Harvest time
Summer's almost over and the garden is at the point where about the only work to do is try to get the ripe stuff before the squirrels and other critters do. Here's a look at what's happening:
Peaches
Looks like the pruning and thinning I did earlier this year have paid off. We have lots of good-sized ripe peaches, quite a change from last year's one or two.
Straw bales
I planted a variety of things directly into holes chopped in straw bales. The zucchini was a total failure, but one of the eggplants has a small fruit on it and there are two smallish peppers on that plant. The parsley and basil did fairly well in the straw. Lesson learned: probably best for herbs.
Raised bed
Another experiment was the raised bed I made out of old doors. Using the square-foot gardening approach I planted of number of different things. As in the straw bale, parsley and basil did fine while cilantro died off. Kohlrabi and beets were good. The onions were small, the dill OK, and the fennel grew tall but never seemed to fatten into the kind of bulb I've gotten at the market. Not sure why.
I'll continue trying different things in this bed. Because it gets shaded by a nearby crabapple I'll start early next year with spinach, lettuce, etc. Anything that needs a lot of sun doesn't do so well later in the summer.
Peppers
It's a good thing I love peppers, because there are a lot of them on the six or eight plants. Now they are mostly green with a few turning yellow. Eventually there should be a mix of yellow, orange and red.
In terms of quantity and quality, the peppers and tomatoes (Roma and Beefsteak) are doing the best.
We've picked one eggplant and there's another on the plant, but a critter ate the rest of the blossoms, so probably we'll get no more eggplant.
Of the two zucchini plants, one provided us with a bunch of zucchini and the other only one. Plants are funny that way.
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