Seen me lately?

Hola, and long time no see! I would apologize for not updating this big guy more, but once you add a forty hour a week job to twenty hours a week in the garden, you get zip. I'll try and give quick little update today, with some pictures over the next few weeks.

Tomatoes They're doing pretty well overall. I'm averaging about 8 romas a day and five or six large tomatoes a day. The only plant that really hasn't been producing is the German Queen heirloom tomatoes. By the time they're ripe enough to pick, birds have usually picked them apart trying to get at the bugs that are on the plant. We've had so much heat and so little rain lately that they've really begun to wilt if I don't water them thoroughly every day or two. I have a pretty good size bucket filled right now and I'm deciding if I'm going to can salsa or pasta sauce first. Decisions, decisions.

Cucumbers I have three full size plants with multiple vines and one that is growing. I planted six more plants today, hoping that they'll begin to produce fruit in time for me to get some pickles made before the weather turns too cold. They should take two months or so, which is why I'm pretty hopeful. I get an average of three to six cukes a day, which is great for lunches and some refrigerator pickles, but not enough to get my goal of twenty jars of pickles to help me make it through the winter.

Green Beans I have a forty foot trellis that I planted green beans on, but only the far end has really produced any beans to speak of. I tore out the twenty feet closest to the house and replanted today. They also have a germination period of a couple months, so I'm hopeful to get some out these in time also. I've been getting twenty five or so every couple days. This is pretty good for eating now, but not nearly enough to be able to freeze. I have a huge deep freezer that is just begging for some one gallon zip lock bags of crispy green beans.

Squash Great Guggamuggah! I get several squash a day, which is several squash a day more than I can handle! I've taken squash to friends' houses, dropped some off at work, and eaten enough to have jaundiced my skin a little! Frozen squash is pretty slimy, so unless you're making soup or something, it's a little too gross to eat. Those plants keep growing, too. Good Lord.

Okra Going pretty well! I've got a one quart tupperware container filled with sliced okra that is ready to either preserve or cook, and I expect to have thirty or forty more of these. Eleven plants have survived and thrived, so I'm really looking forward to freezing most of these guys to have all winter long. Sweet!

Sugar Snap Peas They've burned up because of the heat, and I really didn't get many before they did. I definitely started these too late, and I really didn't ever get a decent support system up for them. I think that I'll either build a lattice type fence that I can put up and take down depending on the season, or just grow them along a chain link fence that runs across the back of my yard. I can grow some more in the fall once the heat ends, but I'm not sure if I want to mess with it this year.

Yellow Bush Beans These guys were overrun by weeds and grass earlier in the summer, so I had to replant them in a different place. They've really grown a lot in the past two weeks and I'm looking forward to having these guys in a month or so.

Cabbage Blah. Too hot. I read that I can actually grow these all winter long unless we have prolonged hard freezes like this past year, so I may try again in a few months.

Bok Choi Sweet, sweet awesomeness. I grew these completely on a whim because the seed packet was fancy looking. I know, I know, but they turned out amazing. I got way more than I could ever eat, so I pulled up the bolted plants and have replanted four seeds every two weeks for the past two months. They're coming up in stages, which is great. Grilled, stir-fried, used as wraps, anything. I highly recommend tossing a couple of these seeds in the ground and then tossing the plant's leaves on the grill right before you pull the burgers or steaks off. Incredible.

Corn Well, um, yeah, not so much. I planted them in partial shade. I thought it was full sun. I'm an idiot. I have about ten plants left, but only a couple even have corn growing on them. I may get ten ears. My Methusalah of a neighbor has about fifty plants and they're all about eight feet tall. He's a gardening god.

I guess that's about it for now. I plan on putting some more cooler weather plants in around the middle of August, so I've been trying to clear some of the used land for then. I'll buy five or six forty pound bags of manure (peat moss, for ya'll city folk) and work it into the ground between now and then to ensure that I've got enough nitrogen and other nutrients to make it through the winter.

Junk I've been listening to:

The Avett Brothers
Broken Bells
Ugly Casanova
Jack Johnson
The Gaslight Anthem
Sleigh Bells
Passion Pit
She & Him