Mid Summer Harvist and Replanting

At this point in the summer its time to start harvesting our veggie.  We have been getting some, however now we are ready to pull up the carrots and beets.

Garlic is not harvested based on time.  Instead you harvest when the stalks turn brown and fall over. 

To harvest you simply pull them out.  Garlic comes in two kinds, soft necked and hard necked.  Most of what you get in the store is soft neck, however ours is hard necked.  Both are stored in dry cool areas after having been cleaned, however soft necked lasts up to a year, while hard neck lasts up to 6 months.

Our harvest for these was a bit disappointing, further our cucumbers didn't come up and our beans have not yet produced.  After pulling the carrots and beets its a good idea to replant, additionally at the time its time to plant more corn, cucumbers, beans, beets and broccoli (which will be harvested in November). 

To do this we chose to turn the area between the flower bed and the walkway into another vegetable bed (as well as the area next to the chicken coop). 

To do this we tilled up the soil and added compost.  We then placed a boarder around it to separate it from the grass. 

We have planted cucumber bushes (which do not need to grow up the fence), beans, okra, corn, carrots and beets.  We have also planted additional broccoli in the area the carrots were trying to grow (it was next to the old broccoli which worked, while the carrots did not grow well).  I still hope that we will end up with enough vegetables to store some for the winter. 

July Update and Apple Tree Removal

Unfortunately, despite our efforts to eliminate them, the codling moths have again infested our apple trees.  Based upon our research we had to conclude that without using heavy chemicals we could not stop the infestation and so we had to remove the trees.

This is really disappointing as these mature trees could have produced significant amounts of apples, but we need to do so and it will allow more light to come into the garden next year.  We have also placed some of the branches in the chicken coop.

This gives the chickens shade, food, and as shown by Whinny above a place to roost.  Our garden has also grown significantly, however I will only be providing updates on those plants which have something other than size to show for now. 

Our zucchini is starting to flower, although no zucchini yet which is a little concerning as they usually grow very fast. 

Our tomatoes have also started to grow. 

In fact, we have our first ripe tomato!  We call these candy tomatoes as they are wonderfully sweet and the perfect size to eat as candy. 

Our green beans have grown at an alarming rate, while we don't yet have any beans, I expect we will in a few weeks.

Our eggplants have begun producing. 

As have our sweet peppers, in fact these are almost ready to pick.

Our sun flowers are also growing quickly, these are unlikely to produce until fall but they will grow extremely tall before they flower.

The mustard is flowering, so we are having yummy kale and mustard green salads.  Once the seed pods are dry we will also have mustard seed.

My watermelon is growing really well.

The below is the first of our watermelons, it is currently the size of a small marble. 

While some of our plants are a bit slow, we are hopeful we will have a good harvest, even if we don't reach our original goals. 

Picking Broccoli

It is difficult to know when to pick broccoli.  The florets start small but continue to grow for a while.  They are ready to pick when they just start to open. 

If they flower you can still eat them, just cook them longer and they will have a stronger flavor.  You can also eat the leaves.  To pick them cut it about 4-6 inches below the floret at an angle. 

 This will allow more of them to grow out to the sides of the original head.  When the heads start getting too small it is time to stop picking them.  You can either eat the leaves or pull up the plants and hang them by the roots in the chicken coop.  According to others chickens are very fond of broccoli.  I was planning on freezing some of these for winter, but we didn't have enough, so we just head a home grown stir fry (ok, we bought local free range chicken, and rice noodles which were not local).