Here are a few pictures of some of my harvests from mid-July through the end of August. Notably absent are tomatoes, despite having 12 (!) tomato plants. Thanks, rats and birds 🙁
A Medley of Summer Harvests
Category: Greens
Fall Sowing
Yesterday and this morning, I spent a few hours in the garden weeding and cleaning. I also started my fall sowing: Coreless Amsterdam carrots (a fast-growing variety), cilantro, Golden and Detroit Dark Red beets, and a fall greens mix (a mix of lettuces, chards, greens, Chinese cabbage, spinach, endive).
First Cucumbers
First pickling cucumbers (they are big) plus rainbow chard, basil (from pruning the tips), and flowers.
Late June
I love late June in the garden. Everything is starting to take off, and typically, there are no major pest issues yet. Apart from the rabbits, rats and birds perhaps, but no mildew, blight or aphids etc.
I harvested the garlic scapes and lettuces. The rhubarb is still producing. I also harvested mint, which I hung to dry in my pantry, and I picked some flowers, herbs and seed heads to make small bouquets. The tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers and squash are starting to flower. Everything looks fresh and green and full of promise 🙂
Lettuce Harvest
Last night, I harvested the remaining lettuce from the garden plot. About five heads total. I cleaned them all and stored them in the fridge. Just in time for the big heat wave that is supposed to start the day after tomorrow, Wednesday. We are expecting temperatures of 100F (feeling like 113F), so I will not be turning on the stove. Salad it will be for dinner.
Spinach
This morning, I harvested the spinach on my back porch. We have had a couple of warm days (in the eighties), and it was starting to bolt. Tomorrow, it will be in the nineties, so time to harvest. In total, my two 12-inch containers yielded 190 grams (6.75 oz.). Not bad. It will be a nice addition to our dinner tonight.
One of the two containers has a parsley plant in the center, and I am adding nasturtium around it. In the other, I planted some tiny Iceland Mix poppy seedlings. It is my first time growing poppies. They are supposed to be difficult to transplant as their roots do not like to be disturbed. Fingers crossed.
May Porch
I just love the view from my third-floor back porch in May. The cherry blossoms are fading now (they were an incredible sight for the past two weeks), but our lilac and our neighbor’s dogwood are glorious. And the scent!
It has been a super slow start to the gardening season, and other than the shallots, I have not planted anything in the plot yet. Because of a water leak, we still do not have water in the community garden. I do not trust the weather, and I am not schlepping gallons of water several blocks down to the garden. But my seedlings are ready; they are practically bursting out of their little containers. Fingers crossed the repairs will happen this week.
Meanwhile, my container plants on the back porch are very happy. The spinach (two containers) really took off, as did the radishes.
My lettuce mix never germinated, so I transplanted one of the three Salanova Green Butter lettuces into that container. The other two will go in the plot. The seeds were old, so I unfortunately only got three seedlings out of the handful I started. Over the summer and into fall, the salad container will have Thai pepper, Thai basil and flowers.
Late Start
It has been an excruciatingly slow start to the season. Such a cold and rainy spring so far, which after this long and cold winter is especially hard. So, things in the garden have been slow to come up. I did not plant peas this year, and have not started anything yet in the garden plot. But both, the garlic and the rhubarb are coming up nicely. As are the grape hyacinths and a few tulips, which have yet to open.
My dining room table is full of seedlings. I thinned the basil seedlings on March 30th and plan to re-pot tomatoes, Swiss chard, sage and thyme this weekend. I will also start hardening off the snapdragons. The kale has been living on the porch full-time for about a week now. This weekend, I also plan to plant my shallots and start my cucumber and squash seedlings.
The radishes and spinach on my porch are coming up nicely. I had started them on March 30. Because it was so cold (we even still had a few frosts), it took them a while. On April 21, I also started leaf lettuce mix in one of the big containers.
Starting Tomatoes
Today, on this raw and rainy early spring Sunday, I started my tomato seedlings. As usual, I went for a mix of early, mid-season, and late tomato varieties. This year, I am growing some favorite heirlooms and some new-to-me disease-resistant hybrid varieties as I had a lot of issues with some mysterious (fungal?) disease last season. I started two each of Stupice (early), Mountain Sunrise (early), Ailsa Craig (mid), Marmalade (mid), Galahad (mid), Dr. Wyche’s Yellow (mid/late), Caiman (late), Purple Zebra (late). I also started four Mountain Magic and two Peacevine cherry tomato plants for the communal flower/vegetable bed.
Today, I also started strawflowers (Tall Double Mix), Swiss chard (Five Color Silverbeet), and butterhead lettuce (Salanova green butter and May Queen). And I repotted the kale (7 plants).
Hope
This winter has been brutal. The record cold temperatures we had in December and January and several major snowstorms (the last one – the historic Blizzard of ’26 – just yesterday) make me long for spring. My seedlings have all sprouted. First was the thyme, followed by leeks, snapdragons, sage and peppers. The marigolds I sowed on February 20 are also sprouting, and this morning, I saw the first kale seedling (also sown on February 20) making its appearance.
