As expected, my harvest is dwindling in a few areas, particularly my stunted snap peas and my Kentucky Wonder pole beans. The latter aren't crazy about the advance of fall and nighttime temperatures in the 40s; the only beans that didn't turn limp in protest were buried under the plants' leaves. My raspberry plants are still new and few, and that was reflected in the amount of fruit I picked. The amount of broccoli side shoots remains constant, and although I pick only a few every few days, the combination of those and the pole beans have been a sufficient contribution to my small family's balanced diet. To see how other garden bloggers are doing with their harvests, check out the list at the bottom of Daphne's post.
I spent an hour and half at my Minton Stable Garden plot today, primarily pulling out my blighted and finished tomato plants (as you can see in the before and after photos below). Although I've read and heard reports that spores of diseased plants can travel through the air and infect other plants, the plant matter can be composted. Only blighted potato tubers should be disposed of separately, and since I'm not growing any potatoes in the MSG, I'm not concerned. Nevertheless, I bagged up the plants and weeds I pulled today to put out with yard waste at home, since the MSG bins are over capacity and won't be cleared and taken away for several weeks. Other chores I completed included weeding, harvesting, cutting back more of my spent perennials, tying up my raspberry plants to keep them upright and safe from being choked by my pole beans, and clearing strawberry runners from my raspberry patch and other areas of the garden.
I still need to figure out how much broccoli I have harvested since my last tally, so I'll just add in the beans:Previous benefits total: $131.80
1/5 pound (estimated) pole beans: $0.20
New benefits total: $132.00
Current costs total: $171.57
New balance: -$39.57
Short on time this evening. More totals to come in a future post.
5 comments:
I ripped my Kentucky Wonder beans out last week. They were just getting too limp and had brown spots on them. Your post reminds me that I have to go out and pick some broccoli tomorrow. The problem with row covers is that you can't see when they have to be picked.
Nice to still have snap peas this time of year even if they are stunted. I grew a small amount of them this spring for the first time, both growing and tasting, they are excellent. I will be planting much more next spring. I need to fallow suit and do garden clean up, not much motivation lately =D
Daphne: A few of my beans had brown spots, too, not to mention that my trellis became uprooted and has fallen on its side, so those plants may be the next to go. As for broccoli, even without row covers, it takes a while to part all the leaves to find those side shoots. I'd curious to see how long your row covers extend your harvest.
Dan: My garden energy is winding down too, but the nice weather we had in Boston these past few days has given it a little boost. Snap peas can be a crap shoot no matter when you grow them. Many of my spring snap peas ended up as snow peas and the late summer crop was stunted. However, this was my first success with a late summer crop. They were still quite tasty, though I fed most of them to my daughter's friend who was here earlier. She also has picky tastes so I was happy to get some green in her!
It is amazing how a little of this and a little of that adds up from the garden. Not enough to put by but certainly enough to round out a meal.
You asked about my favorite tomato that I'm growing and I did reply on my blog but I'll also mention it here - Gigantesque has been one of the best tasting tomatoes this year and is also one of the best performers.
Hi Sally -
your garden looks great, too! I know you don't have a lot of space, but could you fit in an espaliered apple tree? We put one in this year that has five different varieties of apples grafted to the root stock. We have promised ourselves to be very disciplined when it comes to pruning to keep the tree a modest size and prevent the wild overgrowth problems we have with the old trees we inherited. In the cooler months you can still grow veggies right around the bottom of the tree - by the time the leaves are out, the lettuce, etc. is finishing up... Good luck with your garlic!
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