August 15, 2018

Harvest Monday, 8/13/18

Sorry, I couldn't be around much this summer. My husband had to have surgery at the beginning of July which meant I couldn't get out into the garden for weeks. Here's a few pictures from right before his surgery, and a few things during garden cleanup and the like.
Bush beans did great this year. Surprisingly there was only a little rust in their patch.
Cherry tomatoes did well this year, but the onions were terrible. Tiny tiny onions.
The green tomato on the right blushed with gold is Green Cherokee which is amazingly prolific even with all the diseases that rampaged through the garden.
I've been roasting tomatoes with zucchini and summer squash with mixed herbs which was fabulous, but my favorite way to eat a tomato this year was just fresh on crackers with some soft Laughing Cow cheese.
We picked tons of cherry tomatoes this year, but the only ones that tasted great even with the wonky weather we experienced were Red Grape and Sun Gold and both are hybrids.
Lots of weird diseases in the garden this year. It was the first time I've ever seen wilt and what I suspect was Septoria leaf spot. The tomato plants never recovered after the 8 days of torrential unending rain we got. And the only large tomato that still managed to taste great this year despite it all was Pink Brandywine.

Corn and melons were a bit of a disaster. We got a few good pickings of corn, but then it rained and critters moved in. Squirrels were all over the tomatoes as usual, but something big was pulling down the corn and getting to the melons. We've trapped possums before, but I think it might be racoons.

All the tomato plants, bush beans, and onions have been pulled. I've hand dug those beds, weeded, and started the process of fall planting. Mostly carrots in containers, beets, Gilfeather turnips, kohlrabi, and bulb fennel have been planted. I've still got salad turnips, radishes, and greens to plant. Once the corn gets cut down, more greens as well as fava beans will get planted in their place.

It's supposed to rain for a week so I've been pushing through to get the garden planted before then. Finger's crossed I can get it done tonight.

13 comments:

Kathy said...

I hope our husband is on the mend now. Your harvests look beautiful, even if the corn and melons didn't do so well. Some years one thing does well, another year different crops thrive. Whoever knows?

Kathy said...

OOOH I mean Your husband!!!!

Dave @ HappyAcres said...

It's been a hard year for tomatoes here too with all the rain. The heirlooms I planted really struggled, though the hybrids did better. We're supposed to get rain all week here, and I managed to get all the fall veggies planted just in time. I hope your husband is doing well!

Sue Garrett said...

I too hope that your husband is recovering. It has certainly been a year of very good and very bad harvests. Some crops have thrived (with lots of watering involved) and others flagged.

Lucy Corrander Now in Halifax! said...

As with the others, I hope your husband is now well.
My early tomatoes were disappointingly tasteless but as the summer has gone on their flavour has improved greatly on those very same plants.

Phuong said...

Hi Kathy,
The fall/autumn garden is always more low key with less insects and weeds seem to grow slower. I'm hoping the rain doesn't materialize until tomorrow so I can get more planting done. I just remembered you have two poly tunnels, are you planning to put in a lot of fall vegetables? Although, it does look like you still are harvesting lots from your current plantings.

Shaheen said...

I hope your husband is recovering well. Your tomatoes are awesome, loving the last bowl full of different colours. Sorry about the tiny onions, the weather has been awfully strange this year, like you my pole beans have been dismal - but at least we had some.

Phuong said...

Hi Dave,
That's fantastic you got your fall garden planted already. It rained last night, but the half inch predicted for today hasn't materialized. I'm going to run out there and see if I can get some carrots and winter radishes planted. Hopefully it's not too early for the radishes, otherwise they'll be way to spicy. When do you plan to dig up your sweet potatoes? I was thinking about waiting till September or October.

Phuong said...

Hi Sue,
My husband is doing much better. He ended up losing 25 pounds while recovering from surgery, but hopefully he'll be able to start exercising and building his strength back up. It looks like you're finally getting more regular rainfall, and you're newly planted fall brassicas are looking good. It's probably a little late for us to start brassicas from seed especially since I have a north facing garden, but I might start a couple Brussels sprout plants just to see.

Phuong said...

Hi Lucy,
The first tomatoes can sometimes be less flavorful, I wonder if it's because they're forming and ripening before the weather has really warmed up. I'm very interested in seeing your allotment gardening adventures on your blog.

Phuong said...

Hi Shaheen,
I think the onions ended up drowning when we had a long period of unending rain, after which they never recovered. It looks like your greenhouse tomatoes are doing great and you're still getting lots of vegetables from your garden. The only thing left in my garden from the summer are peppers, sweet potatoes, and a few herbs.

Dave @ HappyAcres said...

I don't usually dig my sweet potatoes until early October. Some might be ready sooner than that, but I'm never sure which ones are early and which ones need the extra time!

Phuong said...

Hi Dave,
I'm so excited, we'll be sure to wait until October to dig ours up. You're fall garden is in full force, it's amazing how early you got everything in. I've got to get the winter radishes planted, last year we didn't get any because they were planted so late.