As the Harvest Turns

Harvest season is wrapping up with a whimper in my garden. The green beans - all 8 individual plants - have succumbed to a form of powdery mildew. (My husband suggested wearing a hazmat suit when I pull them out. I am picturing it like the scene in ET when they remove him...) The cherry tomatoes are dwindling. Our pumpkins never did get big, but they are bright orange, so we'll pick those this week. I have a few cilantro guys and some tiny feathery carrot greens coming up, and that's about it; I need to get out there and sow another round of those seeds. Our weather has alternated with hot (75F) days and a couple rainstorms over the last week - it's been more muggy than foggy this Indian Summer. (Daughter: Why is it called that? Because the Indians like summer the most?)

Weekend Away; Or, When Cherry Tomatoes Run Amuck

The garden has been quietly consistent for the past few weeks; everything that's been producing has kept producing, and nothing that hasn't been producing has surprised me. We went away for the weekend. I picked cherry tomatoes on Friday morning; I picked more upon our return on Sunday evening. Then I went out today and gave them a thorough harvest. This is about two pounds. My best hope for getting rid of them is to position the tub near the edge of the kitchen counter and then sternly forbid the kids to go near it. They adore "sneaking" treats. Hahahaha... I am the sneakiest.

I'm getting something that looks a lot like powdery mildew on some of my green beans, but not all, which would almost be a relief at this point. No relief for me!

Green Bean City

Solved a minor green bean mystery the other day. One of the plants on a pole had snuck up and over the neighbor's fence. When I noticed it and pulled it back over, I found some monsters on it - obviously inedible, obviously been growing for some time. When I plucked them off and redirected the plant, I hoped/feared it would spur more growth and in fact that seems to be happening. I'm getting a large handful a day now. The cherry tomatoes are all continuing their party too. My basil sadly just can't hack our crazy weather (cold and chilly until 1 or 2, when it might reach 70). None of my lettuce seeds have come up! Cilantro coming along, at least.

More is More

... unless it's less, which is how many of these cherry tomatoes actually make it inside to be prepared in a meal. I sauteed a slew of green beans last night; yum.

More of Everything

That's the thing about harvest, at least when you're not too adept at timing crops. IT JUST KEEPS COMING. More of everything today, including nectarines, tomatoes, green beans, lemon cucumbers ... I don't even turn my head to look at the berries when I go outside this week; it's too scary. I am being MENACED by ripe blackberries. We don't have time every day to do a fruit stand, but we certainly have the produce for it.

Mt. Zucchini

- has been temporarily conquered. I am enjoying an estimated 24-hour respite from picking and using zucchini, thanks to intensive cooking lately. I made Thai tofu curry with zucchini and green beans, enchiladas with ditto, and a batch of zucchini bread. Phew! I used up all the zucchini on hand and made a fair dent in the green beans. No zucchini is ready yet today, so I get a break! Let's not talk about the green beans currently sagging off their vines... I need the me-time.

The Green Bean Scene

So it turns out that when you harvest a healthy-sized handful of green beans every day for two weeks, you get a boatload of green beans. Huh.

Daily quantities like these add up when nobody eats them

Also, just FYI, there is nothing you can do to these beans that will make them edible to a small child. The only question in their mind is why their crazy mommy is growing poison in the backyard.

Mid-July Miscellany

It's mid-July, and while I've got a continuous harvest going, I do feel like it's not as much of everything as this time last year. (Except berries, which continue to deluge the household.)

The tomatoes, it must be confessed, are not producing anywhere like they should. See the Green Zebra at left - nada. What a waste of time, water, and dirt. My son's Sun Gold has one or two a day. My other cherry has one or two every couple days, and the Indigo remains disgusting - just tastes unripe, no matter how big it gets. Let's blame the drought, or possibly Flora Grubb Gardens for selling it to me.

I am getting - literally - a handful of green beans and sugar snap peas daily. That, at least, is perfect. Can't stop congratulating myself for not overplanting!

Between the two pumpkin plants that came up (out of I can't even tell you how many seeds), we've got two well-established baby pumpkins, with a couple more tiny possibilities. At least all my potted herbs are doing great, for once.

Shy Green Beans and More

This morning I harvested my second zucchini, the first round of G3 (third sowing this spring-summer season) lettuce, and was surprised by a handful of ripe green beans from my bean volunteer that I always forget to water. My stepmother-in-law once referred to "shy" green beans, and she is absolutely right; I almost overlooked them! So discreet amongst their foliage.

My lemon cucumber is looking beautiful, even if barren of fruit to date. I had one two years ago that produced sparsely and late; this one appears to be on the same track so maybe it's a climate problem. (A much better explanation than human error...) This year's model is potted, and previously I had it in the ground. The berries continue to do their thing. A bunch of sugar snaps are also ready to pick, but I'll leave them for daughter when she gets home from school today. They are the only green vegetable she will eat, and then only if she picks them herself and pops them in her mouth on the spot. The word picky really does not do her justice.

I discovered some weeds in my basil pot! That's a first for me. Finally, lots of green tomatoes on our plants, tantalizing us! We need a burst of really high temperatures to get them off the dime. Ripen, ripen, ripen...

Good News

Almost as cute as human babies

I'm so happy! First, I've got some Blue Lake green bean seedlings up, basically overnight, after about a week in the ground. Second, I picked the first blackberry of the season (about a zillion more are on their way) and got to eat it all by myself. It may be the last one I get, but it was tasty.

Third, today is the first day of my preferred local crop swap. Even if I don't make it tonight, I finally have an outlet for my excess cilantro and green onions. Phew.

Yee-haw!

When the kids get home from school, I'll share all this good news with them. Or maybe I won't - give the bean seedlings a few more days before subjecting them to the likelihood of getting trampled by enthusiastic viewers.