The Trusty Gardener-Garden Update
Trying Not to Fall Victim to Late Summer Garden Neglect-Planting Fall Crops
Welcome back, fellow gardeners. How are your gardens doing? To be honest, by August sometimes I lose a little enthusiasm for the garden. Probably mostly due to other summer activities, including vacations. Also due to summer heat. However, lately, I am regaining my interest and also enjoying fresh garden produce. Hoping for a strong finish to the growing season. Following is a breakdown of the progress to date.
This year has been a mediocre one for my garden. Some failures, some successes. I think a lot of the struggle has been the weather. We had some wild temperature swings early in the season and in July we received over 11 inches of rain! Just too much. It was hard to even work in the garden, it was often just muddy. Some of the plants died off, others seemed like they were frozen in time. But there were some that thrived. I didn’t take as many photos this summer, but I will share what I have.
As some of you may know, I have 2 main gardens, the Lower and Upper, with a 3rd “auxiliary” patch as I refer to it. First, the Lower garden.
The Greens
I plant my greens, including lettuce and kale, in a raised bed-type wooden box to protect them from critters. This also allows me to cover them with netting, and also shade cloth during the hottest months. If frost is the issue, I can cover with an old sheet as well. In Late June I wrote an article regarding harvesting the greens.
The romaine lettuce flourished for a few more weeks after the above article was written until the summer heat caused them to bolt. As I wrote previously, the Chinese Napa Cabbage and Pack Choi were not as successful. The Napa Cabbage seemed to be attacked by some sort of insect, and the Pak Choi bolted without forming at the base. This was my first attempt for these veggies.
I now have cleared the box except for the kale which will continue to grow until frost. Kale is very hardy and not as affected by summer heat compared to lettuces and other greens. It even survives frost and I have used it some years into November. As a matter of fact, it will sometimes survive the winter, however, I usually re-plant it in the Spring.
Planting Fall Greens
Yesterday, after cleaning up the lettuce box and cultivating the soil, I planted some Mesclun and lettuces, also some Pak Choi. The varieties are from Renee’s Garden, and are Asian Baby Leaf Mesclun, Blush Batavians lettuce, and Queen of Crunch Lettuce. The Pak Choi is from Harley Seeds. It is a little late in the season, but there should be enough time to get another crop. The greens will flourish once the temperatures cool down a little.
In the above photo on the right, after planting the seeds and watering, I cover them with wood shingles to prevent washing out of the seeds until they sprout. Lettuce and greens seeds are tiny and easily affected by heavy rains. Also, they are only planted a quarter of an inch deep.
The Potatoes
The potatoes are doing well and are getting close to harvest time. As a matter of fact, I dug some of the Russian Banana Fingerling potatoes, just enough for tonight's dinner. The vines are beginning to die off, but I will let them grow for a few more weeks, the potatoes will continue to size up. I should have a good crop of both the Fingerlings and Yukon Gold.
Peppers
This year I planted a good selection of peppers as I previously wrote about.
In addition to those started from seed, I also purchased some Lady Bell peppers from a local farm stand. I recently picked a few of the Lady Bell peppers. There are a lot of them still to pick, but they are on the small size. I will let them remain to see if they will get larger. The hot peppers and the Gypsy Sweet peppers are coming along, but not quite ripe yet. Overall, it will be a good crop of peppers.
In My Next Article
Up next is an update on the Upper garden, including the heirloom tomatoes. They are in full swing now and we are enjoying them for sure.
