What Happened In My Garden This Week? – Week 37

Alliums

I can happily say that the winter onions and the Japanese green onions have emerged from the soil in the garden. They’re still tiny, of course, but they’re there and that’s all I care about. There’s still time for them to grow strong. As I harvest throughout the garden, I think I will plant more onions, leeks and green onions here and there. I’d like to get quite a large harvest in the spring.

The garlic is also doing well. Not every garlic plant has emerged above soil level, but there’s time and for some of them, it’ll be better to remain below the soil until spring. The garlic plants might benefit from being covered with straw in preparation for winter. I may cover the onion plants as well, all depending on how large they get. I don’t want to risk suffocating them or breaking off their greens.

Brassica

I only have a few more cabbage plants in the garden, and some black kale and regular kale left. The black kale and kale are still very small. The cabbages are alive and there may be some to harvest, but that’s about it. Next week I hope to harvest them for kimchi.

Corn

I had more or less dismissed the possibility that the corn plants in the garden would amount to anything this season. However, at least one of the corn plants is currently showing signs of reaching the second to last stage. In other words, that plant is showing signs of being close to forming cobs. Now it all comes down to whether or not there’s enough time for something to form into something I can harvest before the first frost. As unpredictable as the weather has been this year – likely due to global warming – you never know what’ll happen. Summer might come back long enough for a cob to form.

Cucumber

I harvested another cucumber in the garden this week. Someone else must be enjoying them though. Two cucumbers harvested and I had at least twenty on the plant. I hope at least some of them – the ones that aren’t quite visible right now, will turn into cucumbers without any pests attacking them.

Herbs

I harvested Japanese meadowsweet in the garden this week and next week I will harvest the remaining herbs in the garden. I will also plant the cuttings I am to receive of lemon balm, oregano and thyme.

Root vegetables

The root vegetables are all doing well and the parsnips that I planted into pots have finally emerged above the soil level. I will continue to harvest in the garden, and when I remove plants, I’ll plant root vegetables in their stead.

This week I harvested my first carrot for the season, my first one this year in fact, and it was absolutely delicious. I also planted out a bunch of carrots that I pre-sowed a few weeks back.

Tomatillos

The tomatillos are doing well, have been fertilised well and next week I will do a big harvest of any tomatillo that has ripened or is about to.

Tomatoes

I harvested quite a few tomatoes this week. They were of at least three different varieties. Sadly, all of them hadn’t ripened, so I am ripening them indoor. Some of them hadn’t reached the stage where they can ripen on their own, so I froze them. All green tomatoes and tomatillos are frozen until the season is over. At that point I will be making a lot of salsa verde.

Peppers

The peppers are doing okay, but it doesn’t look like there will be any big pepper harvests this year. I have only seen a few peppers and none of them have turned red yet. I’m hoping there are many of them growing behind other plants, and that I’ll find them safe and ripe when it is time for the final harvest.

Potatoes

The potatoes are doing well but are not yet ready for harvest. I do hope they’ll be ready in a week or two. Though they’ll be safe in the soil even past the first frost, I’d rather harvest them before that. But if waiting is what it takes to get a decent harvest, I shall be patient and wait. Next week I’ll check on them and try to gauge how many potatoes have formed and how large they’ve gotten.

Spinach

The regular spinach and the New Zealand spinach are both doing well. The plants are still fairly smalls, but I feel confident they’ll grow strong.

Sunflowers

This week I got to eat a few more sunflowers. The largest one weighed 550 grams and I harvested the flower along with the leaves and the entire stalk. That plant was 273 cm tall, and though it used to be the tallest among my plants, another has now surpassed it in height. And the sunchokes aren’t far behind.

I made flour with the inside of the stalk, blanched and froze the leaves and made tea with the petals. Most of the outer parts of the stalk were too woody to eat, but I used up as much as I could. It is better to use the stalks of younger plants if one wants to use and eat it as a replacement for celery.

The stalk did not weigh as much as I had imagined it would. The entire stalk weighed 1500 grams, and given its length and girth, I had pegged it would weigh a few kilograms at least. But now I have a good estimate of how many kg of food I’ll be able to get from my remaining sunflower plants.

You can see more about the harvest here and here.

Squash & Pumpkin

I am not sure why, but the squash plants are not producing well. I suspect it comes down to too little sun and too few pollinators around. There are pumpkins growing, and I hope I can at least get a few more squashes this season. Or courgettes, rather. I have gotten to harvest a lot of pumpkin leaves this season, but I’d like to get a few more harvests.

Perennials

Berries

This week I tried the first blackberries from the blackberry bush I bought this year. There have been a few berries before these, but bugs got to them before I did. I hope I get to harvest a few more handfuls this season, and ziplock bags full next year.

Vegetables

I am honestly impressed with the sunchoke plants this year. They were late and I was a bit concerned at the start of the season. Concerned the long winter killed them off. But when they emerged, they grew faster than weeds. Now every time I think they can’t get taller, they grow taller. They’re gaining in on the sunflowers and they’re producing both leaves and flowers. Next week it might be time to harvest both the stalks, leaves, flowers and the sunchokes themselves.

As I repot plants and harvest more of my food in the garden, there may be a final rhubarb harvest as well. Right now those containers are standing behind the sunchokes, so they aren’t very accessible to me. At least not easily so.

Fertiliser

I fertilised the garden twice this week, as I want to give the plants all the help I can give them. They are going to need all their strength to produce more food and ripen it all before the first frost.

Propagation

I am so happy with my propagated plants. Knock on wood, but not a single one has rotted or died on me this year. Several of them have leaves emerging, and some have buds that should sprout next year. I just need to make sure they make it through the winter. They’ll need both protection and occasional watering to survive.

Berry bushes

The leaves of some of the gooseberry cuttings have turned yellow, but other than that, the cuttings appear to be doing well. I’ll check them more closely next week and I shall take photos of their progress. They’ve been in the soil for a few weeks now, so next week will be a good time for an update.

Fruit trees

The baby fruit trees are doing really well. Some have leaves, some have buds and they all look healthy. None of them show signs of rot or decay.

Fruit trees from seed

Both the apricot tree and the pear tree are doing well. I have two pots ready in case I decide to keep them inside with a grow light. I think it might be better than keeping them in the green house as I’d be able to monitor them more closely. But I haven’t made a final decision yet.

Conclusion:

This was another good week for the garden. While the weather changes have

To do’s for week 38:

• Harvest and preserve all herbs

• Major harvest and make kimchi with the harvest

• Plant out more root vegetables

• Plant more onions and green onions

• Check on potatoes

• Decide which squash and pumpkin plants to keep in the soil and which ones to pull

• Harvest and preserve seeds

• Harvest tomatillos, tomatoes, peppers, ginger and turmeric

See you next week!