It was a great week of harvests last week. I picked my first lima beans, Amish paste tomato, honeydew melon, and white watermelon – along with everything else. All total, I harvested 1 (2 pound) honeydew melon, 1 (9 pound) white watermelon, 13 cucumbers, 1/2 pound of snap beans (they’re just about done), 1.5 pounds of lima beans (shelled), 3 pounds of eggplant, 1.5 pounds of peppers, and 11 pounds of tomatoes! I think it’s time to put up some tomatoes. Garden bounty pictures!
It’s been a drier week in my garden the past seven days. We had a chance to dry out from the deluge, and we got a nice steady rain (one inch) Saturday, so I didn’t have to water anything (other than my potted plants). Harvests are still coming in, especially tomatoes and peppers. I harvested most of the last of my lettuce (see the picture above, which shows my Red Sails lettuce), and I’m very happy to have had it through July. Next month I plant lettuce again. My carrots are almost ready, too. (The ones in the picture could stand to get a little fatter.) I’m excited that my experiment to plant them among the tomatoes, where they’d be shaded from the intense heat of the summer sun), was so successful! I’m definitely going to do that again next year, giving me a crop of carrots growing almost year round. More!
Well, the long weekend is over. I used it to get some much needed rest as well as work on some changes to this website. (I’m hoping to have all the changes in place by month end.) We did get a few more rain storms over the weekend – like we needed more rain! I think yesterday was the first day without rain in almost two weeks, and I was able to trim the dead branches from my tomato plants. I also took the opportunity to take some pictures of how the garden looks. See the garden!
I’m happy to say that all my plants survived the rain last week. The hydrangeas actually loved it. (See picture above.) I cleaned up all the dead branches that fell in the yard and saved them for kindling in the fire pit. Quite a few of my pepper plants had to be staked. I trimmed my paste tomatoes, though I need to prune them some more. I also had to tie most of my tomatoes again because they’ve grown so much. This will be the last time though because they are now taller than the stakes – and me! I have some new fruit growing and fruit progressing towards harvest. See my garden!
There’s more green in my sanctuary garden since last week. Inside, my seedlings are growing up and moving out of the nursery; I’ve already transplanted 20 seedlings into larger containers. Outside, we had two inches of much needed rain! But also, I tried something new that I think has contributed to a difference in my plants. Come, take a look!
Boy have things been busy this week here at my Sanctuary Garden! Not only do I have 14 raised beds that I’m tending outside, I now also have six flats of seeds and seedlings that I’m nurturing. The weather has cooled off since my last update with temperatures closer to average, so the growth of the outside veggies has slowed a bit. Yet, most of my winter crops now have their secondary (true) leaves. And seeds are already popping through the soil under my grow lamps! Come take a look!
Sanctuary Gardener 