Some Early Fruits and Vegetables. 7.14.19

Here are some zucchinis and supper squashes that I harvested today.  They are doing the usual highly vigorous zucchini thing.  Also some salad cucumbers, and a couple of banana peppers.

Today I also harvested my first fig, a Carni fig, and harvested a few more Methley plums.  Those are the first plums of the year.  There are a few Illinois Everbearing mulberries waiting to pick.

Nepenthes (Tropical carnivorous pitcher plants) Growing Outdoors. 7.14.19

Nepenthes Deroose Alata.  7.14.19

 Here are some of the Nepenthes so far this summer.  I had moved them out of the sunroom because, on hot days, I couldn't get the heat under 120 to 130F.  As a result, a few of the pitchers were scorched.  I moved them to the front deck,, which gets mostly Western sun, and some are under the overhang and get no direct sun but lots of bright light.

I water them daily with rain water, adding 1/8 tsp general purpose Miracle Grow  per quart watering can.  I let the water drain through the bottom.   The benefit of that treatment can be seen in the Deroose Alata, which has had that treatment since late winter in the sunroom. All of the visible pitchers and leaves visible in this photo grew under this regimen.

A few are not pictured.  If the light is good tomorrow, I may add them here.

Except for Nepenthes Deroose Alata,  all were added in early June (I think).  They are all starting to grow and most are starting to produce pitchers under my growing conditions.   It will take a while to see the mature appearance.

All were from growcarnivorousplants.com

Nepenthes X Falcon.  7.14.19

Nepenthes Dyeriana.  7.14.19

L to Right, N. X Whisper, N. campanuplata X lowii, N. Ruby Alice.

L to R, N. maxima X aristochoides, N. Peter Damato, N. albomarginata Black.

Those Overwintered Geraniums. 11 Jul 19

 These are a few of the geraniums  overwinter  each year.  I think they are around 5 to 7 years old.  There is not much to it.  In October, I move the containers out of the rains, under the eaves so they dry out as much as possible in a sunny location.  Then I move them to garage or basement, leave them  dry for the winter.  I Spring,Icleanthe, up, remove dead leaves, do some pruning, water, and in a month they are up growing and blooming again.  Bigger, more lush, more flowers, than any plant you can buy, and the cost is zero.

Planting Summer Seeds. Radishes and Turnips. Jul 8, 2019

Japanese Turnip and Chinese Radish Seeds.  Jul 8, 2019

Today I planted experimental rows of radishes and turnips, in the location where I dug two rows of potatoes.  Not a lot, about 3 foot rows for each.  It might be too early - late summer might have them growing mostly in cooler fall weather.  I can plant more later.

I love turnips, and these East Asian types of radishes can be very good for fresh eating or roasting.

I plant potatoes in trenches, starting at about a foot derp and filling in soil as they grow.  Digging them, I insert the shovel under where I expect to find spuds.  By the time the taters are dug up, the soil has been mixed and softened more than a foot deep.  I think that's ideal for these root crops.

Given summer dryness, the soil dryness extended the depth of the trenches.  Watering is needed.

There are as many potatoes still growing, as I dug already.  There are plans for those rows too Western - type turnips and radishes, maybe sone cabbages, and I want to move a row of daylilies there for easier care.

Edit:  by 7/14, all of the seeds are germinated and growing vigorously.  They germinated in about one week.

Home Made Daylily Hybrid. Jul 7, 2019

Home Made Daylily Hybrid.  Jul 7, 2019

This is the first bloom on this new hybrid.  I did not keep track.  I think it was an unnamed ochre colored daylily, crossed with Chicago-something, a red flower.  Some of my home made hybrids are ugly.  I like this one very much.

First Potato Harvest. Jul 7, 2019

Kennebeck Potatoes.  7.7.19

Kennebeck Potatoes.  7.7.19

 Some of the potato tops are dying off. so I  dug them up.  Nice crop for Kennebec and Red Norland so far.  Ready to make potato salad.

The first of the Russets didn't look like much.  There may be some in the rows yet to harvest.

Red Norland Potatoes.  7.7.19

Edit:

I made potato salad using Kennebecs.  I didn't it, too dry.  I have using the daily for baked potatoes.  For that purpose, they are truly delicious.  I puncture multiple times with a fork, brush with olive oil, back on a piece of aluminum foil at 400 F for 30 min, turn, bake another 30 min.

Tansy Ragwort and Cinnebar Moth Larvae. 7.3.19

Tansy Ragwort and Cinnebar Moth Larvae.  7.3.19

Very cool to look at.  I try to keep ahead of weeds, especially the toxic and invasive Tansy Ragwort.  However, sometimes I miss them at the edge of the property, until I see them bloom.

This time, I see the cinnebar moth caterpillars having a feast on tansy ragwort flower heads.

I will leave the plants in place until the caterpillars are done, then pull the plants out.

Squash, Potato, and Sweet CornZucchini Plants. 6.21.19

Potato Plants.  6.21.19

Most of the kitchen garden is looking pretty good.   I dug a couple of potato plants today, ones that had dried up looking leaves.  The vast majority are not ready yet. The summer squashes and zucchinis have early flower buds.  The sweet corn is irregular, with some large and some small plants, but the large ones are looking robust.

Zucchini Plants.  6.21.19

Sweet Corn Plants.  6.21.19

Tomato Plants. 6.21.19

Tomato Plants for Slicing Tomatoes.  6.21.19

All of the tomato plants are blooming, and have stout, green, robust vines and leaves.  Most of the slicing tomatoes are tied up as single cordons.

Tomato Plants for Sauce Tomatoes.  6.21.19

Chestnut Tree in Bloom. 6.21.19

This one is Maraval.  Last year, this tree was the first to bear, having two chestnut clusters last year.  This year, there are about 10 female flowers.  Hard to say because they are so small and so high on the tree.

Precose Migoule also has a couple of female flowers, and lots of male flowers.

The very small Marigoule is vinally growing nicely, and has a few catkins of male flowers.

The Marissard seedling has no flowers.  Nice looking tree, but no flowers.  It's probably a mistake to buy a seedling, even if it's named.

The plan was to have them close enough together to pollinate each other.  But with the small size of the trees, and the small numbers of male flowers on the trees that just started making them, I have tried to hand pollinate using catkins of the other tree.  Unfortunately, doing so I broke off one of the two potentially bearing branches of the Precose Migoule.  That was going to need pruning anyway, but a few curse words were said.