Since the last post, the unusually heavy rains have continued and have contributed to a poor tomato crop for the entire region. The plants began showing signs of fungal infection in early July. I trimmed all the dead leaves from the bottoms of the plants, but the problem is in the soil. The leaves keep dying all the way to the tops of the plants. There's no real treatment other than planting in a different plot next year or covering with plastic to bake out the spores. Neither of these is an option in my small garden. I have trimmed dead leaves from tomato plants in previous years and had successful crops, but it's never been this bad.
The cucumbers failed early on as previously noted. I just harvested the only two cucumbers for seed. The escarole simply bolted to seed. I won't even bother with escarole next year. The green beans did well and I've canned and eaten them as they are harvested. The amount to harvest dwindles in heat of July, but the quantities per picking are up again with the cooler weather coming on.
The two biggest producers are the beets and summer squash. I've pickled lots of summer squash and everyone loves how it tastes. The beets are coming right along with their second planting too, but the few original plants left for seed have not yet bolt.
I have a second planting of peas, and a bag for seed, but I doubt I will bother with peas next year. There's simply not enough production in all the area the plants consume. I am thinking that brussels sprouts would do nicely where the peas currently are.
The broccoli plants have large leaves but are not forming heads. I tried putting some epsom salts around them impulsively. I should read up on the right way to encourage heads! Let's wait and see. I have four rows of carrots; two planted early July, and the other two planted in the third week of July. The earlier planting has 12"-14" greens, and the later has only 6" greens.
I tried getting serious about drying herbs this year since we have always picked fresh as needed and let the rest go in previous years. I got crazy one day and cut and hung bunches of basil, sage, peppermint, spearmint, rosemary, thyme and chives all from the rafters of the tool shed. The chives don't look very good, but everything else is drying nicely. One more thing different about this year too is the collection of walnuts. I cart some in the wheel barrow to the stone driveway where the car can smash them down to break off the pulpy stuff surrounding the nuts. I rinse off the nuts, dry them a bit in the sun and then move them to a crate in the garage. I picture myself drinking home brew and cracking walnuts in front of the fire this winter!
