Yesterday I picked the second smallish artischoke flower bud. And I cooked it together with the one in the fridge. I peeled off the cooked leaves and cut off the outer part which has a thorn. Then I had lost the energy to serve it as a dish, as I also had a lot to cook for the main course. Maybe I shouldn't grow artischoke next year. It looks like the plant is healthy, but it is a lot of hassle preparing/eating it, especially with those torns. The variety is Green Globe.
The old berry bushes are full of berries. Most fruit trees are full of fruit, apart from one plum tree that had little fruit. The other plum tree is loaded. We also discovered two wild raspberries behind an aspargus and beside a pear tree. We plan to move a non fruit bearing cultivar raspberry from the cabin to the house. It has managed to grow 10 new stems, so that could possibly be 10 plants. We could plant it where that one rubarb is being pretty miserable. It is a good place for a raspberry I think, as the two wild ones also grow in that area. It doesn't get so much sun, but raspberries in the wild also often grow below trees.
My squash plants in the garden have finally decided to grow female flowers in big numbers. But often no male flowers. So I am running around each day from the one plant on the balcony that still carries males, to all the other ones with blooming females. The squash on the balcony is also producing female flowers now.
I cut down quite a bit from the nasturtiums that I coplanted with the squashes and pumkins. They were taking over most of the bed. As does the borage at the opposite side of the plant, which I trimmed a bit as well. Now, the squashes and pumkins are getting more sun. We are having very sunny and warm weather for the moment, although tomorrow we will get a day with a lot of rain. Hurray.
I saw one humble bees in one male pumpkin flower, but it did't get out by itself. The flower hadn't folded out the petals fully. I had to uncurl the leaves to let it escape.
There are freeland cucumbers growing in the garden. They are full of flowers, but I don't do anything with it. I have seen bumble bees and flies pollinating the flowers. I am lookimg foreward to eating a homegrown cucumber.
I have two eggplants in pots on the balcony. One is full of small eggplants. Maybe 1 season's harvest yield in total max 1.5 normal eggplant. Not sure I will save any money there. The other eggplant I think is producing fruits that are still sitting in a flower that gets bigger. But no fruit is visible. They are supposed to become white and round.
The peppers (bell peppers and chili) are starting to produce ripe fruits. I have been harvesting for a while. Although not all varieties are equally fast.
The microbush tomatoes are almost finished. Today I cut the stem off 4 of them and used the pots for sowing sugar peas in them. I have the hope to still get a decent harvest from them before it gets too dark (end of september). In spring, I planted sugar peas in the same bed as potatoes. But they haven't had the chance to grow big in the shadow of the potatoes. I can harvest just a few from time to time, but not as much as I expected.
Two microbush tomatoes still produce quite a few tomatoes.
My big tomato plants aren't ripening yet. The Super Sweet 100 F1 has small tomatoes and I picked a few that seemed to have an orange teint, to ripen indoors. But maybe it was the color reflecting from the orange Tagetes Glow coplanted in the tomato pot. I moved all tomato pots a bit more foreward so that they will get more direct sun.
The rubarb plants that I sowed this year, are doing very well. I harvested a new batch of stems from them, 2 stems from each. The elder rubarb was also suddenly growing more stems, although very thin ones. I harvested a few stems and from the total I could bake some rubarb muffins.
The garlic is growing a nice size, but still not fully grown. I went to an open garden today, organised by the gardening club. There, several other members told me they had no garlic either this year. They said the winter was too hard for the garlic. I got only 3 plants from the 20 or so cloves that I planted in autumn. Plus a few more in the strawberry beds. At the end of the month, I will order a new batch of seed garlic, so that I can eat up my own harvest for a change. And I will precultivate the garlic in spring, in pots, like other plants. I heard that other people have done that with good result.
As the garlic bed is so empty, I planted my cauliflower seedlings there. While I was doing that, I saw several very thick worms every time I made a hole. So I presume I have a good glowing area with healthy soil. I did notice that the cauliflower was already getting holes in it's leaves, so I should have put a sheet over. Too late mow, I guess.
In spring, I also sowed garlic "seeds", tiny bulbs. But they have stayed pretty thin. The big downside of having had those in a bed, is that I couldn't apply mulch there. That bed has been much dryer than the other beds with mulch. Now I presume the cauliflower is covering a lot of that seed. Also the ones sown in the strawberry bed may have been covered by expending thyme in that bed.
Before our 6 day vacation at our cabin, we harvested the ripest half of our cherries. There is a netting over the cherries, but the net is a bit too small. The magpies just jump in from underneith. When we got back home, there were very few cherries left. Next year we will put over two or more nets and make sure they fit will. And we'll do it early, as soon as the flowers are pollinated.
I am still waiting for my potatoes to wither so that I can start to harvest. Many potatoes are flowering now. I put cut grass against the stems to let them produce more potatoes under it. One potato is still emerging.
Some of my beans are also producing a bit, especially the ones that are not planted behind potato or tomato plants. The ones behind the squashes and pumpkins have never thrived, maybe they were standing too dry.
The kale plants are still producing well, but are being perforated by caterpillars. I am removing all the ones I see. And we just eat perforated kale as well.
I harvested the first two kohlrabies. The rest is still growing.
The carrots have been thinned several times, but I atill gave quite a few growing. As well as parsley root and another root veggy.
I have harvested several beat roots. But there are still more growing, in two different ages. I also plan to sow more very soon. The chard is still one of the most productive plants in the garden, which I can harvest heavily every 5-6 days or so. And no other creatures eat from it.
Tomorrow, I need to sow more cilantro. I have an earlier batch that had just emerged. But it takes so long before I can harvest. Today I even had to buy storebought cilantro. It was pretty local, though. But not as fresh as my own herbs. Today I harvested a big load of basil. That is finally something I have enough of.
