Harvest June 30

It's been pretty sad week for the garden with so many things ruined. But there are few remaining items that groundhog and bunnies seem to be ignoring so I've been harvesting them - garlic, few potatoes for a meal and remaining strawberries.

Early variety of garlic has been pretty disappointing in size, with only few heads that are decent. Will see how the rest will come out. I still hope my main crop will be better. Potatoes are very small as well, probably due to lack of water as it's been very dry here. Purple potatoes are definitely way too small and not many formed so can't really justify planting them in quantity. They'll be planted only a few in a row next year.

Strawberries are pretty much finished, definitely not as much as we had last  year so I think it's time to rip them all out and replace with fresh plants. Thankfully Cabot sent out enough side shoots to give me new replacements.

Groundhog in action

There you have it - the culprit of my garden disaster caught red handed - he came back today yet again to finish up his meal. My hubby saw it and was able to fix the fence where he's been sneaking in. 

Destroyed garden

It took only one day to destroy months of hard work.. all cabages, brussels sprouts, soy beans, peas, bush beans, chard, beets, carrots - all gone.  no words.

Slim pickings and a Jam.

Last night I picked few more items - first couple of blackberries from the new bush that we bought in spring and keep it on the addition-patio. A handful of peas for my snack, and nearly two more pounds of strawberries - I think we've peaked at them and now they'll definitely won't be producing as much anymore. At least I don't see that many green berries left, but we'll have few for snacking for couple of more weeks. 

 

So what do we do with all those strawberries? Make a jam of course! I make it with lemon juice and zest so it has a fresh kick and a bit of tartness to cut the sugary taste down. It comes out very nice.

Harvest and garden June 22

This week harvest has been slightly improving - we picked few garlic bulbs and two onions, a handful of peas - both sugar snap and snow peas. 

Of course our strawberries keep coming in, and finally first few young potatoes! They are small because I didn't plant the in March as usual - they're almost 1.5 month behind schedule, but they are lovely. Two on bottom are "main crop" baking russets; bright yellow is German Butterball; purple is Purple Viking is what I had overwintered so it's white inside with redish undertones on skin - I'm yet to pull actual purple from the ground as the plants are very small - only 1 foot tall. 

And in hydroponic, first cucumbers are forming and tomatoes are blooming. 

In small garden Purple Queen beans are in bloom and so are the yellow was Roc D'or also full in bloom.

Unfortunately we found two bunnies in large garden this weekend so I can pretty much say goodbye to all planted there. Oy.

Mid-week harvest - berries and greens

Strawberries keep rolling in, and we have them round all the time now. I've been freezing extras for jams for later, but blueberries are first to disappear. I also picked some dill and arugula, salad for lunch and a handful of peas.

Community garden growing wonderfully and I've been clipping basil and chard for now. Main crops like squash, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes are all flowering and hopefully will set fruit soon. 

Harvest June 15

This week harvests are mostly berries and greens. Cabot strawberries finally starting to ripen but not as much as we had last year, so I've been freezing up berries for now and will combine them into a jam later on.

Lots of greens were picked as I want to get them out before heat wave - it will be 88 this week and they turn bitter when it's hot.

And quick overview of the community garden - it's growing much better than my home garden! And much better organized :) I even found some formed peppers and sniped few basil stems.

Strawberries and patio container garden

Strawberries still trickling in, and today I picked first 3 of Cabot variety. You can see how much larger they are comparing to Tristar. Unfortunately my wish for rain was translated into 3 day torrential deluge and everything is very watery tasting and not too sweet. I think next year I will remove Tristar from the enclosed garden and keep only Cabot. We did pick few more blueberries from early bush, but groundhogs are our main competition. 

Also this week I ordered bunch of new things for my patio garden - 5 new rose bushes; got two hibiscus and 3 columnar apples from JUNG Seed company. The ones I ordered were:

23726	Fragrant Plum Grandiflora Rose
24080	Paradise Hybrid Tea Rose
24245	Q2 - Twilight Zone Grandiflora Rose
24395	Ebb Tide Floribunda Rose
30485	Golden Sentinel Columnar Apple
30490	Northpole Columnar Apple
30495	Scarlet Sentinel Columnar Apple

So when it all arrived, I planted them out on the patio in containers. We're thinking of redoing our entire patio and since I can't keep anything edible growing due to groundhog and raccoon, I'm planting a lot more flowers. I do hope that raccoon don't go for apples once they start producing, but that's at least 3-4 more years. We have 3 apple trees in the back yard already and animals have been a problem each and every year. So I do hope the ones on patio will be "ours" without too many animal issues. For now they're tiny sprigs, joining roses, few hot pepper plants, 1 winter squash (will see if it makes it) and onions/chives containers. Blueberries were moved to a second patio to be near citrus and fig. 

And we had a visitor again - our baby bear was back. He really is very small and acts like a puppy. I really feel bad for him, as he's not quiet ready to be on his own and he's clearly very hungry.