The pepper plants are producing, at least a little.
And you can see what a difference 6 days makes. The photo above was taken on the 10th and this one was taken today.
I also have a few sweet Italian peppers.
The beans have about doubled in size and are beginning to show a few teeny tiny beans.
Since taking that picture above 6 days ago, I have harvested a small handful of pencil thin beans. Not quite enough for a meal, so I'm holding onto these for a few more days before I cook them.
The cucumbers are all over the place. We have harvested 5 with A LOT more to come.
The basil is still getting chewed on, but I've got plenty. I've churned out one or two batches of pesto already. I just need to buy some more pine nuts to make more. I harvested some sage, but I'm not sure what to do with it. I might chop it and freeze it for use later.
But the tomatoes. Holy cow! These are definitely the biggest plants I've ever had and they are twice as big as most I see in other gardens around here.
After 6 days, they have grown even more! And keep in mind that I have not used one bit of fertilizer. I just plunked them in the lasagna beds and that was it. (And yes, one of them has a toppled branch or two. I tried tying it up, but it didn't work.)
I do see a few green tomatoes showing up here and there. I'm beginning to see more blossoms on the plants, so maybe we'll do okay after all. If these plants had not been ravaged by that fungus (or whatever it was), I can't imagine how many tomatoes we'd have gotten. Apparently tomatoes like lasagna gardening!
I did have one entire plant topple over though. I don't want to straighten it for fear of damaging it so I'm just going to let it be and see what happens.
The zucchini blossoms are pretty. We've harvested 3 so far with several more pretty close to being ready. I did lose a few to some sort of deformity or rot.
Most exciting of all is the appearance of some cantaloupe! They are far from harvest, of course and anything can happen, but I am very excited about the possibility of getting to eat cantaloupe from the garden! Here's the biggest one......
And we have a few smaller ones too.........
I can see that I'll be spacing things out a bit differently next year. Some of my poor pepper plants are getting shut out by the towering cherry tomato plants that are getting much bigger than I expected.
My sage is also feeling a bit crowded by the beans.
But live and learn, that's what gardening is all about. I'll have an easier time planning it out this winter, based on what I've learned this year. One thing I know for sure - I need more beds and I need to extend the beds I have.
Stayed tuned for recipes involving cucumber and zucchini!
I'm so glad your tomatoes recovered. Mine seems to be slowly recovering--there are some baby tomatoes on there. I think that just us being home has helped keep the deer away. I hope. I also left my strawberry and lettuce plants out as my offering to them, haha. Just leave my basil and tomatoes alone! (And the lime tree--you know I would freak if they touched that).
ReplyDeleteI tried to grow watermelon in State College and found it to be a mixed bag. I was like you, VERY excited--we went out and marked the fruit almost every day. But something got them then at the very end--cannot remember if it was frost or disease. I hope yours do better.
Wow!! Your garden is amazing! It must be wonderful to cook with what you have cultivated yourself.
ReplyDelete-Heather (Angelsfan)
Laura - Well, I'm cautiously optimistic that we MIGHT get some tomatoes - they are a long way off from ripening and there's a whole host of other problems that could set in yet! I'm also skeptical about the cantaloupe. I never hear of people growing it in their home gardens and maybe there's a reason for that......
ReplyDeleteHeather - It is quite satisfying to use things from our own garden. At this point I don't know that the yield is anywhere close to balancing out the effort, but it's still fun. :)