The Harvest

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Well, this is just TODAY's harvest which, although not huge, is respectable.  It's the first garden that I've ever planted that has really produced much of anything (well at least food wise).  So I am happy. In my one 8 x 4 ft bed, the neatly organized seedlings and dirt mounds are now so intermingled and overgrown that I find cucumbers in my yellow squash, butternut in my peas (well the dried up bits of what's left of them), and pumpkins, well, they were lucky enough to have escaped outside to the rocks below.  Out of 3 broccoli plants, I have a baby, mama and a papa. Of the 3,  only papa broccoli has any actual broccoli.  But he has 2 decent size heads going, so I won't complain.  Poor baby got gobbled by little flea mites (I don't really know what they were) early on and never really recovered.  I started the peas and lettuce too late.  The peas still produced enough to give the kids a treasure hunt, though.  Carrots, planted twice, never sprouted, and the only lettuce that really thrived (between romaine and mesclun mix)  was a very hardy, almost kale like variety.  I couldn't eat it straight raw, but it was good to mix in to a salad.  It was growing so fast I finally just chopped the whole mess of it out and cooked it up, providing a hearty couple of lunches.  My cherry tomato plant has been disappointingly slow growing, but I suspect it got too much water.  It seems to like a drought, whereas everything else is happier with a regular drink.

My second bed is much prettier, but the only thing we've eaten out of it so far is the eggplant and strawberries.  Two strawberries are missing from the harvest picture because they never make it inside.  The 1-2 I find a day go right in my or my children's mouths. Yum!  1/2 of the bed is asparagus, which is beautiful and feathery (having gone to seed), but since it is just year one, I'm not doing any harvesting there.  Then there is one row with the 2 eggplant plants which have lovely long leaves, weeping purple flowers and of course, the dangling purple fruit. Mas bonita!  The other half of the row is parsnips which APPEAR to be doing great, but since they are all underground, well, who knows.  It will be my fall surprise!  I read they are sweetest if left in the ground until after the 1st frost.  I love me some parsnips.

Tired of garden news yet?  I didn't think so.  I've got more!  My green grape vine is growing well, creeping up my leaning blue arbor (I need to work on that).  The purple grape is strugging and seemed to be dying back, but after a couple deep waters, I found signs of new growth, so we'll see.  No idea how long it takes to get grapes...hmmm.  I'm happy with green plants at the moment.

Then there is my hardy kiwi...had to order these in the mail and when they arrived they were sooo lovely. I was thrilled.  About a month ago I just about cried.  Actually I did cry.  One female was obviously sun shocked and dead.  The male still had some leaves, but I hadn't seen new growth in a while.  The female #2 looked the best, but honestly, I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that they weren't going to make it.  I honestly didn't know if there was too MUCH water or too LITTLE.  I first thought too much and so reduced water, but as the plants were looking desperate, I changed gears.  I worked in some nutrients and then did a series of deep waters. Suddenly the one female sprung to life with probably 8 new bunches of leaves, Yeah!!!  Other female still a stick.  Male, down to 3 pathetic looking leaves, was depressing.  Till I looked closely and notice the very tip of one of the 'sticks' was green.  I did a happy dance inside, but held back the full flung celebration.  A week later I am seeing several little leaves emerging from that one spot.  Promising, but then we have to make it through the winter... Build your roots now, little ones!

I've learned a few things, and messed up a few things, but that is the fun of gardening, right?  At least now there is no rush on that arbor Brandon is supposed to building me for the kiwis.  That's good because I think we have both run out of steam.