I took a round of photos of the vegetable garden on June 6th. Then yesterday I took another round to show how quickly the plants have grown. Many of them have more than doubled in size.
The shelling peas are starting to climb the fencing, and it won't be too long before they begin flowering.
Look at what one week did for the tomato plants. I had fertilized the entire garden, and what a difference in the color and size of the plants. They look so much healthier now. I think with having so much rain, they needed nutrients.
Look at the difference in the large cold frame. The cabbage plants are going wild, and I started harvesting the larger leaves of the kale.
Growing cabbage is so easy, especially when you plant it as soon as the weather permits. They prefer the colder temps and an earlier start than most veggies.
The onions were flopping over due to the strong wind the other day, so I decided to top them off to help them straighten up. They are beginning to bulb nicely, so I'm giving them bi-weekly feedings now.
Here are the tops of the onions, rinsed and ready for freezing.
The arugula was getting taken over by the large cabbage leaves. I cut all the plants back and harvested more kale. I cooked it all down, and we had plenty of greens for lunch and dinner this week.
All the escarole/endive was ready, along with the bok choi. I used the bok choi in a stir-fry for dinner one night.
Yesterday, I spent the morning cleaning all the escarole. I chopped and blanched all the leaves for 2 minutes, then put them in freezer bags for later meals. I got 6 good-sized packages from the first harvest.
The jalapeno peppers finally started to grow. I had planted them all, then we had another round of cold nights, which set them back a bit. They seem to be doing fine now that we are having summer weather.
The two zucchini plants really grew with the heat. I put two cages around them and will try to tie them to climb this year. I've seen that other people have done so to save on space. I shall see how it works out.
The lettuce is done already. The heat had made the plants bolt, so I cut them all back, and we have been having a lot of salad this week. Now that the bed is empty, I may just put in some carrots this weekend.
I had a few potatoes chit in the pantry, so I put them into a grow bag. It took two weeks before I saw the leaves emerge.
The other two have already begun flowering. It won't be long before the plants start to die back and I can harvest the baking potatoes.
The patch of sweet peppers is starting to set flowers this week. It took them a bit to start growing like the jalapenos. I still have to set up some staking before they get too big. With this heat, I've been taking it easy and only gardening in the early morning.
This has been the average daily temperature this week, and with high humidity. Needless to say, gardening can wait, lol.
The sweet potato slips I ordered recovered enough to plant. I'm trying them in large grow bags, plus, I put them in the corners of the large cold frame with the cabbage. It will be interesting to see which way produces the best.
I'm excited that the cucumber plants are filling out. I had to replant some of the seeds after the cold snap took out many of them. Now, they are doing very well and will start sending tendrils out to climb.
Now that I have harvested some of the kale, arugula, escarole, and bok choi. It was time to put the netting back onto the hoop frame to keep the cabbage moths out.
I think it's time to hang out in the hammock. What do you do to relax?
