Most things have survived my trip down South. Thanks roommates! The two broccoli plants that got rootbound before getting into their big pots have now bolted big time! I should have cut the little heads off before I left, maybe there would be some side shoots now. One is also wilted nearly to death, I’ll pull it up and see if there are cabbage worms eating it. The one standing broccoli plant that didn’t get mistreated too badly is HUGE, and actually making a nice little head of broccoli, tucked down inside its leaves where it should be. It’s pretty small, though, and looks maybe about to flower? I can’t tell. Yellow beets in the pots with the broccoli are being munched to death by leaf miners. I had taken all the red beets out because the miners went for those first and were leaving the yellow ones alone. Now I think maybe I should have left the red ones in for the miners to eat, and maybe I would have some yellow beets. There’s bok choi back there too, which is doing OK, but not nearly as good-looking as the stuff I get from the farm. Hmmm. The tomatoes on the porch roof look awesome! So far not too much sign of wilts, although the bottom leaves of the brandywine were a little yellow and brown – I pulled them off. I haven’t pinched any suckers, so these are very full-looking plants. The blondkopfchen cherries are making so many flowers that down on the street I was afraid the leaves were yellow with tomato wilt! But up close you just see they are just a crazy lot of baby tomatoes forming. So many plants have still not made it into their big pots, and I might be kind of foolish to try and save them now. I will still try for the eggplants, peppers, and basil, though. Tomorrow, maybe tomorrow. My poor peas are making a pathetic attempt at producing – I will get maybe a handful of snow peas and less of sugar snaps. So sad, especially after spending hours on vacation down in Asheville picking the most delicious peas at my friend’s farm. Next time I will plant a lot more peas in the row, the way everyone else seems to. Maybe also give them more dirt than a flower box, and something proper to climb on.
Back in the gardens, things are going mostly OK. Black raspberries are out in full force, as are the sour cherries. There are still some strawberries, although they’re mostly through. I have bowls of all three to munch on here with me. What with the solstice just passed, I remember farmer Chris telling me, as big as your onions get by the solstice, that’s how big they’re gonna be. I hope that’s not exactly true, because mine are not that big yet.
They look healthy, they just look like they need more time, the biggest one is maybe a foot tall and most are still kind of scrawny. He has also told me that the number of leaves an onion makes is the number of layers the bulb will have. Mine have 5-8 leaves. Not too convincing, but I don’t know how many they’re supposed to have. Favas are starting to make beans – there are still aphids but they don’t seem to mind much. My corn looks yellow and not too vigorous, maybe I should fertilize it. Scarlet runner beans and swedish browns look pretty good!
Not so in the other garden! At Oakdale, all my beans were completely wiped out by squirrels, the scoundrels! I have exactly three jacob’s cattle bean plants growing, out of maybe 120 I planted. Also a handful of soybeans, and maybe 2 turtle beans. Aargh! I have replanted the turtle beans and have more soybeans I could plant, but I’m out of the Jacob’s Cattle, which I was pretty excited about. Garlic still looks good – this year I managed to cut the scapes in time so I thought everything was great, but the garlic doesn’t seem to be bulbing. I can dig down three inches next to a plant and see a straight stem, no bulb. I hope it’s just that they need more time, and not some kind of imbalance in the soil or something.
OK, enough garden worry for one night.
