Harvest Monday – September 19, 2011

September 19, 2011  |  5 Comments  |  by Ben Czajkowski  |  Gardening

I’m not proud to admit that it’s been a few weeks since I’ve written a blog post and a Harvest Monday post. I’m also not proud to admit that I’ve neglected most of my garden, since the end of August. I traveled over the course of two Mondays, and, here, in Baltimore, we received an obscene amount of rain, enough that my basement flooded. Granted, it didn’t flood as bad as some, but enough that I had to throw some things out.

Harvest Monday September 19 2011

Harvest Monday September 19 2011

In my absence, the garden suffered a bit, mostly from insect ravaging. Something killed the hops’ cones, and I think that ultimately killed my gardening motivation for the year. I was truly looking forward to brewing up an IPA with these cones. Sadness.

Insects obliterated the Cherokee Purples; I went to pull one of the tomatoes off the vine, and a black and yellow beetle with a black spot on its back crawled out. I image-searched, in hopes of finding what it was, but I haven’t been able to find a match to what I think I saw.

The damage was extremely upsetting, but most of the insects then left the Bush Early Girl Tomatoes alone. I harvested nine pounds from the two plants, this weekend, a personal best. I’ll have to try the Cherokee Purples again next year because Mother Nature just didn’t give this one a fair shot.

The eggplants aren’t thrilled that the temperatures have dropped into the fifties and sixties. Both are still flowering and fruiting like champs, though. The Ichiban has more fruits on it now than it has all season. Might try to overwinter this one.

Sweet Million Cherry Tomatoes

Sweet Million Cherry Tomatoes

Sweet Million Cherry Tomatoes

Harvest: 4 Cherry Tomatoes Weight: 7/8oz.

Cayenne Peppers

Cayenne

Cayenne

Harvest: 3 Peppers Weight: 3/4oz.

Bush Early Girl Tomatoes

Bush Early Girl Tomatoes

Bush Early Girl Tomatoes

Notes: These two plants turned out almost 9lbs of tomatoes over the last two weeks. Most of the fruits were small, unlike some of the tomatoes from earlier in the season. However, with all the rain and the quick decline in temperatures, it doesn’t surprise me that the fruits didn’t get very large. There are still probably more than two dozen tomatoes left to pick, once they ripen.

Almost all of the ones pictured above became gazpacho or salsa. The former was absolutely delicious, with a warm quesadilla; I couldn’t even let the gazpacho chill before wanting to eat it.

Harvest: A grocery bag full of tomatoes Weight: 139 1/2oz.

Red Beauty Pepper

Red Beauty Bell Peppers

Red Beauty Bell Peppers

Notes: There was originally a fourth pepper. However, when I brought all of the harvest in, and I left it sit out overnight, the pepper collapsed in on itself. It smelled awful, and its innards had, basically, putrefied. If I was more adventurous, and I had a mask, I would have dissected it.

Harvest: 3 Peppers Weight: 10oz.

Bush Green Beans

Bush Beans

Bush Beans

Notes: The two plants that survived Mother Nature produced a ton of beans. Most of these probably should have been picked before I let them get so big; from what I’ve read, greenbeans are best when they haven’t fully matured. Oh well. They’ll make something delicious this week.

Harvest: Bagful of Bush Beans Weight: 10oz.

Purple Beauty Bell Peppers

Purple Bell Peppers

Purple Bell Peppers

Notes:  I let two of these peppers fully mature into their reddened state so that I could harvest seeds from them for share and to see what happened when they fully mature. Might sample some of the “reddened” peppers and compare with the “immature” purples.

Harvest: 5 peppers Weight: 12 5/8oz.

Early Sunsation Sweet Bell Peppers

Early Sunsation Bell Peppers

Early Sunsation Bell Peppers

Notes: These started to develop random brown spots. I had to scrap one; it was just beyond safe-eating salvage. I didn’t see any insect penetration or damage. Maybe something else got to it (like Time).

Harvest: Two peppers Weight: 5 1/8oz.

Patio Pickler Cucumber

Patio Pickler Cucumber

Patio Pickler Cucumber

Notes: This is the final cucumber of the season. Wave goodbye!

Harvest: 1 Cucumber Weight: 11 1/4oz.

Ichiban Eggplants

Ichiban Eggplant

Ichiban Eggplant

Harvest: 1 Eggplant Weight: 7 1/8oz.

Fairy Tale Eggplants

Fairy Tale Eggplants

Fairy Tale Eggplants

Notes: No idea why one was starting to turn neon yellow.

Harvest: 1 Eggplant Weight: 5 1/4oz.

Weekly Total (doesn’t include various herbs): 202 1/2oz.

2011 Year-To-Date Total (doesn’t include various herbs): 38.1328125lbs. (610 1/8oz.)

Daphne is the ringleader of Monday Harvests. You can see her here and wish her a speedy recovery.

Harvest Monday – August 29, 2011

August 29, 2011  |  7 Comments  |  by Ben Czajkowski  |  Gardening

I feel blessed that after a hurricane moved through the East Coast, this weekend, that my garden is still in relatively good condition. You can see pictures of the aftermath here.

Monday Harvest August 29, 2011

Monday Harvest August 29, 2011

Cherokee Purple Tomatoes

Cherokee Purple Tomatoes

Cherokee Purple Tomatoes

Note: These were a garden first, for the year. This plant has suffered some major annoyances. Among them, blossom end rot and, most likely, squirrels. These two fruits were cracked and scarred from all of the rain that we’ve had here, in Baltimore. I was stubborn and wanted them to ripen on the vine. They were just fine, during consumption and seeding.

Harvest: 2 Cherokee Purple Tomatoes Weight: 6oz.

Sweet Million Cherry Tomatoes

Sweet Million Cherry Tomatoes

Sweet Million Cherry Tomatoes

Note: Only a few fruits left on this one. After that, it’s game over.

Harvest: Cherry Tomatoes Weight: 2 5/8oz.

Cayenne Peppers

Cayenne

Cayenne

Note: These will join the others that are drying, in the basement.

Harvest: Peppers Weight: 1 1/4oz.

Jalapeno Peppers

Jalapenos

Jalapenos

Note: Oh yeah. Time for round two of Jalapeno poppers. This time, taco-style. I reddened two of the peppers so that I could harvest the seeds to start more of them, next year.

Harvest: Peppers Weight: 1 1/4oz.

Red Beauty Pepper

Red Beauty Bell Pepper

Red Beauty Bell Pepper

Note: Are they red, you ask? Yes, yes they are.

Harvest: 1 Pepper Weight: 3 1/8oz.

Bush Green Beans

Bush Beans

Bush Beans

Note: I planted 8 of these suckers, and only two have survived. One was killed by the hurricane. Two more were severed at the soil level. The other 5 died under various causes (loss of leaves, wildlife, didn’t sprout). I didn’t plant a lot, for the fall; I wanted to sample their quality first. So far, they taste green AND beany. Kinda light on the bush, though.

Harvest: Handful of Bush Beans Weight: 4oz.

Ichicban Eggplants

Ichiban Eggplant

Ichiban Eggplant

Note: This plant is still chugging along. Two more fruits are still developing; both survived Irene. When I harvested this one, a fire ant fell off and bit me. A fire ant? Really? I am loathed to admit that I let out a squeak of shock. Yes, it was a squeak, too.

Harvest: 1 Eggplant Weight: 8 3/8oz.

Weekly Total (doesn’t include various herbs): 26 3/4oz.

2011 Year-To-Date Total (doesn’t include various herbs): 25.4765625lbs. (407 5/8oz.)

Daphne is the ringleader of Monday Harvests. You can see her here.

Also, while you’re here, check out the question of the week: How many of your plants, this year, succumbed to death from disease/insects, before their time?

I Spoke Too Soon About My Bush Beans [Gardening]

July 8, 2011  |  Comments Off  |  by Ben Czajkowski  |  Gardening

Of course, as soon as I make a post about my bush beans being in the ground, something comes along and maims them, overnight. Honestly, I was upset about this; it really set the tone for a crappy day. The gimpy one of the bunch was snapped clean into two, like, well, a pole bean.

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean

I was able to save three of the plants. I immediately planted three more into the jiffy pots that the spinach didn’t grow in. Hopefully, within a few days, these three will produce solid seedlings, as well.

Deaths And Births, In The Garden [Gardening]

July 7, 2011  |  1 Comments  |  by Ben Czajkowski  |  Gardening

As I mentioned in my garden update from Monday, my zucchini and squash plant were stricken with something nasty and fierce. I know that both had a severe case of powdery mildew. I am loathing myself, admitting that I was much too slow reaching to treating the poor gourd factories. I did treat them with a mixture of baking soda, water, and a few drops of dish soap. The powdery mildew actually appears to have cleared up after a couple days.

Dying Zucchini And Squash

Dying Zucchini And Squash

However, as time would have it, the plants continued to wither and dry up. They never stopped producing male blossoms, however. Unfortunately, neither produced a female flower, during their short time on this mortal coil. I fear the plant had a bacterial infection, or, perhaps, something lingered in the soil from last year.

Regardless, the plants and their soilless mix became the main filler in my attempts to remove a put from my backyard, over the weekend. I will honor them well by walking on them continuously. I could not chance ever using that soil again. The planter was immediately treated with bleach, cut with ample amounts of water.

Where there is death in the garden, there will always be life. In my attempts to use up the rest of my Jiffy seedling starters, I decided to test the viability of some of the older seeds that I had and the new marigolds that I purchased.

Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach

Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach

With 35 Jiffy pods left, I planted 12 Bloomsdale Longstanding spinach. I am incredibly unhappy with its germination rate: 3/12 in this batch, and 3/23 in the previous. And the latter three haven’t even formed true leaves. The three in the jiffy pods right now don’t even appear to want to keep living. I think my next track is just to plant them all, in late summer, in some seed starting soil and see how many more of these will sprout, just to get them out of my catalog.

Queen Sophia All-American Winner Marigolds

Queen Sophia All-American Winner Marigolds

In 9 of the pods, I started Burpee’s Mixed Colors (early 2 1/2″ blooms). In the last 8 come Queen Sophia (All-America Winner) marigolds. Literally, I went to bed one night, and none of the marigolds had come up yet. When I woke up, the next morning, 13 had sprouted! I was amazed!

The marigolds will fill two planters on my front stoop and be intermingled among the flowers in my sub-irrigated planters. I think they’ll make good company for my herbs and jalapenos.

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 2

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 2

In 6 of the pods, from the Burpee Fordhook Collection, I planted bush beans. I know that it’s a bit late in the season for beans, maybe, but I haven’t tried to grow any in the three years that I’ve gardened; I’ve always done mostly peas. I decided it was time to put this pack of beans to good use.

Three of the beans grew up extremely quickly, almost to a foot within a few days. They weren’t scraggily either; they were solid stems. One of the beans decided it wanted to grow in the wrong direction: roots up. One of the seedlings got tangled in the mesh of the jiffy pods; I cut tiny slits in the meshing, and within two days, the seedling was upright, but a little deformed. One had yet to sprout. These 6 have since moved outdoors to their dangling trellis home. Here are some progressive shots of the growth (the twelfth is my favorite).

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 1

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 1

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 3

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 3

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 4

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 4

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 5

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 5

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 6

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 6

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 7

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 7

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 8

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 8

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 9

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 9

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 10

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 10

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 11

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 11

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 12

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 12

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 13

Burpee Fordhook Collection Bush Bean 13