Garden: Weekend Update
July 28, 2013
Last week I only made it to the garden a couple of times. I did a little watering and weed pulling, but not much else.
Saturday morning was a lovely day, and I spent much time in the garden. We've had unseasonably cool weather, with highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's. It must be what July is like in Duluth. So, I spent more than an hour enjoying the garden on Saturday morning, but realized after I got down there, that I had not brought my phone or camera to take pictures.
I did a lot of weeding.
I also removed the unproductive zucchini plant. I had decided to anyway, but when I looked at it, I noticed that the first four inches at the base of the stem were gray colored and rotting. A biologist friend earlier in the week confirmed that the other squash plant is a hybrid yellow squash/zucchini, but that the original seed would have been that, not some merger of the two side-by-side plants. This hybrid continues to produce large, tasty fruit. We've had it a few times as side dishes and in pasta. It sautees nicely in olive oil with a little red onion, salt, and pepper.
The tomatoes are having problems this year. The inconsistent temps and moisture, much like two years ago, are creating bottom rot and those annoying little black spots. Last year, during the drought, we did not have this problem, and had a magnificent tomato harvest. All the heirloom yellow tomatoes that were ripe had the bottom rot. The beefsteak is not quite ready, though I picked a few for fried green tomatoes. The other yellow one, can't think of the variety right now, has one big one close to harvest. The Roma is producing mightily, though with the black spots. I've used a few in pasta and shared some with our friend PJ.
We also, finally, had a handful of cucumbers to pick, instead of just one a week or two like it has been.
I also harvested some jalapeno peppers, the rest of the chives (as they were getting droopy), about half a dozen Brussels sprouts, and PJ let me take some of her green beans.
I took a bag full of squash, cukes, chives, and peppers to the church today for our weekly produce sale. The profits of which go to fun our hunger ministries.
After weeding and harvesting, I planted seeds, looking forward to those things which can be harvested late summer/early autumn. I planted beets, spinach (remember the great spinach earlier in the year), carrots, lettuce, and scallions. I did take a picture of the packets when I got home.
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