On 2022-07-22, songbird <
songbird@anthive.com> wrote:
2nd picking of peas and pea pods. as contrasted to last
year's pea garden the chipmunks haven't damaged a single pod
or pea that i could tell. i made sure to get as many of the
pods as i could find so there would be nothing to attract the
chipmunks again. any remaining flowers that make it to pod
and pea stage will be for seed supply. i'm hoping i can get
every plant isolated when picking to keep the seeds separate
as i would like to plant a patch from each plant next year.
green onions were great this year and i'm happy with the
variety i planted last year. now i have thousands of seeds
and have replenished the seed library so that others can
grow them. i need to plant some more seeds now. they lived
through our winter without any mulching at all.
garlic got lifted today. i didn't plant a huge crop so it was
not that much to get it out and cleaned up and ready for drying
and curing.
in the past i've used the hose to rinse the dirt off the roots
and bulbs before letting them dry, but this year i decided to cut
the roots off and then use a soft enough scrub brush and that
worked out ok. trimmed off the dead leaves and will let the
rest of them dry before trimming again.
beans were also picked and as usual they're delicious.
our beets are ready to to harvest. should have did them last weekend,
will this weekend. first year growing them successfully. ate a few this
week, next weekend am going to plant several varieties for a fall
harvest looking for the right level of sweetness for us. most of our
harvests will get pressure canned.
last night pruned and tied the cucumbers to the trellises. first year
growing them. am trying to control the direction the zucchini is growing
also, it'll invade my bell peppers if left on its own. those plants grow
fast lol.
this spring i planted 1 year asparagus crowns in half whisky barrels. 2 barrels, 3 crowns per barrel. they grew a single fern rather quickly.
however the stalks are very thin as are the fern leaves, like needles
they are. i was wondering how much photosynthesis was actually happening
if there was any at all. now they're beginning to send up stalks,
although thin but much thicker than the first ones, it appears we may
have a few weeks of asparagus to harvest next spring. am also going to
add two more barrels with three crowns each next year.
peppers are taking off now that's it nice a warm out. i've got
california bell, ozark bell, mini bell, scotch bonnet, some mixed super
hots mystery peppers from a free seed packet, and a few carolina reaper
plants. most of the plants are flowering and beginning to set fruit.
i have a few varieties of tomatoes growing this year. last year was an
abysmal failure because to satisfy my wife's desire to grow corn i
screwed up and planted it just south of all the tomato plants, blocking
most of the sun. the corn came out terrible. i was told planting three different varieties in my relatively small space would lead to cross pollination. the sweet corn wasn't sweet and the gem corn wasn't
colorful. must have been cross pollination. the tomatoes didn't produce
much at all. this year am growing them up strings and am diligently
pruning the suckers. have jujubee cherry tomatoes, bumblebee cherry
tomatoes, cherokee purple, and box willie plants growing. most are 5-6
feet high and all are blooming, setting, and growing plenty of tomatoes.
my garlic is curing in my basement. it's hardneck. i pulled them up,
cleaned the soil off with a soft brush brushing it out of the roots too,
and have them laid out on wire shelving in the basement of my air
conditioned house with an oscillating fan blowing on them. i did not
cut the roots or stalks off. this worked last year, i see no reason to
not do the same this year.
excelsior.
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