Potatoes – the yellow potatoes are definitely ready to come out of the ground. So far they have been marginal in size and unremarkable in taste. The red and white are not so dry on top yet, so perhaps a week or two until they’re ready to dig up. Last year (2007) we were able to replant around this time and still produce a second round of fall potatoes.
Tomatoes – seeing the first red ones peeking out. Soon we’ll be inundated and will be canning away. The non-tented tomatoes never really have caught up to those started under the tents. Not as tall, not as filled out.
Zucchini – first ones picked two days ago. Same with cucumbers.
Broccoli – second heads flowering after picking the first ones. Then we’ll cut them down one more time.
Kale and Swiss chard – doing very well.
Brussels sprouts – they are developing the flowers (very tough little buggers to pull off!) but had a very bad spell with japanese beetles. Ate the entire top off of nearly every plant. They appear to be growing new leaves, so I don’t know if there was permanent damage to the plant.
Onions – we let too many weeds get into the larger patch, but all are developing ok. Tops are falling and we’ll be pulling them up soon.
Blueberries – all but done producing. The productivity was great compared to last year.
EXPERIMENT DEPARTMENT UPDATE: I bought a soil block maker from Johnny’s Seeds and made two trays of seedlings about 12 days ago. They sprouted almost overnight! And, they are holding together very well so far. I made two more trays yesterday. These will become the basis of the fall and winter garden, and getting a jump on them now is the best thing we can do to maximize the garden space for productivity.
Soil blocker (laying on side so you can see ‘up’ into the cells)
Next two trays of seeds planted and getting ready for the garden.
Seeds planted in soil blocks about 12 – 15 days ago doing quite well.
Each ‘block’ is still solid and intact with roots holding them together.
Posted in Garden General | 
No Comments » | July 23rd, 2008
