Harvest Monday; 8/07/2017

Happy Harvest Monday everyone.
Due to the lack of rain recently things have been sorta slow in the garden. The tomatoes have finally starting coming in nicely and the onions are doing well to. Cucumbers seem to be finalizing their supply for this year but we have had a good harvest from them so no complaints really. There have been discussions between Amy and myself about the garden for next year and we have definitely decided that we are going to scale back to about 9 or so raised beds and be done with it. Our schedules leave us no real time to work on them throughout the week, leaving our weekends full of gardening and not much else. With our youngest off on his new adventures later this year it seems we need to slow down some, doing some of the other things we liked to do before. We also plan on doing some traveling next year to here and there. No place too exoctic, but just scoping out some areas where we would like to spend our remaining years. Climate is a big check on the list for us. We do have a few areas picked out but we need to spend more time researching and asking questions before we get too far into it. May be asking questions of the fellow harvesters here :). Anyway off to what's happening in the garden this week.

As I said before, tomatoes have really come in on their own. Amy's has been able to get a few of here favorite, Solar Flares. We also get a smattering of romas and grapes, a few Better Boys thrown in. I am excited that the new variety I tried this year have set nicely and I have a few to eat. They are called Red Pear (or Pomodoro.) They are obviously pear in shape and they do have a rich taste. Not so much acidic but I'd say close to a Mortgage Lifter. I got the from Seeds From Italy. They sell only heirloom varieties. Between that, the previously- mentioned Solar Flares, Better Boys, Romas, and Grapes, I've picked a few Mortgage Lifters and Boxcar Willies. A few of the plants are pretty much dead and a few are going strong. In looking around at other gardens in the area, everyone seems to be in the same boat. Earlier we got a lot of rain and the past week and a half, nothing.

Red Pear

Here's a picture of the harvest Amy picked Sunday.

A little bit of everything. I was hoping to get enough ripe tomatoes at once to make some salsa but they may not happen. If not we'll hit the farmers market for a box of Romas and make it then. Still save money in the end and the recipe we use tastes great. And low cal snack if you eat it right.

A few weeds here and there but I'm keeping it fairly trimmed back as I can.

Here's this week's (and last weeks, sorry) harvest totals.

I did start some more bush beans in the raised beds as we wanted to get some more quarts canned, but do to lack of rain they haven't done too much.

Onions. Yes not hard to grow these things.

Closing up I finished the last Viking book, read another book called Behind the Scenes by Elizabeth Keckly and now am on A Walk in the Wilderness, about the Appalachian Trail. Some day I plan on walking it. Amy may not know it yet...

WOF of the Week. Why not. Scrounge for snacks during meal prep.

Harvest Monday is hosted at Our Happy Acres. With my reducing my duties in the garden hopefully I'll post more. Have a great week everyone!
 

Harvest Monday; July 3, 2017

Happy Harvest Monday to everyone. Harvest Monday's are hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.

Well, this week has been somewhat of a slow one in the garden. My wife and I took a long weekend which has been nice but it seems I'm still not getting everything that I want to get done, done. As I sit here typing this on Sunday evening I am already planning tomorrow ans Tuesday, although I may go golfing or paintball Tuesday as well. Gotta half some fun, right?

As you can see it was slim picking this week. One thing I am kinda surprised about are the cucumbers. The past few years we haven't had good luck with them. Now it looks like pickle making tomorrow. Beyond that everything else is taking its time. Green beans are slowly dying off and I may get a few picked Monday but that's pretty much it for them. I did get the pole beans planted and they have come up. Reminding myself now to spread out the slug killer. I also have a few tomato plants that are struggling a bit, yellowing leaves at the base. One thing I have been particular about this year is weeding and fertilizing. Not sure what it is but I'm keeping my eye on it. I am trying a compost tea from the Blak Cow mix to see if it will help. Onward to other things.

Speaking of compost tea. Filled it with water and stir it once in a while. Pour it out Tuesday and a few plants.

Bee getting his/her thing on.

Pulled the garlic out of this bed and cleaned it up for fall crops.

Guess what? I have a squash plant.

Amazing cucumber bed.

If you look close enough you'll see some green peppers there. 

Second bed of cukes. 

Started cleaning out a few bush beans and got welcomed by some fire ants! Lovely little creatures. 

Weeded.

Tied up the tomatoes and weeded out between them. 

The bush beans are having their last picking soon. 

Garlic I picked. Idiot shadow too :)

Our volunteer onions. They were turning brown on the bottom parts so time to pull them.  

Got a few nice sized ones. 

My volunteer watermelons. 

Those pole beans.

Not sure why a took this crooked? 

Banana peppers starting to set too. 

Front daylilies finally have bloomed. These smell great!

Praying mantis cruising the inside of our umbrella by the pool.

Cabbage and broccoli starts are doing well. Probably transplant the broccoli tomorrow since it's growing so quickly. 

WOF of the Week. Must have fallen asleep reading her nook. 

That's it for this week. Happy gardening. 

Harvest Monday; June 19, 2017

Happy Harvest Monday to all.

Things are starting to pick up around WOFdog Farms here growth- wise. I did the first picking on the green beans, a few cucumbers, and pulled a couple of the garlic out. Tomatoes and peppers have a long way to go. And I am going to have to do some war on pests.

First lets start with the bad. Those green beans seedlings and sweet potato slips I planted a few weeks ago? Beans were devoured by slugs more than likely and either they or rabbits got to the sweet potatoes.

Thankfully they seem to have re- grown some leaves and may get through this but I'm not happy about the beans. I bought some slug/snail killer but am going to wait a few days since its supposed to rain tomorrow. Not sure if I'm going to replant the beans. Sorry about the weeds but I did clear out a lot Sunday.

The good. Green beans. I grow one type, kentucky bush, mainly for canning for meals the rest of the year. The slugs got up in one of the raised beds and took to some plants but not all. I found their entrance and hopefully cut them off.

The pictures are sideways and I couldn't fix them, sorry. These plants are prolific producers but are hard on the back. Pole beans for next year.

Here's the damage I did on the beans.

Resting on top are 2 elephant garlic that I pulled since the stems were wilted away. We managed to get 10 quarts of canned beans out of them.

I staked up all of the tomato plants and found one hiding. It's a costoluto genovese and they seem to produce well and have a nice look about them.

Cucumbers are finally setting some fruit AND I found out that some sickly squash plants I bought were actually cucumbers too. So now we how 11 plants of cukes. Can you say pickles?

There were a couple more but I didn't get them in the photo.

I've been hardening off my new roma plants and should have them in the ground next weekend.

Sunday I did a lot of picking, weeding, staking, ran the water line for the plants in the field but I don't have enough drip emitters to run to all of the plants yet. 

This young bird wasn't too happy with me being out in the garden. Squawking at me Saturday night and Sunday. Look on the pole.

Here's the updated totals for the year.

Well that's it for me for the week. I'm tired and still have a few things to do. I sometimes wonder how all of you have the energy to write as much as you do :) Harvest Monday is hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres. 

Harvest Monday; August 1, 2016

Visit Our Happy Acres to see everyone's Harvest Monday.
I can honestly say I visited the garden once this week. Just been a busy week for this family. Working out of town, wife was not feeling well, hot, and our oldest just bought his first house. And with that last one we spent the weekend working on his house. There was a back outside room on the house that had leaked and literally destroyed the wood. So we tore into that Saturday and finished Sunday. It was a lot of work and really miserable outside with heat indexes of 107. But it was done. He and his girlfriend are repainting and refinishing a few hardwood floors. My FiL and youngest son tore out all of the bushes in front of the house Sunday too. Luckily the house came with a new roof, HVAC unit, carpet, and hot water heater. It's a lot of work but I know they can do it. Even his Mom came and painted Sunday. And she hates painting.
OK, finishing this up at lunch today as I was beat last night. That heat really takes it out of me anymore and I really didn't want to do too much. After I got back from his house, we lounged a while as the thunderstorm took our power out for a while (always does), ate some salad, then proceeded to sweep more on the &*#! pool. Third time this year adding flocculate to it. The weather has been hard on it and everyone else's too. Got to finish sweeping it tonight (hopefully.) If it rains I'll go to the gym instead. Leg day and not really digging that!
I took a few pictures of the garden this morning before I left for work. What a mess I have in front of me. Most of the tomato plants have given up, weeds need pulled, I still haven't sowed the second bean crop or lettuce, turnips, radishes, etc.

At least the Morning Glories liked the downpour last night.

As it was this morning. Plenty of red tomatoes left!

Here's this weeks spreadsheet. Notice I caught up last week but since I didn't pick anything except a few small items I didn't put anything in for this week. 

And the construction photos. 

It doesn't look like a lot of work there but trust me it was. No WOF of the Week this week. Sorry. Good luck to everyone and their harvests. Don't be like me.