Harvest Time! (and August update)

I love it when it’s finally time to enjoy the fruits, and vegetables, of my labors!!! Yum!

In my new Easy Garden box I planted 4 squares of green beans, and we’ve been swimming in them! So far I’ve picked about 4 pounds of beans. The trick with green beans is to keep harvesting them, and to pick them before the seeds get big and bulging. The plant thinks it has not yet reached its goal of putting out seeds, and so it keeps trying–producing a bountiful crop!

I have LOVE LOVE LOVED the variety of cucumbers I grew this year! (Burpee double feature hybrid, for those who are wondering). They are great small, medium, and large. So far no bitter cukes, and most are a good shape. Here’s my first picking, but now I go harvest a few more every day. I’m hoping to get enough to do some batches of pickles!

I harvested all my onions, set them out to dry, and then it rained! Fortunately it didn’t last long, and after a week outside these were ready to be weighed and measured! Here you see 6 pounds of red onions, 3 pounds of sweet onions, and 7 1/2 pounds of yellow onions.

I planted 4 squares of carrots, and about half were ready to eat. This is half of that batch (if you do the math–about 1/4 of my total harvest). Some were pretty funky–forked ends, split wide open, etc. But ALL are delicious!

My peppers and tomatoes have only just started to produce ripe fruit, and here is the first little harvest of those.

I never took pictures, but I got THREE HUGE heads of broccoli this year. The extended spring really served me well! However, by the time I harvested it was too hot to grow side shoots of smaller broccoli heads. Maybe next year!

I also harvested lots of sugar snap and snow peas. Again, no photos, but lots of enjoyment for my family! I don’t think I got as many as last year, but plenty for dipping in ranch and snacking on while outside in the backyard.

Finally, I have pulled up all my potato plants, but I left the potatoes in the ground. When we’re ready to have some for dinner I go out (or send my 6 year old) and dig some up. So I probably won’t have an accurate idea of how much I grew, since the harvest will be spread out over the summer and fall.

And a quick update of what my gardens look like:
My cucumbers are quite unruly, and don’t want to grow up the trellis at all. What’s tricky is that they are so scratchy, so I have to have gloves to wind them around the trellis, and I would have to be more diligent to keep all of them going vertical. Next year I’m going to try just tying string, and growing each plant on one string.

All my potato plants were falling over and turning brown, so I pulled them out! The potatoes are still in the ground, but I tried moving my irrigation so they won’t be wet.

Check out those tomatoes–yes, they are growing past the top of that 6-foot fence!

BTW, the Borax worked wonders on the beets! If you look closely you can see the old dead leaves, and the new beautiful healthy leaves!

And here are all the east gardens in one shot. It really lets you see how much the north (left) plants are thriving while the others are just okay. Still need to move those sprinkler heads. . .

I have a few recipes to share–the most delicious potato salad, potatoes-tomatoes-and-mayo (a family favorite), so stay tuned for those!

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Happy gardening!