I harvested my first eggplant today. Yay! There are quite a few more on my two Asian Eggplant plants. This is very exciting, as I usually don’t have much luck with eggplant. I also planted beans this morning, two rows of Slenderette bush beans where the garlic used to be and two rows of Kentucky Wonder pole beans where the peas used to be. The plot is pretty much fully planted right now. There is still a little space for fall greens and radishes to be planted in about a month. And enough space for the squash to spread out. Fingers crossed.
This morning, I harvested all my garlic. I have 17 hardnecks (Red Russian) and 21 softnecks (Transylvania), which is funny, because I planted 16 hardnecks and 20 softnecks. The heads are nice and big. I put the garlic on the porch to cure in indirect sunlight for two to three weeks. (I will spread them out a little more tomorrow.)
Yesterday, I harvested about three cups of red currants. This hardly made a dent in this year’s bounty. The bush in our backyard has grown a lot over the past couple of years. This morning, I decided to make these red currant crumb bars for breakfast. They came out perfect.
Today is the first day of July. Things are coming along nicely in the garden. The cold spring caused some delays, but made the peas and lettuce greens very happy. It now seems to be summer here and the cucumbers, tomatoes and squash plants have been taking off. I can see the first baby eggplants emerging. I planted the last two (extremely sad looking) winter squash seedlings (butternut and delicata) and fertilized them with Tomato-tone. I had fertilized all other seedlings about ten days ago and together with the rain we have had this past week it made a huge difference. Here is hoping for a bountiful harvest.
Made a yummy chicken stir-fry over wild rice for dinner tonight. With freshly harvested home-grown peas, garlic scapes (I found two more hidden in my garden plot) and cilantro. Topped with chopped peanuts.
Today, I gave half of my cilantro seedlings a “haircut”. They will regrow, and this way, I get two harvests from my one row. I plan to cut the other half in a few days. I also sowed a new row of slo-bolt cilantro right next to it.
Well almost fully planted. Today I put in the cucumbers (two Tokiwa slicers, three Pickling cucumbers), squash (one each Zucchini, Honeynut, Butternut and Delicata), two Asian eggplant seedlings, four Italian basil and three Tulsi sacred basil plants. Against the fence, I sowed Zinnias (Queen Lime Red, Large Mixed), cosmos (Sulferous, Rubenza), and I also planted nasturtium in between the tomatoes. I then covered everything with hay. I also harvested two heads of head lettuce.
I have been traveling for the past two weeks and during my absence my plot turned into a weed fest. This morning, I spent three hours weeding before I planted my tomatoes that had been hardening off on my porch these past two weeks. I put 8 in the ground today (I started out with 9, but one Ananas Noire sadly broke. I will plant a Paul Robson instead), and sprinkled some Tomato-tone around each plant. I also planted marigolds. The tomatoes will be interplanted with basil, and I will also plant some squash, eggplant, and nasturtiums in that area.
Still waiting to be transplanted are the cucumber and squash seedlings, eggplant and basil. My hot peppers never really grew despite having started them back in February. They stayed too small to transplant. So, I ordered a Thai hot pepper plant from Neighborhood Farms. I also ordered a delicata squash seedling, Thai basil and regular basil (I lost some of both while I was gone), Tulsi (sacred basil), another Asian eggplant, rainbow Swiss chard for my porch, and the Paul Robson tomato seedling.
I also harvested radishes, the overwintered leeks, and one (overwintered) head lettuce that was in the way of the tomatoes. The first big harvest of the season.
Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours in the garden weeding and planting. We have water in the garden now and it was time to transplant my four kale seedlings, six head lettuce seedlings, Swiss chard and leeks. I covered the lettuces and kale with row cover hoping it will deter the rabbits or other interested creatures. I also purchased three flat parsley plants, one spilanthes, one Orient Express eggplant, camomile, and a six-pack of marigolds from the Neighborhood Farm stand at the Wake up the Earth festival. I planted the spilanthes and one parsley in the plot and also sowed some cilantro next to the Swiss chard. I ripped out some mint and put it in a pot on my back porch. I planted two parsley plants and the camomile in containers on my porch. The marigold and eggplant will be transplanted into the plot together with the tomatoes and peppers at the end of May when I return from my travels.
