What Happened In My Garden This Week? – Week 32

Aubergine

Nothing ready to harvest yet. The aubergine that has been produced is still very small, but healthy. They’re a lot more flowers, so I hope the pollinators will find them soon. I’d like to be able to get more than one aubergine this season.

Brassica

I’m not entirely sure I’ll be able to save the Napa cabbage from the slugs this year. Or the kale and the black kale. Time will tell. I keep picking off the snails and removing the skeleton-like leaves after they’ve feasted on them. Hopefully they’ll let them be soon.

Corn

The stalks are still small, and likely won’t grow large enough to produce a harvest this year. I will continue to observe them, and if they don’t start growing more soon, I may pull them in favour of the rest of the plants growing there.

Cucumber

I have baby cucumbers now. I placed the cucumber pots nearer to the sunchokes and led the vines up the sunchoke-greens so that they can use them as a trellis. It is working well.

Herbs

The herbs are doing well, but they’re still quite small. Not yet time to harvest any of the ones in the vertical system, but the ones growing on their own, around the perennials, are definitely due another harvest.

Root vegetables

I have planted out all of the beets, rutabaga, radishes and parsnips, and now all I need to do is wait for them to finish growing. I may sprinkle some carrot seeds over one of the beds, but other than that, there will be no more planting for me this year.

Tomatillos

They continue to do great and the plants are rather massive. The tomatillos themselves aren’t ready to harvest, but I will continue to check them daily. I do have two plants, and there are often bumblebees hanging around them, so they should be able to grow more tomatillos still.

Tomatoes

Most of my tomato plants are absolutely massive this year. I hope they produce massive harvests as well. There are quite a few tomatoes this far, but most of them are still green. The sun we did get this week helped, but we need regular sun and heat for them to be able to mature.

Peppers

The Korean peppers aren’t doing as well as I’d like, most likely due to a lack of sunlight, but the rest appear to be doing well. I’ll just have to make sure to fertilise well in the greenhouse – it’s been a while – and continue to care for them and observe their progress.

Potatoes

I was able to harvest some more potatoes this week, but there are many more containers left to harvest. They’ll have to wait for sunnier days though.

Spinach

Finally I have some healthy looking spinach plants. They’re not huge, but they are healthy and producing. I have yet to decide whether or not I want to plant some more that I could be harvested throughout fall.

Sunflowers

The sunflowers still haven’t bloomed, but they are incredibly tall and sturdy. They all have buds, but no flowers yet. I have blanched and frozen some of the leaves in the meantime, as they are quite nutritious.

Squash and pumpkin

The courgettes are growing and next week I should be able to harvest my second one this season. There are multiple more growing, and I hope more will follow.

My first pumpkin was eaten by something. I’m honestly not sure what had feasted on it, but half of it was lost with multiple bites carved out. I removed it and hopefully the plant will produce another one, or better yet, multiple ones.

Perennials

Berries

The strawberry plants are still full of small strawberries, but they are still not ripe.

The sloe berries ripened this week and will be harvested next week.

I harvested more blueberries this week, and I hope the ants will stay off of them. The ants are everywhere this year. It may have something to do with the aphids. For some reason, the aphids are really thriving this year.

Fruit

All fruit trees apart from the plum have been pruned, and they are small but doing well.

Vegetables

The sunchokes continue to grow taller and taller, and the leaves keep coming. I harvest leaves almost daily, and I wash them, blanch them and freeze them. Where I’ve harvested leaves, new ones take their place. It’s nice to see them doing so well.

I need to make sure I harvest the rhubarb sometime in the next couple of weeks. They are doing well, but I want to make sure I get to enjoy the harvest before the ants do.

Fertiliser

Some of the perennials got a bit of bokashi water, and the rest did well with the urine water. I need to fertilise in the greenhouse next week.

Propagation

Berry bushes

I haven’t propagated the berry bushes yet, but I have decided which parts to cut and turn into new plants. I’d like to do it on a warm and sunny day, rather than attempt it when it is raining.

Fruit trees from cuttings

The cuttings that were planted into pots in May are doing very well. From what I can tell, not one of them have rotted. The ones from the latest pruning are still standing in water. They appear to be doing well and I will be sure to plant them into pots soon.

Fruit trees from seed

The apricot plant and the pear plant may need larger containers. The peach plants are looking a bit worse for wear and I am not sure why yet. There were more of them originally, but some of them died. The remaining ones were repotted and I’ve noticed that they aren’t growing. They’re just sitting there, and that’s not a good sign. I’ll have to keep observing them and hope for the best.

Conclusion:

There was more to do indoor than in the garden this week. I had to make room in the pantry and in the freezer for this year’s harvest. Then I had to gather and prep the jars, see how many I have available and determine if I need to get more. It looks like I’ll be okay for this season. There are a few more jars that I need to finish the content of, and then I need to clean and sterilise them so that they’re ready to go.

I was able to begin pickling and canning some food this week. I still haven’t purchased a new canner, so I have to stick to water bath canning until I do. And of course that means I will only can the foods that can be preserved safely using that method.

With the way things are, I may end up dehydrating most of my harvest this year. I canned a lot of food last year, so there are quite a bit of canned goods that I won’t need to make this year. I do still need to purchase a new canner, but this means I can take my time doing so.

To do’s for week 33:

• Rearrange plants

• Prune tomato plants.

• Fertilise

See you next week!