Things are Happening!
Wow! Things are finally happening in the garden! It’s amazing to see four months of hard work start to (literally) bear fruit. Although today we’re having what an old timer would call “a real toad floater” of a thunderstorm…
As I’ve said, I’m not sure if I’ll actually get any edible broccoli or cauliflower, but I did have one cauliflower with a golf-ball sized head. As I’ve noted on my Cauliflower page, to get the head to produce a white and sweet tasting fruit, you should tie the leaves up over it.
I tied the central leaves up over the head to protect it from sun.
My worry, of course, is that I’m going to produce a nice little habitat for aphids and other pests. I’ve been picking them off over the past week or two. It’s stormy today, but I will have to spread some sevin dust and probably spray orange and neem oil this weekend.
My broccoli is also starting to bear. I don’t know if it’ll end up bolting straight to flower, since it’s a touch warm for the head to mature properly, or if it’ll actually produce some edible fruit.
Broccoli... will it head, or flower?
All my store-bought peppers have started to bear; the ones I grew from seed are still much too small … although they’re growing rapidly. The sweet orange pepper in the raised bed has a baby set and some blooms.
First sweet orange pepper baby
No tomatoes yet, but I do have a baby Quinault strawberry that is about to ripen! The Quinault is an everbearing variety. The june-bearing Sequoia has blooms on it.
Pink and ripening
And back to the cabbages for a second — the first planted (back in Feburary) of my Kohlrabi plants is actually forming fruit. I’m not sure if the later ones will or not, but this one is bulbing out nicely! I’ll harvest it when it’s about 5cm wide, carve it, and eat it salted and raw. Hopefully it won’t be too woody and I’ll get to enjoy this weird fruit that my mom and I both love.
Kohlrabi bulb forming
I have a few Bush Champion zucchini plants that are stressed the heck out, and I can’t figure out why. The weird thing is that even though they have one, or maybe two small leaves, they’re producing multiple large blooms. They were started very early in the season, though, and I’m hoping that their biological clock is just way off. That’s why they’re in pots. I’m clearing some space in the garden for them this weekend and we’ll see if amending the soil with a bit more clay and manure will make them happier.
Stressed Zucchini producing blooms
Hopefully these Kentucky Wonder pole bean plants, now sown at the right time, will grow and prosper as the sweetpea in the background has. Here’s one just poking above ground…
Good morning!
… and another one with it’s leaves already tracking the sun.
*stretch*
Good stuff