases the sharpness of greens.  Succession planting of lettuce and planting types that are resistant to bolting can keep your lettuce crop going.  Plant them in the coolest part of the yard where they are not in full sun all day and get shade in the afternoon.  Pots are a good option to be able to move them to the cooler part of the yard.  Growing summer salads  Bolt-free, sweet summer lettuces

Our zucchini plants have not kicked in yet.  Once they do, you have to be creative to keep up with all the fruits they pump out.  I just love grilled zucchini!  I also found that using it as a substitute for pasta or lasagna is a great way to use them.  You can also dry them to use in soups or roasts over the winter.  What to do with all that zucchini?!

The annual flowers are really rocking in the garden right now.  The daylilies, marigolds and zinnias are doing extremely well this summer.  They attract all kinds of beautiful butterflies and moths as well as bees.  I love watching all the bees and butterflies that are visiting the garden.  

Summer garden is in full swing!