The Garden on July 22

The weather has been grand the last few weeks, warm days and cool, but not too cool nights. Plenty of sun and none of the smoke that plagued us last summer. The garden has been loving it.

That's the tomato and tomatillo bed shown above, with a bit of Profuma di Genova basil in front. This it the first time I've grown my tomatillos in cages, in the past they have been allowed to sprawl. It's much easier growing them in the cages so far, it keeps the fruit away from the sow bugs and takes up much less space.

The downside to growing the purple tomatillos in a cage (above) is that the fruit doesn't get enough sun to turn them purple. I'm sure they will still taste good though.

Here's a "Plaza Latina Giant" tomatillo, the husk is only half full so far. I can't wait to see how big it gets when fully formed! This plant doesn't have as many fruits on it as the purple variety, but the fruit it does have is huge so quantity is not an issue.

And the most mature tomatoes in the patch so far are the Black Sea Man. Anticipation....

The (mostly) pepper and eggplant bed. The white row cover behind is protecting what is left of my edamame plants. I lost more than half of the edamame seedlings to some night time marauder. In that same area I've planted the seedlings for my winter squash (under the protection of 1 gallon plastic water bottles) *sigh* and the replacement cucumber plants *sigh again* (also under protection).

"Donkey Ears" sweet pepper.

"Chilhuacle Negro" baby pepper. These are supposed to be good in mole and chili and also good for drying.

"Marconi Purple" sweet pepper. These will be red when ripe. I've grown the red and yellow varieties of this pepper before, the purple is new in my garden this year.

I've already had two harvests of "Pimento de Padron" peppers. Padrons are picked immature so the plants keep pumping out the peppers all season long. They are absolutely delicious when pan fried in a little olive oil and served warm with a sprinkle of coarse salt. These peppers will convert pepper haters (especially green pepper haters) into pepper lovers. I don't have a photo of any right now because they've been picked and consumed, yum.

"Thai Round Green Petch Parisa" eggplant looking quite happy other than some nibbling on the lower leaves by sow bugs. There's a shot below of the first fruit it has set.



Yeah, the radishes are bolting! Just like they are supposed to. That's a rat-tail radish shown above. They are grown for their tasty seed pods. The pods can be consumed raw, sauteed, pickled... use your imagination.

The "Cocozelle" zucchini monsters. That's just 2 plants shown above, and one of them shown below.



Next to the zucchini are the Cavolo Nero and Portuguese kales, and the Piracicaba broccoli. The Cavolo Nero has been an absolute magnet for cabbage aphids. The chickens have been getting more of it than we have. I spent some time the other day washing the aphids off leaves and now I'm going to finish with some insecticidal soap. The Portugues kale has been less infested and easier to clean so we've been enjoying that. The broccoli hasn't been too badly hit either. On the other side of the kales (to the left and out of view) is what's left of the Senposai. Two of the plants got some kind of rot that effected their cores, so they are gone, another plant is bolting, and I haven't checked on the other remaining plant in a few days....

Here is a closer shot of one of the coreopsis plants that you can see behind the brassicas.

Need to pick some lettuce... And behind you can see the leaves of the "di Jesi" cauliflower. I've harvested the heads and am waiting to harvest the leaves for the chickens.

And one of my favorite greens - Amaranth. I cut one of the big plants back and had the greens sauteed in olive oil with chopped garlic. Delicious, much sweeter than spinach and far easier to grow. It's doesn't seem to be bothered by any pests other than aphids.



The red florence fennel is bolting. It's supposed to form "bulbs" in its second year. In the meantime, the flowers will provide food for beneficial insects.

And here's the reason why I've started replacement cucumber plants. The "Serpent" cucumbers are succumbing to something, probably bacterial wilt. One plant has been removed, two should be removed, the one remaining plant is hanging in there for now. I had old seed for "Palace King" Japanese cucumbers that germinated surprisingly well, so those are getting started in the bed beyond the peppers.

The rest of that bed is in transition. Under cover at the base of the trellises that sported snap and snow peas earlier are seedlings of "Petaluma Goldrush" and "Chaco Canyon" beans. There's one more trellis that I just cleared off that will support "Tarbais" beans. The bush beans are done and will be cleared out soon. There's some seeds of bush filet beans - "Rolande" and "Astrelle" (maybe... very old seeds) - sown in paper pots that will go in this bed.