Yesterday I spent the morning out in the garden weeding and harvesting the last of the Spring vegetables. The Amish snap peas were pretty much finished (the recent hot spell did them in) so Damian and I harvested all that remained and ripped the plants out. I was really pleased with this variety and have ripe partly dry pods hanging up in my kitchen to save the seeds from. I have read that snap peas can be a Autumn crop but I am not sure when the plant them… Does anyone know? We harvested 12 ounces of snap peas in our final harvest yesterday, probably a little more since I had toddler help.

We also harvested almost two pounds of Forellenschuss lettuce leaving one to bolt so that we can save the seeds from that as well. I was also really pleased with this romaine variety, it faired very well with the heat. I am saving the seeds but I am not sure if I will continue to dedicate space in the raised beds to lettuce since we receive enough in our Bountiful Basket every week.

My Red Russian kale turned out to be a decent producer considering it survived being ripped out by Damian three times this Spring. It is still going but I have decided to leave it for the rest of the season (I’m a little tired of kale anyhow.) I am considering overwintering it just because I want to see how it flowers. Speaking of flowers my miniature rose is blooms. I have a tremendous soft spot for all kinds of roses and I adore this one’s cheery yellow blooms.

I ripped out all my purple top turnips, for some reason they never started to size up and it has been five months, far past their maturity date. They were my Spring failure as was Bloomsdale spinach which all died off as soon as it sprouted. I may try turnips again for Autumn planting since I really love them but I think I will try another kind of spinach.

After harvesting and ripping out the remainder of the Spring crops that only left one kale, one lettuce, a row of St Valery carrots and three PA Dutch Crookneck Squash in Bed A (the one with the trellis.) I fertilized everything that needed it in all the beds and then planted Empress Beans in most of the void space left in Bed A. I tried this bush bean last year and it didn’t do very well but I also did not expect our elm to shade the area where I planted them as much as it did, I didn’t inoculate them and I think I planted them far too densely. We will see how they do this year in a much better location with inoculant and more spacing. I hope they provide enough green beans to last us through the Winter as they are suppose to be a heavy producer. If nothing else they will work as a nitrogen fixing cover crop I guess.

I also planted a few Purple Podded Pole Beans by the trellis as Damian ripped out all the ones I planted a month ago. I might be cutting it a little close on their maturity date and the first frost but I really want to see how they look and taste. The risk is worth it.

In Bed B my tomatoes plants are amazingly huge but they have yet to set very many fruit. With as cold as the weather has been until recently I am not surprised, but now with this recent hot spell they finally seem to be doing their stuff. Lots of little one on the Beams’ Yellow Pear and a few on the Italian, but none of the Black Krim yet. Read More »