Monday, September 10, 2012

Harvest Monday

I missed Harvest Monday last week, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been a steady daily harvest for the past two weeks. The weather has been warm and rainy, so the diseases and bugs are rampant, yet production is still good. And this week we are feeling the first taste of Fall weather with drier air and cool nights. I'll miss the summer garden, but hope to extend it as long as I can!
 What you see above, besides the peppers, is my very last zucchini. The second group of summer squash plants were completely destroyed by the squash bug plague I had in late summer. The peppers are still going strong. They are far and away the healthiest and largest plants I've ever had and still loaded with green peppers. A few are finally turning red too!
 Amazingly, for me, we are still getting lots of broccoli side shoots and the majority of them are coming from the first planting. Those plants are quite ravaged looking, yet the shoots keep on coming. I've never had enough broccoli to freeze before, but this year I actually froze 16 packets for winter use.
 This picture of my eggplant is pretty poor, but I wanted to show my first two Ping Tungs and a Caspar. I received my Ping Tung seed last spring much later than my others and they were started a good two months after my Swallows, so I really haven't gotten much out of them. Hoping to do better  with them next year. Caspar isn't much of a producer, but I like the idea of white eggplants.
Since my tomato plants are almost dead, I've been picking the tomatoes when they are just the littlest bit pink and letting them ripen in the house. That green one you see must've fallen off the vine. Early blight really did it to the tomatoes in our area and I've heard the same complaints from most of my gardening friends in town. A near neighbor told me this morning that she had late blight on her plants, but I haven't seen that over here yet.
 Still getting a good amount of kale. I have here Lacinato, Red Russian, Winterbor and Siberian. I planted some fall kale, but the plants are pretty small and I'm not sure if they will amount to much.
 I have loads of carrots this year, but they sure are small. Wonder sometimes if I'll ever grow a good sized carrot! And trust me, I'm not talking about a long, thick ten incher!
And in this final photo are two of my three tiny New England Pie pumpkins, a few Little Finger eggplants, the last of my Double Yield cucumbers and a handful of komatsuna,  an Asian green which is a good lettuce substitute and grows so fast! Not pictured are the three pounds of  green beans, which are obviously still coming in so well. That's it for another good week of harvest. Go on over to Daphne's Dandelions to see the other Harvest Monday offerings for this week!

20 comments:

  1. Wonderful harvest. We have a similar experience with squash bugs and early blight affected tomatoes this year.

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    1. Yeah, those bugs are awful aren't they? I tried so hard to keep ahead of them with hand picking bugs and eggs and neem oil, but they just took off.

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  2. Congratulations on all your broccoli! I haven't been incredibly successful with it so your bounty is very impressive!!!

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    1. Thanks! I usually don't do well at all with broccoli; this is a definite first for me.

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  3. What a beautiful harvest! I'm hoping for a successful broccoli harvest this fall. We don't usually have great luck, but this season has been sort of upside down so maybe it will be great.

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    1. Thank you! Good luck with the fall broccoli! I didn't plant any fall brassica seedlings at all, so what I get is just the side shoots from the old plants.

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  4. What a beautiful harvest! Sorry to hear about your tomatoes; I lost about half of my plants to wilt early in the season but the rest seem to be doing fine. The mildew is just showing up on the squash, but that's ok. I'm tired of zukes and most of the winter squash are big enough now that they should be ok.

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    1. Sounds like things are doing well for you! thanks for the nice comment; even though some things aren't doing great, other things are better than ever, so no big complaints here!

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  5. I harvested zero summer squash from my garden this year, ah well, next year. Your Ping Tungs are beautiful, just love that color. You probably have extra seeds so you will be able to start your seeds on schedule next year.

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    1. There's always next year isn't there? Hope next year you get tons of summer squash. I usually do badly with it, but this year I got lots til the squash bugs were more than I could handle. Definitely plan to start those Ping Tungs early next time!

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  6. wonderful harvest despite blight and bugs on your side of the garden. Love those cute pumpkins and eggplants.

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    1. Thanks Jenny! There's always the positive side! The pumpkins may be tiny, but you're right, they're cute!

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  7. Great fall harvest! I will have to see if I can find some Komatsuma seeds to try! Maybe the bugs won't bother us all next year! Wishful thinking anyway! Nancy

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    1. I am amazed how fast komatsuna grows! It's good raw and good in stir fries. Definitely has that brassica taste, but when the lettuce is scarce it makes for a nice salad green. Thanks for stopping by!

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  8. Beautiful harvest! My bell peppers are all still very green. I don't know when they will decide to turn. I'm glad to see yours starting to turn red!

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    1. Thank you TS! My peppers take a very long time to turn red, so it's a good thing I like green peppers too. Hope you get some red ones before the frosts hit!

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  9. Many of my carrots turned out small, but they were still tasty! I'll bet yours are too. That's some lovely kale.

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    1. Yup, you are right about the taste Dave. And thanks regarding the kale. I have though about trying a variety you have mentioned on your blog, forgeting the name at the moment.

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  10. What beautiful peppers! I love your pumpkins too!

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    1. Why thank you! It's been a good year for peppers. And those pumpkins are cute...tiny though. Might get a pie out of the three of 'em!

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