The summer garden has not done nearly what I had hoped. But, as I said in my last garden post, there have been lessons learned.
I ordered some seeds for fall planting from an Oregon based seed company – Territorial Seed Company. I planted some in my regular garden and then about 2 weeks later, I planted more in a garden on the side of the house.
The regular garden has Spinach, Kale, Onions, Peas, and Cabbage. Everything started well.
The peas have grown really well, then seem a bit leggy and are now laying over a bit. I’ll see how they do in the coming week.
In the picture below, the stuff at the bottom of the picture with leaves turning yellow are black beans. There are quite a few pods that grew and I’m letting them dry. I’ll use a couple to eat and try them, but will keep these beans to plant next year and get a much bigger crop of black beans.
The Spinach and Onions went in around the tomatoes and peppers. They both started well. The onions looked a bit pathetic, but perked up really well after a watering. The onions will stay put until spring or summer of 2025. The spinach is going rather slowly, but time will tell if it grows enough to eat.
Kale, Cabbage and Beets were planted in around the asparagus (which just shot up 2 more stalks in the last week!!) The kale is growing a bit better after a good watering. The cabbage had 2 start, but one died off and the other is growing REALLY slowly. And the beets didn’t grow. The beets that were put in the garden earlier this year finally look like they decided to try to grow. There are some greens but only 1 small bulb that I can see so far.
On the side of the house, there is an area which had flowers gone crazy earlier this summer, but hubby pulled those out leaving a good area that I could use to plant a few more things.
I planted more beans, radishes, beets, spinach and kale.
The beans were old seeds so I didn’t expect much, but more than half of them have grown. If I can, I might try to let those pods dry on the vine and use those for seed next year rather than eat this year.
The radishes went nuts. These were also an old seed packet, so I didn’t have high hope. But I was wrong! I had to thin them out considerably, but decided to try to get as many of those thinned out replanted. It looks like several of those replanted will take root and continue growing.
The beets are again really slow, but coming along. I did have to thin a few of those as well. Time will tell if I get anything from those.
Spinach and Kale are both coming along. Time will tell how those do.
Finally, the perennials we have planted are coming along well. The raspberry fall harvest looks like it will be fantastic. The alpine strawberries are still going. It’s early September and there are new blossoms.
The Goji Berries fall harvest has come in. I’m getting a small handful every day. And the Huckleberries are coming in well too! I’ve harvested about half and have more ready to go pick.
And finally, the potatoes are half harvested. I harvested the pot today and got a bit over 4 lbs from that pot. There were several that were still very small, so think it could have waited awhile longer. The potatoes in the garden will wait at least another week or so.
The sweet potatoes are looking gorgeous. I love this for the greenery alone! I had to look up when to harvest those because they don’t act the same as regular potatoes. The leaves are showing no signs of dying off. I’ll wait until just before the first frost and harvest those at that time.
I look forward to harvest in the coming weeks and months. I’ve already ordered seeds for next summer’s garden. I’ll keep learning, keep trying and work on getting more methods going to grow as much as I can.