Week 10: A Study in Contrasts

One end of the garden is full of gloom and doom, as the cucumber plants slowly but steadily wither away. I don't really know anything about the lifespan of cucumber plants but my theory is that their death is a combination of two factors: old-age and cucumber beetles. We noticed some brown spots on the plants a few weeks back, about the same time the little annoying beetles were spotted all over the plants after dark. Somewhere during my web travels I remember a little blurb saying that cucumber beetles can spread disease among your plants, so I think this may have occurred. We do have a package of cucumber seeds that I may throw in the ground, just to see if we can get another late crop of cukes for some more pickles.


Way down at the far opposite corner of the garden, the squash plants (on which we also spotted some cucumber beetles, but not nearly as many) are thriving. The plants are huge and tall with blossoms galore and plenty of squash growing.


And, here's our first red chili pepper, on Super Chili #2. The chilies were intended for use in the pickles, but the timing was way off. The cucumber plants are almost done and the chilies are just beginning, so we know for next year to get the chili pepper seedlings as early as possible. Also, I think we want to stagger out cucumber plantings by two weeks, so we extend the season and don't get overwhelmed by all the cucumbers arriving at once.


Super Chili #1 is being overwhelmed by Squashimus Prime. There are two or three little peppers just getting a hint of red on Super Chili #1.


Here is the tangled mess of growth that out tomato plants have become. Completely untamable.


The Red Knight peppers are looking good, really getting that nice bell pepper shape and size and hopefully they'll start turning red soon.


These guys, that are supposed to Green Bell peppers, don't look like any green bell peppers I've ever seen. I still think they were mislabelled at the farm where they came from, because they're growing long and kind of triangular. We've kept them on the plants for a long time, thinking they were going to grow to the right shape, but that really hasn't happened. Instead, they starting turning red ...


... like this guy, who needs to be picked and eaten.


The Beefsteak Tomatoes are also turning red, which is a good thing.


The Brandywines are looking good as well.


We've been picking a LOT of basil lately to make pesto and somehow it just keeps growing and growing and the plants keep filling out. I almost think that the basil could take over the garden if we didn't pick any.


The inner workings of the squash plants. Flowers, little squash, and clover.


The thriving end, from above.


The dying end, from above. Peas, cukes and onions have either bit the dust or are in the process of biting the dust.

Tomatoes, and no Peas

Most of the action this week has been in the growth of the tomatoes. The Romas are turning red and multiplying.


Here's a string of cherry tomatoes in varying degrees of readiness.


The Beefsteaks continue to grow. No sign of red yet, though. And yes, those are my feet at the bottom of the pic betraying my amateur photographer status (and my tiredness this morning).


The Brandywine tomatoes are also getting large, and maybe that's a slight hint of pink in their skin.


The pea plants have pretty well bit the dust. We think they got sick, but I also blame the slugs to some degree, since I found a few shimmery, emaciated leaves a few weeks back. The plants are shrivelling up and turning brown, and the pea pods that they are producing are small and fat, with brown spots.


The squash is starting to be a real producer. The guy in the foreground was only about 3" long two days ago, now he's 6" or 7" long and pretty much ready to be picked and eaten.


Super Chili #1 seems to have topped off his growth and is putting his efforts into turning his peppers red. We hope. Squashimus Prime wanted a photo taken this morning, so he grew into the shot.


These will be red peppers. Eventually.


The view from the front left.


The view from the front right.


Flowers in the Yard Tangent: Lilies. As usual, I don't know what kind of lily, just that it is one.


Flowers in the Yard Tangent: Hostas. The flowers were pretty well in full bloom on the Hostas all week. It was pretty dramatic. They're starting to fade a little now, but still look nice.


Flowers in the Yard Tangent: Another Lily. There are a lot of these scarlet red and yellow ones in bloom now.


Flowers in the Yard Tangent: ??? I feel like I used to know the name of these, but it escapes me this morning. I was thinking Cornflower, but when I googled that it's a completely different looking flower.


Flowers in the Yard Tangent: Grated Cheese. The grated cheese flower is almost in bloom. Hopefully the japanese beetles don't eat it before it's ready, since I'd like some cheese on my salads and meatball grinders. (Okay, fine, I have no idea what this is going to be ... but it looks like long strands of grated cheese stuck to a blossom, doesn't it?)

Harvest: Cukes, Blueberries and Basil

Blueberries and Cucumbers and 1 little Cherry Tomato.


A whole bunch of basil.


With the blueberries, I made these very tasty Blueberry bars, with a recipe I found on Farmgirl Fare. I topped it off with a scoop of fresh vanilla ice cream while it was still warm. Super yummy.


With the basil, we made pesto. Very easy and very satisfying. The basil photo way up above wound up being only half of what we needed to pick, since a lot of the basil has been chewed by bugs at this point and we didn't want to use any chewed leaves.

The pesto tasted really good on it's own. We had some whole wheat spaghetti left from a previous recipe and put the pesto on that, but the combination wasn't quite as mind-blowing as I thought it would be. I think I learned that I don't like whole wheat pasta. Oh well. Next time we'll probably go with gnocchi or tortellini, two of my favorite pasta types.

Payoff

Last night's harvest: 8 pickling cukes, parsley, dill. Not pictured: 1 sugar snap pea.


Some more of the squash that's growing. This guy's about 4 or 5 inches long.


The margin of difference between the size of Squashimus Prime and all the other squash plants continues to widen.


These guys are almost ready for picking. 1 more day for the larger one, and probably 2 or 3 days for the other one.


It's time to make some pesto ...


These are supposed to be green bell peppers. The tags said green bell peppers. They're much longer and skinnier than the picture made it seem like green bell peppers should be. I think perhaps they were mis-labelled at the farm where the seedlings were packed up. The one we ate the other day still tasted like green bell, though, so who knows?


The Beefsteak Tomatoes are going to overtake us before too long. There are 3 or 4 clusters like this on each of the 6 plants.


Super Chili #1. He's looking good as a plant, but not producing as much as #3.


Super Chili #3 has tons of chilis growing.


The Red Knight peppers are forming. Each of the 6 plants has 3 -5 little peppers like this.


The dill has flowered. Which means the usable bits are starting to pass. We should've planted staggered batches, two weeks apart.


View from above #1.


View from above #2.


Flowers in the Yard Tangent: Hostas. They're starting to open up and beginning to look nice. Which is good because I think the plants themselves are really ugly and boring. The flowering stage is the only point at which they look nice.

And finally ... the entire impetus for even attempting this garden was to work towards one thing, and one thing only ...

Pickles.

The chili peppers were supposed to be for the pickle project, but none of them are ready yet and we've had an abundance of cucumbers over the last week. Last night we made use of the cukes and the dill we've picked and made five jars of what will be the best tasting pickles we've ever had. We used the same recipe for refrigerator pickles last year, which we got from my aunt and tweaked to our particular tastes, but we've never made them with our own produce. They'll be ready to eat in three days.

I thought I'd end this week's update with a few uninterrupted photos of the payoff for all this garden work. Enjoy.