Garden Update - August 24, 2016

I'm not quite ready to call this the regular Wednesday Garden Update, but I am going to try to do my garden updates on Wednesdays and be regular about it. (That leaves me an out if I get lazy!)

So what's new this week?

These are, rather, they were my winter sown broccoli and brokali.


They were actually doing quite well still, they had recovered from the recurring rabbit and rat attacks after I covered them up. But I needed the space for the new Romanesco broccoli and cauliflower seedlings.

Batavia broccoli side shoots.

It would have been much more difficult to remove them from the garden if I didn't have 3 newer Batavia broccoli plants already producing and 3 new Calabrese broccoli plants coming along.

The plant above was one of the winter sown Batavia broccoli plants. It produced a beautiful main head but then none of the leaf axils had any buds. But I left it in place and eventually the plant produced numerous shoots from the beneath the soil line. I thinned those to just a few strong shoots. You can see the ugly ragged remains of the main stem and the shoots that sprouted from the base. Below you can see the shoots before I cut the plants down.

Batavia broccoli

And that's the replacements. Two plants each of Romanesco broccoli and Purple Cape cauliflower. I know that the Romanesco broccoli plants get to be HUGE and I assume that the Purple Cape plants will also so I gave them plenty of room. They are set out 21 inches apart, which is just the right spacing to take up 1/6th of the bed. I've got them protected with water bottle sleeves and some tulle fabric for now. Later on I may have to erect a tunnel over them for a while.

I enlarged the tunnel that is protecting the Brussels sprouts and Calabrese broccoli plants by making it higher which required using 2 lengths of MicroMesh fabric. I left a gap at the top in the hope that the good bugs (but not the bad critters) will find their way in.

The first little head of Calabrese broccoli is forming. The heads on this sprouting broccoli are always small but the plants usually make up for it by producing lots of side shoots. This plant already has a number of big shoots growing from lower on the plant.

The first signs of sprouts on the Brussels sprouts plants! Maybe a harvest by Thanksgiving?

Little Rosebud Romaine Mix

Manoa Crisphead

The lettuces are definitely showing signs of bolting. I hope there's enough room in the fridge for them all. Big salad for dinner tonight!

The carrots have germinated. I hope the sowbugs don't feast.

Green Fingers Persian Cucumbers

The Green Fingers cucumbers have revived a bit and are setting a few cukes.

Tasty Treat Japanese cucumbers

The Tasty Treat cucumbers are growing. I'm pretty confident that they will have time to produce this fall.

Yay, the Tromba d'Albenga squash got their blossoms coordinated and some squash have set. Not the most perfect straight specimens but I don't care.

I finally got fed up enough about the raiding rats that I wrapped each pot of the Mara des Bois strawberries in tulle. It's not perfect, I've found a few spots where they've tried to munch right through the fabric. On the other hand one big fat rat went for the bait (a strawberry of course) on a trap that I had set beneath some low hanging fruit and well, that was the end.

Chianti Rose Tomatoes

The first Chianti Rose tomato is starting to ripen.

And the first Reisetomate From Transylvania tomatoes are ripening as well. And yes, they are supposed to look like that.

Still waiting for the first Florina pepper to fully ripen. They are sweetest and tastiest when harvested fully ripe.

The potted up IPK P 852 (Italy) plants are growing. Keep going babies!

I don't hold out much hope for the Sweet Potato experiment. They are growing soooo slooowly. Perhaps if we get a few heat waves this fall they will do something. But I doubt it. Anyway, they aren't any trouble to just leave them be so I will. At least they have some pretty flowers.

That gap in the Blue Speckled Tepary bean patch shouldn't be there. I thing the rabbit is plowing it's way through, munching as it goes. I'm going to try to erect a barrier around the plants. Damn, this is getting to be ridiculous. The DR won't go for the bait in the Havahart trap (however, a couple of rats have). Anyone around here want to do a little target practice?

I should be harvesting Brinker Carrier snap beans pretty soon.

And the 4 surviving (out of 20) Rosso di Lucca dry bush beans are growing. I really messed up and overwatered them so most of the beans rotted before they had a chance to germinate. These 4 are real survivors and I hope will provide my seed stock for next year.

The Hopi Chinmark corn is in full tassel mode now.

The Puhwem corn isn't showing any signs of tasseling yet but has grown taller than the neighboring 6 foot tall bean trellises.

So that's the latest that's happened in the garden in the last week.