Tomatoes finally
Top: Purple Cherokee, Fireball/Moira, Black Pear, Thai Pink Egg
Bottom: Mystery Yellow, White Currant, Mystery Cherry, Golden Honey, Isis Candy
I lost a couple of the tags for the ones bought for me down south, hence the Mystery status. Also the Moira and Fireball look a lot the same to me, so now that I've picked them I can't tell them apart.
I was starting to think that tomatoes were not going to happen for me this year, but finally in the last couple of weeks I've been harvesting. First, just the Golden Honey. And then a few Moira, and a few White Currants. Then finally the rest. Earlier this week, due to a risk of frost I pulled in every tomato that looked like it stood a chance of ripening, and they must like the indoors, because I have a pile of tomatoes now!! I will most certainly be making a fresh tomato and mozzarella salad this weekend!
The only ones that didn't work out for me were the Green Zebra (again). They seem to need too much time to ripen - not sure I'll bother with them next year.
Potato Problems
I won't repeat myself here - but see my post on the UBC botanical forums for the problems we've had with potatoes:
http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=43427
Carrots, finally
I can't believe my eyes - I have tried growing carrots every year... and this is the first year that they have finally made it! This success was not without it's failures. I originally planted 3 rows of 3 different varieties:
Napoli organic,
Purple Haze, and
Chantenay Red Cored Carrot. Only the Napoli (on the right in picture) produced a significant amount of carrots, but a few purple ones made it, quite to my surprise. They didn't do much at the start, and then I kind of forgot about them, until I went down to the garden the other day and ta-da! What you see in the picture is ALL of the purple ones that made it, but better than nothing! I have plenty more Napoli still in the ground to last the next few weeks. There is nothing like fresh carrots.
What I did this year that was different, that may have led to success?
1) added peat moss to the garden - the earth has always been really really heavy, which carrot seeds do not generally like.
2) watered them - or rather, the fact that it rained almost every day seemed to help.
3) I planted radishes in the same row. I do think that this broke the soil for the carrot seeds - the rows (Napoli) where I had lots of radishes were the rows where carrots did the best. A terribly unscientific-ly derived conclusion, but I think I will continue to do this.
Next year:
1) I've heard that planting carrots into long hills is the way to go - my mom's neighbour does this, and has amazing carrots every year, so I think I will try this next year.
2) Also, add more sand! I didn't have any around this year, and just got lazy at planting time. Next year - add sand into the planting trough. Carrots like sand.
Garden goodies!
So far - this has been the majority of my bounty - which has been awesome and delicious! But somehow all I keep thinking about are tomatoes... still not ready to eat. I pruned them within an inch of their life tonight, so I'm hoping to see some improvement in the next week or so.
I have been eating a few Golden Honey tomatoes from a plant that my mom purchased for me down south.
Can't seem to find a lot about them, and they aren't one of the varieties that my
regular source carries, although I may suggest it to him. Remarkably early! Here's what I could find out them:
Golden Honey Bunch Grape: Vigorous vines produce clusters of 10 to 20 fruit. First golden grape tomato .
I think this is it... they are definitely the bunching-est tomatoes I think I've grown, and early is right. I may save seeds from these guys. Here's a link to a
good picture of what I might expect from this plant!
Some things are growing...others, not-so-much
The lack of heat and enormous amount of rain has definitely had a dramatic effect on my garden this year. Here's the long and the short of it:
Lettuce (3 kinds) = booming! This picture shows the 3 varieties nicely starting with the
Baby Leaf Blend on the right, the
Sangria butterhead lettuce next, and then the
Little Gems romaine. The Sangria came in more like leaf lettuce than a head lettuce, but it's still awesome. May also be because of the rain, flattening everything out, especially that variety being so fragile to begin with. You can also see the beaten-up
Tatsoi on the far left.
Zucchini (4 kinds) = growing fast. The
Sunburst patty pans are what I'm most excited about, but they haven't really produced any fruit yet, I have tiny
Golden Dawn and
Richgreen ones starting (regular style), and the
Magda are almost ready to eat. From Vesey's: "The Magda is a Cousa (Lebanese zucchini) variety. Beautiful, uniform mid-sized 4" fruit have a creamy green color and succulent, nutty, white flesh. Magda is early and very productive over a long season. Maturity 50 days" - very exciting!! Here's a peek under the zucchini leaves of the Magda:
Cucumbers: they are struggling, but there is one
Sultan ready to be picked - can't wait to try it!
Tomatoes: the plants look pretty good.. I top-dressed with a combination of compost, eggshells and banana skins the other day. There are a lot of green tomatoes still.... we need more heat!!! The Thai Pink eggs (old faithful) look like they are on the verge of turning color. I'm hoping for tomatoes within a week or so. And the one Isis Candy plant that
Science Nerd gave me is starting to show it's stripes (in a good way!!) see picture (they are about an inch or so here)
Beans: despite my aggravation with them at the beginning (stupid cutworms!!), they have filled out to a beautiful bean patch and I should be eating beans within days. I originally planted 2 varieties, but then as theses plants were getting eaten, I was re-planting using whatever seeds I had lying around, so I've basically lost track of what I have. There will be some yellow beans and some green beans.
More promises from the weatherman, but apparently it will be hot in the next week, so hopefully I will have some exciting ripe tomato pictures and news soon!
Report on Tatsoi
I harvested the first bits of Tatsoi today .... or the first bits that I have dared to eat. The plants have taken a beating with some kind of pest eating a good deal of the leaves, and giving them a less-than-appealing look. But upon closer examination I found many of the leaves not as bad as my initial impression told me, in particular the newest growth in the middle.
After picking out the "bad" stuff, the tatsoi was quickly stir fried with garlic and was healthy and DELICIOUS.
NERD NOTE1: Tatsoi is in the genus
Brassica, (along with cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, turnip and others) which is part of the mustard family (Cruciferae aka Brassicaeae). I now remember where the term cruciferous veggies comes from... and I'm thinking cruciferae is probably latin for noxious gasses. Turns out it's something to do with the shape of their flowers. I suppose that's easier to key out.
Not sure what is eating the Tatsoi.... but from the reading I've been doing I suspect that it's
Flea Beetles. Apparently they LOVE all things
Brassica. Which explains why there are 3 rows of delicious lettuce varieties that haven't been touched. Obviously very fussy eaters.
For next year some suggestions I've read (non-chemical):
- row covers
- early spring or fall planting (Tatsoi is extremely cold resistant, even seems to do better in cold weather)
- encourage faster more vigorous growth (larger plants=more resistance) by planting more vigorous varieties, and shallower planting
NERD NOTE2:
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA366540 Apparently cruciferous veggies are fart-makers, as they contain raffinose, an indigestible sugar that the methane producing bacteria in your guts go nuts for.
Spotlight on Potatoes
I couldn't resist digging around the base of my potato plants to try and harvest a few young ones - and sure enough found a few of the early varieties (a toonie would have been helpful here, but FYI they were about 2 inches across). I roasted them and they were delicious:
1) Caribe: (purple potato) Early variety. Caribe is a high yeilding oblong potatoes. Excellent storage qualities and great for boiling.
2) Dark red norland: Early variety. Smooth red skin, shallow eyes white flesh. No internal defects, few irregular tubers. Some resistance to scab and rhizoctonia (black scurf)
3) Yukon Gold (??): received from my neighbour, can't remember which kind
Apparently, rather than pulling whole plant, you can dig around the base once they start flowering, and harvest the potatoes young. These "early" varieties according to my math should be ready to fully harvest in mid-August, so it's great to be able to pull a few ones even earlier.
Still remaining are a medium and late varieties, which will be ready in mid to late September!
4) All Red: Round tubers that are rated as medium to late maturity. This potato has a good yield with red skinned and distinctive red flesh tubers that maintain their color after cooking. It has an excellent flavor and a moist texture.
5) Shepody: Medium variety. Long tubers, white skin, white moist flesh medium deep eyes. Excellent tasting potato. Excellent for boiling, baking or french fries. Some resistance to rhizoctonia (black scurf).
Potatoes were bought from
Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes out in Alberta. Funny story... having no impulse control whatsoever, the moment I decided I wanted to grow potatoes I called the company, even though it was Easter Sundy. Surprisingly, an man answered and we proceeded to talk for an hour about potatoes. Sold.
Raspberries
It's raspberry time again!!
As usual, despite doing a good job of pruning the raspberries (both sides of the fence this year), I did a terrible job of staking them. I wait too long to do it, until they are flopping all over the place. At this point I try and make sense of it all, but it's gotten messy, some end up breaking, and there are crazy shoots all over the place. It looks terrible, and it makes picking the berries way harder than it has to be. Having said all this... I always get lots of raspberries, more than I need, so I guess it doesn't really matter. Rewind, press play. See you in 2009.
