I managed to keep the rats out of the cucumbers long enough to get to harvest one of the Tasty Green Japanese cucumbers, although one of them did manage to take a nibble out of the stem end. But I got the rest of it and it was tasty! I've been wrapping the cucumber plants in row cover at night and that seems to be keeping the rat damage to a minimum now. The boogers were eating the cucumbers as soon as the female blossoms opened.
Here's the last of the Garden Babies butterhead lettuces and one bolting head of Sweetie Baby romaine, the romaine stays sweet even when it starts to bolt. Oh, and there's some zucchini and their blossoms in there as well.
Here's the harvest totals for the past week:
Piracicaba broccoli - 8 oz.
Capers - .7 oz.
Dorato di Asti celery thinnings - .4 oz.
Tasty Green cucumber - 6 oz.
Diamond eggplant - 5.1 oz.
Orient Express eggplant - 5.5 oz.
Garden Babies butterhead lettuce - 10.1 oz.
Sweetie Baby Romaine lettuce - 3.4 oz.
Oregon Giant snow peas - 1.9 oz. (the final picking at last!)
Pimento de Padron peppers - 11.1 oz.
Shishito peppers - 5.4 oz.
Zucchini - 2 lb., .6 oz.
Zucchini blossoms - 4 oz.
The total harvests for the week were - 5 lb., 14.2 oz.
The total harvests for the year have been - 248 lb., 5.4 oz.
Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne on her blog Daphne's Dandelions, head on over there to see what other garden bloggers have been harvesting lately.
Oh, and this doesn't exactly count as a harvest, but I was able to cull 14 individuals from the local rat population in the last week. That's exactly half the count from the week before. Are there fewer out there or are they just getting smarter?
Those Shishito peppers look like the pepperonicis I grow. Sorry to hear about your rat issues. I would beside myself if we had to deal with them on top of everything else.
ReplyDeleteLOL, Congrats on the rat culling ;) They are rather smart buggers, aren't they :/
ReplyDeleteThe rats sure know which blossom to pick, glad you got them under control. I planted my Japanese cucumber with Armenian cuke, the later is more aggressive and took over the area, I haven't seen a JP cuke yet.
ReplyDeleteThomas, I think of your critter problems every time I go on rat patrol and I'm so grateful I don't have to deal with wood chucks or raccoons - rats, gophers, and moles are enough!
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Allison, they are smart - it's so frustrating when I find a sprung trap with the bait all gone and nary a sign of the rat - how do they do that?
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Mac, LOL, discerning rats - just what I need! Armenian cukes are really agressive and productive and unfortunately they aren't as good as the Japanese ones.
I can't imagine having to deal with rats in my garden :(
ReplyDeletePerhaps I should send you a large box of our Pacific Northwest slugs - including the giant banana variety - and let you turn them loose on the rats! It conjures up an image of a 1950's sci fi horror film - "SLIMEY RODENTS FROM SPACE!"
ReplyDeleteOkay, nix that idea. That cucumber is really beautiful. I have only managed to get two very small cukes to date. Would love to get a batch of refrigerator dills going but I need just a bit more production from my plants before I bother with mixing up a batch of the brine.
Hmmm.. just managed to lose my prior attempt at a comment so I will try this again.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I should send you a large box of my Pacific Northwest slugs - including the mutant big banana slugs - to do battle with your rats! Kind of reminds you of a 1950's style sci fi film.... "Attack of the Slimey Rats from Space!"
Okay nix that idea... you have enough trouble with the rats. :D
The cucumber is beautiful, glad you were able to keep one to yourself (almost).
The zucchini blossoms look great! I have never tried them.
ReplyDeleteWow, congrats on getting so many rats. I've had almost no luck getting rid of mine. I did manage to catch one in our live trap, but it was small enough to escape. We caught another larger one and fed it rat poison. It was dead the next morning. I just set out some bait tonight, hoping to reduce the population. Our rat zapper doesn't seem to work at all and the rats are avoiding the snap traps. It's frustrating.
ReplyDeleteEnvy your Eggplants. They look so nice and the other harvest too. Miss eggplants very much:).
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you saved your cucumber. I so love cucumbers in the summer.
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