Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Weekly Veggie Patch Update 6/9/08

This was a productive week! Finally!

Pulled more Pink Celebration radishes, took some to David who asked if I had more to sell. Uh, sure!!!! They really do look nice. Some of them split due to the additional 1 inch of rain we got on Tuesday, so I kept those for me (my radish needs are not great). I think this is the most rain I’ve ever seen in a spring. Matt ‘n’ I took 5 bunches of radishes to David ‘n’ Junko’s on Saturday morning. It was very odd, it was bright, clear and sunny at our house. 2 miles away we hit a fog bank that continued the whole way into Gettysburg.

The sand I put around the peppers and beans seems to be working, but if one little piece of hay is touching the plant those slugs will find it and use it as a bridge. It’s amazing. I’ll need to plant more beans to make up for some that were devoured. I went up to put out some beer slug traps and found slugs on the onions, for crying out loud. I wound up picking slugs I saw on any plant and throwing them into the beer, cheering as I watched them DIE DIE DIE.

The bok choy got big! I don't know when to pick it. Peas are starting to form….just in time for 98 degree weather which will probably kill them before any kind of harvest can really happen. I pulled all the spinach, stay tuned for another post on that this week. I planted more bush beans where the spinach had been. The broccoli plants each have little broccoli florets on them (they’ve broccled!!), but I can’t tell yet if they are normal or if they have buttoned. Again, not great timing with the heat.

Melons have sprouted, too, I’m keeping them covered with milk jug cloches until I absolutely have to take them off. The pumpkins have sprouted, as have the pole beans. Cucumbers are starting to come up again, we’ll see if something pulls them out. Again. I may have to put cloches over these, too.
In other news, I picked one of the heads of romaine I had growing….and found a 2-inch across mama wolf spider with egg sack in one of the leaves. EEEWWWW. I’m not a big spider fan. I’ve gotten better, there was a time where I would have not eaten the lettuce, I may have thrown the lettuce across the lawn when I saw her. But this time I just gingerly picked the leaf off and laid it on the ground, then did the heebie-jeebie dance. And we did eat it, and it was good.

We also got in another 100+ of potatoes, so we only have another bag and a half to go, thank god. Only a few potato beetles found, one toad, and some of the blues are blooming!

We’re talking about getting a greenhouse, 10x12. If so, I could use that next year for seed starting. Better yet, I could use it for spinach and lettuce and carrots, etc, which would free up extra space for other things in the fenced garden patch. Sweet.

4 comments:

YD, sometimes with ♥June and ♥Angel Samantha said...

Hi, I'm new to your blog.

Nice pictures of your garden.
I think you can pick the bok choy now. They are indeed big! I don't know how tall yours are but I have read that they should be harvested when they reached 12" - 18". Mine are not as big but about 10" tall. I picked some last weekend.

Jody M said...

Hi!! Welcome to the blog, and thanks for the bok choy info. They don't look like the ones in the grocery stores, all compact and tall. These spread out almost like a dinner plate. Mine are about 12" from one side to the other, maybe 14".

YD, sometimes with ♥June and ♥Angel Samantha said...

Hi Jody.

I don't know what made them spread out like that. I grew up on eating bok choy but have never planted any before until this year.
I am pretty sure you can pick yours. From the picture, the leaves look big enough to be harvested.

Me voici ∞ Here I am said...

Holy crap! A new person!

Doesn't it feel great!?

Everything looks great. I'm jealous and proud of your work. I'm eager for my dad to pull up our radishes now.