Pulling Onions! June 2 2014

 I pulled up a few onions today, some were quite large.  I still have another patch but a gopher decided to move into this patch and got to a few of the smaller ones so I went ahead and pulled up what he left me.  I can let the smaller ones that I pulled (not in photos) dry and replant in the fall.

We're picking Tomatoes, Onions, Garlic and More Squash!

Tomatoes are coming in now.  I picked a few Anna Russian Pink, Purple Russian and Paul Robeson Black. The Green Zebra are also starting to ripen now and I picked a couple of those yesterday.  The San Marzano's seem a bit behind this year. One of my plants is struggling, but hopefully, I will get plenty from the other plant.

The green ones are from a San Marzano plant that I pulled out this morning. The plant looked sick, I don't have space for sick plants!  

 A couple of Mango's off to the left side are from the Farmer's Market.

Mortgage Lifter is loaded with green tomatoes.  The Ponderosa plant that is on the driveway bank is over 8 feet tall now and has more tomatoes on that one plant than I see on any of my others.  Although, Southern Night and Cherokee Purple are not far behind.  I picked about 6 Southern Night yesterday afternoon.

Persimmon Orange only has a few tomatoes on it.  I don't understand why, last year this variety gave us a lot of fruit.  This is in the same bed as the San Marzano so maybe the soil needs some boosting for next year.  I have been fertilizing on a regular schedule of every two to three weeks and they all get the same amount so it can't be lack of that.  The plants look good, just not much fruit.

Crimson Carmello is coming in now to and is loaded with fruit.  German Queen and Gold Medal will be a little later, but have a nice amount of fruit.

I planted 3 more San Marzano plants today, and another Cherokee Purple.  I had the plants and couldn't bring myself to tossing them. I still have more plants and if I can find space I will plant them.  I think we will have a long summer this season.  The plants I have in now will be ripening very soon so these will be my backups for September harvesting.

I also planted a few pepper plants I had , a Mexico Chili and a Sweet Pimento pepper.  These I planted in bed 4 after I removed the onions.

This is an 8 foot table.  Small ones on this end and the larger ones on the far end. I was up until 9:30 last night cleaning and removing the greens.  I let them dry a few days in the ground first, and now they will dry and cure a few more weeks. I will be putting them on drying racks today so the air will circulate under them.

 I grew all of these from seeds that we started last fall. We pulled a lot for spring onions, then left the rest to grow to full size. I do have a lot that are small and may plant these again later on in the fall, they were crowded.  I need to leave more space for them next year.  I am pretty proud of these because onions do take a long time to grow to full size and you must fertilize often as they are high feeders. And keep the weeds out too, I have found that they don't like weeds!

Tons of summer squash this year.  This is just a sampling of what we have picked, I generally get 10-20 every couple of days and have been picking since June.  The Scallop squash has been incredibly prolific this year.  I have been cutting them in half and roasting on a sheet pan at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. This gives them a nice caramel color and are so yummy, then I put 4 or 5 in bags and freeze them.  I think I have about 20 bags in the freezer already, just of the patty pan!

I grate the zucchini and freeze it raw, this works fine for muffins and breads when the winter months come around and I want zucchini bread. I also grate the other squash when I find the ones that have grown too large for cooking.

My new idea:  When the tomato plants get so big and spread over the cages I have a hard time getting to the tag that I have in the ground.  This year I decided to make some tags that I could staple to the racks, up high so I can read them.  This is working out nice and I will do this again next year.  I don't have a laminator so I used packing/mailing tape to double wrap the label, so far it is holding up.

You can see here just how big the tomatoes are this year.  This is Ponderosa at around 8 feet, there is no way I can find the marker at the bottom of the plant, but with my new tags I can see it easily.  Of course if my memory was what it used to be I wouldn't need tags at all.

My garlic did pretty well, but I have a lot of small ones that I think I will replant in the fall.

Shallots did not do well at all.  I will plant these again in the fall.

On the other hand the Grapefruit are huge this year!

When the heat like a mist veil floats,
And poppies flame in the rye,
And the silver note in the streamlet’s throat
Has softened almost to a sigh.
It is July.

 –Susan Hartley Swett (1860–1907)

Potatoes, Tomatoes and Onions OH MY! A Gardener's Breakfast

Lots of photos today to keep my garden journal up to date.

My tomatoes have almost doubled in size since my last post.  The summer squash is growing incredibly fast this year; I have already picked three squash.  We had Calabacitas con maiz for dinner last night. YUM, thanks to my friend Sylvia for the recipe!

 Swiss Chard, Ponderosa Tomato, Yellow Crookneck Squash

 Southern Night Tomato in 2 cages, Gold Medal Tomato, Cocozelle Stripe Zucchini

 All Three Beds

Better view of Bed 1 here: 2 San Marzano's, Purple Russian, Paul Robeson black, Persimmon Orange

 Bed 1: San Marzano 2 plants, Ruby Red Swiss Chard along bricks in front.

San Marzano Reaching for the Sky! At 6 feet here.

 Bed 2: Green Zebra, Cherokee Purple, Big White Pink, Gold Medal, German Queen and Anna Russian Pink

Bed 3: Gold Medal, Crimson Carmello, Mortgage Lifter, Black Krim, Big White Pink Stripe, Garlic on this end. This cage is 7 feet tall, you can see the tomatoes are at about 5-6 feet now.

 Volunteer tomato I replanted in bed 4.  I think this is a San Marzano Plum tomato that came up on the front bank. 1 Eggplant and more potatoes, I think these are Yukon Golds.

 Newly planted tomatoes with bunny guards. I also made pots out of this chicken wire and buried to plant the seedlings in, all of our beds are first lined with chicken wire to keep the gophers out., 2 Ponderosa and 1 Cherokee Purple planted here. Still have about 20 more seedlings but I am pretty much out of space to plant. Loquat tree in background that we planted last October.

Miniature corn that Tony planted. We only have 6 plants but this one stalk has 5 cobs on it! At least we will have a few meals with our own organic non GM Corn!!

Another view of the summer squash on the front bank. These are over 3 feet already, if they grow as good as last year they will cover this entire area.

 Onions from last years seed.

More onion on the front bank just behind the summer squash and tomatoes. I also have hidden, two Eggplants that I need to relocate, I thought I would harvest the onions when they were small but they are getting huge here so I will leave them for drying in the fall.  No doubt the squash to the right will cover these but I don't think it will bother them too much but I do need to find the Eggplants before too long and move those.

 Adirondack Blue Potatoes under a Valencia orange tree.

 La Ratte Fingerling Potato under a Grapefruit tree.

 Purple Peruvian Potato under a Tangerine tree.

 Sangre Potato under a Navel orange tree. All of my seed potatoes were purchased from Ronniger PotatoFarm

 Scallop squash and a mystery squash. (see photo below) growing under a Tangerine tree.

My morning harvest.  Rocket Arugula, Easter Egg blend radishes, a mystery summer squash that came up on its own, an Heirloom Scallop squash, Ruby Red and Fordhook Swiss Chard, all from Botanical Interests Seeds (see the link on the side). Cilantro, Dill and Chives did not make the picture.

My Gardener's Breakfast this morning. Easter Egg and Black Spanish Radishes with a farmer's market cucumber (mine are still in the growing stages) Rocket Arugula, toast with Greek yogurt blended with fresh herbs from the herb garden. Your day can't begin any better than this!

My gardens sweet, enclosed with walles strong, embarked with benches to sytt and take my rest. The Knotts so enknotted, it cannot be exprest. With arbours and alys so pleasant and so dulce, the pestylant ayers with flavours to repulse.

Thomas Cavendish, 1532.