What Happened In My Garden This Week? – Week 30

The leeks, green onions, yellow onions and pickling onions are all doing well. They are absolutely tiny still, but the greens are standing upright, so they must be doing well. The garlic is growing well too. One of the bags had to be moved so that it could be next to the other bags in the sun. Garlic does love sunshine. They’re doing well and as long as they carry on like this, it looks like I’ll be getting a massive garlic harvest.

Artichoke

The artichoke plant is still alive, but all I can see thus far are its leaves. No artichokes forming yet.

Aubergine

There are many flowers on the plant and it looks like the first aubergines are forming.

Brassica

The slugs are still active, but I’ve managed to get rid of multiple adult slugs, and that has significantly lessened the amount of babies on my plants. The Napa cabbages keep fighting and though I had to pull out one of them, the rest are growing nicely. The black kale and regular kale are also doing well. The pixie cabbage doesn’t really look like cabbages yet, but they are doing well.

Chili

My Korean chili have not yet flowered, and I’m a bit concerned as to why that might be. The other plants spread around the garden seem to be doing well. Some have small chilies growing already.

Corn

The corn stalks are still small, so I don’t really know if they’ll end up growing tall and producing corn cobs or not. I’ll just have to keep fertilising and hope for the best.

Cucumber

The plants have been growing quite a bit in size and have begun producing cucumbers. They won’t be ready for a few weeks though.

Greens

The Asian greens and leafy greens are growing in their container, but none are large enough to be harvested yet. I did sow the seeds very close together, and they don’t have much sun where they are, so I may need to rethink their location. They’re in the greenhouse right now. I could harvest some of them as micro-greens, and I might try that next week. Harvest a few and see what they taste like.

Potatoes

I have harvest more potatoes and the have all been delicious. I need to be mindful of keeping some potatoes of each variety as my seed potatoes for next year. One of the plants have produced berries. I’ll let them continue to develop until it is time to harvest the potatoes in that container. When I do, I will harvest the berries as well and preserve the seeds.

Squash and pumpkins

The zucchini plants are finally producing zucchinis. The pumpkin plants have a lot of buds, that will soon turn into flowers, so they appear to be doing well. The leaves are expanding in size and they are growing outward, away from the containers. They should be developing into blooming flowers next week and based on how many bumblebees there are in the garden right now, they should pollinate well.

Root vegetables

I have planted out almost all of my beetroot seedlings. I only have a handful left and most of them are still too small to plant anyway. The parsnips are really enjoying growing above the bokashi compost. They are doing so well and no pests have attacked them. I hope they’ll stay safe throughout the season.

The rutabaga, the black radishes and the kohlrabi are also doing well. I removed the old radish plants after harvesting all of the pods. They are now drying outside and once dry, some will be used for seasoning and the rest will be used for their seeds.

Sunflowers

One of the sunflower plants is now growing taller than me and I am 175 cm tall. The others aren’t far behind. Two of them have sunflowers forming. Based on how large each flower is supposed to get, I should be able to get a year’s worth of sunflower seeds, provided the birds leave them be. I’d also like to try grilled sunflower and see what it tastes like.

Tomatillo

The plants are doing so well. They are very large at this point and are even beginning to press against the top of the greenhouse. They are absolutely covered in flowers and there are several tomatillos forming.

Tomatoes

I have pruned the tomato plants lightly, and the majority of them have begun producing tomatoes. Some are still on the small side and will likely require a bit more time before they bloom. It looks like I’ll have very good tomato harvests this year.

Perennials

Berries

I have had multiple blueberry harvests this week and it looks like the bushes will produce at least a kilogram of berries, all combined. When they’re fully grown and have enough room, each plant should produce between two and five kilograms. The sloe berries and black berries are still green, but they look well. The black currant bush has grown another few inches this week.

Fruit trees

The apples are looking beautiful. They look exactly like the photos of the fruit trees they came from. The ones that once hung around their necks. There are only a few little ones on one of the trees that I am currently waiting for.

Herbs

The herbs are all doing well and the last few varieties that I sowed from seed has now been transferred into their forever homes.

Sunchokes

I can’t say what the harvest will be like, but I hope it will be bountiful. The greens are almost as tall as me now, and they’re beautiful and lush.

Propagation

Fruit trees from seed

A few of the plants died and I know now that I had overwatered them. In an effort to keep them moist, hoping it’d help them germinate and grow big roots, the moisture level grew too high and they ended up rotting. Now that I know that, I am watering less and less often. They get to stay outside during the day and inside during nighttime. Mainly because I can’t observe how they’re doing during the night, not like I can during the day. After letting the soil dry out, one of the nearly dead seedlings have now produced new roots.

I removed the dead upper part and I hope that the plant makes it. It is an apricot seedling. The other apricot tree, the oldest one, is growing more leaves and it is thin but doing really well. The pear tree is doing well and it is forming new leaves. It is small but mighty. Thus far, five or six peach trees have made it above the soil surface, and I hope the remaining seeds will germinate as well.

Apple trees from cuttings

The apple tree cuttings, the ones that I planted into potatoes and then into pots, appear to be doing really well. While the potatoes sprouted and may or may not have produced mini potatoes beneath the soil, the cuttings are looking a lot like the fruit trees do in early spring. They’re dormant and none of them have grown soft or blackened with rot. They just look like small trees and they’re quite adorable. This as encouraged me to plant the rest of the cuttings as well, from when I prune the remaining apple trees.

Berry bushes

I haven’t propagated my berry bushes yet, but I hope to begin with the honey berries next week. They’ve finished producing for the season and this is the prime time to take some cuttings and turn them into plants. I tried air layering last year, but it didn’t work very well. I kept the little plastic clip ons this season as well, and I will likely prune those off at the end of the season. If they haven’t rooted by them, I’ll propagate them as I would any other cutting.

I’d like to get at least four more blackberry plants, a few more black currant plants and about a dozen blueberry plants from propagating perennials this year. And hopefully a few gooseberry plants as well.

Fertiliser

The bokashi is full and this week I will start draining it so that I can fertilise with bokashi tea once more. I’d also like to empty and fill it for a few more times this season. The goal is to mix in compost with the soil around my nutrition loving annuals and each of my perennials. I now fertilise with golden water two times a week in most places, and one time a week in others. I’m so glad I am producing my own compost, my own fertiliser and hopefully my own soil blend.

Next week

• I will be looking into buying come mycelium and straw so that I can grow oyster mushrooms in some of the emptied potato pots. I’ll have to wash and sterilise the pots, but they should be perfect for growing mushrooms in. I’m excited about growing them outside since it’ll be easier and less messy.

• The potatoes will hopefully have produced more and I will harvest again and again until they’re ready to be emptied.

• The blueberries are far from being done for the season, so I’ll keep harvesting those as well.

• I’ll start propagating some perennials.

• I will prune one of the apple trees that didn’t produce fruit this year.

• Beyond this, I’ll just keep up the pruning, fertilising and watering. And removing the slugs whenever I see them. To avoid having to pick them up with my hands, I have small seedling pots that I use to scoop them out.

See you next week!