Daniel's Pacific NW Garden: Kitchen Garden. Another Way to Eat Zucchini. 7.26.16

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Kitchen Garden. Another Way to Eat Zucchini. 7.26.16

Basal in Tree Ring Container. 7.26.16

Okra. 7.27.16

Mid Summer is a nice time in the kitchen garden. Every day feels like a combination Easter Egg hunt and Christmas.

Basil in Tree Ring Open Bottom container, ready to pick and make a small batch of pesto.

I'm very surprised to have actively growing okra. I had given up. A true Southern gardener would rightly laugh at these puny okra plants. The first flower buds are forming, and there are still 2 months of warm weather for potential crop. I don't know which varieties. I mixed together several packets and planted all of them.

I used tree branches that I saved to construct fenceposts or other garden infrastructure, along with black plastic trellis with 1-inch openings, to construct a rabbit / deer fence. One might think okra spines would deter these pests, but they eat blackberry and squash growth tips, despite spines.

We continue to get zucchini, of course, and collard greens. There are occasional peppers.

Use a mandolin with the thinnest blade, and slice zucchinis into leaf-thin slices. Add the usual salad fixings and dressing, makes a great salad.

Today the sweet corn appears ready to harvest. I'm too tired to prepare it tonight, so leaving in the husks.

I shifted the largest pumpkin to slide a newspaper under it. That was to protect it from potential rot underneat, something I read about. BAD MOVE. The pumpkin came off the stem. A ripe one is almost red. This one is golden yellow. I will see if I can roast it tomorrow for pumpkin pie fillings and pumpkin puree for pumpkin bread.

This pumpkin was Rouge Vit D'Etamps. I weighed it - 35 pounds. What will I do with that much pumpkin? Annoyed with myself for not letting it ripen on the plant, dammit dammit. But there are many smaller pumpkins and winter squashes, so there will still be more than we can reasonably use.

Vegetables. 7.27.16

Some of the radish seeds have germinated at 3 days. I planted all of the Chinese radish varieties, mentioned earlier. Meanwhile at one week the first Euro radishes, turnips, kohlrabis, are looking good one week after sowing seeds. The carrot seeds have germinated. I also enclosed this raised bed in netting for deer and rabbits. I don't know if that will keep out cabbage moths.

Two days ago, we ate the first Sungold tomato. Today there were a few more. I'm impatient for tomato season to start, even though there are so many other things to be happy about.

Okra Cage. 7.26.16

Also noting- We are getting figs every day. Not enough to overwhelm me, but a really good crop.

Not pictured, I harvested all of the potatoes, other than Burbank Russet, which are almost ready. Probably 50 pounds total of potatoes. I harvested about half of the yellow onions. Maybe 10 pounds. I pulled out one of the raised bed / cages of favas, and used that bed to plant more Chinese Radishes last weekend.