Monday, July 7, 2014

Harvest Monday 7/7/14

This week has been busy.  We went camping for the 4th of July holiday so I had to leave the garden once again.  This time it was for only three nights, so I didn't worry too much.

It seems that the garden is producing lots of yellows: peppers, yellow pear tomatoes, lemon cucumbers and squash.  I made a pasta salad with all veggies from the garden: broccoli, green beans, peppers and cucumbers with a lemon basil dressing.  It was delicious!


This is probably the end of the broccoli.  There may be a few little side shoots, but I planted some winter squash among the broccoli and soon it will overtake them.

I spent time this morning cutting out vine borers from the squash plants.  I got four of them out.  Some of the plants may not survive, but I want to make sure I prevent at least some individuals from starting another cycle.  My second round of squash should begin producing by the middle of July, so even if I lose most of the first plants I should continue to get squash.  The problem may be with the winter squash.  Since they take much longer, the vine borers may kill the vines before the squash is ready.  So far this year I've had 18 lbs of squash and zucchini, which is probably the most I've had in years.


I got the first paste tomatoes this week and more yellow pear tomatoes.  I think the yard long beans have overtaken my Kentucky wonder beans.  I guess I should have given each variety a separate bean tepee.

Harvests this week:
Herbs 0.11 lbs
Summer squash  5.79 lbs
Broccoli 0.72 lbs
Peppers 0.89 lbs
Cucumber   6.33 lbs
Beans 1.01 lbs
Tomatoes 0.64 lbs

Weekly total: 15.5 lbs
Yearly total: 70.7 lbs

That's all the harvests coming from my garden this week.  To see what others are harvesting check out Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions.

10 comments:

  1. You are getting lots of wonderful things from your garden! Your pasta salad sounded delicious! Have you ever planted radishes with your winter squash? I think it helps maybe. I plant some with mine. Nancy

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    1. I haven't ever tried planting radishes among my squash. I need to remember to try that.

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  2. I keep reading about those horrible vine borers and am so grateful that they aren't a problem here. Good luck with your squash.

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    1. Maybe I need to move to the other side of the country! I think vine borers are a valid reason to relocate.

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  3. I'm with you on your relocation comment, Julie! I still have the netting on my squash plants, which hopefully has kept the borer out, but we shall see when I uncover them in a week or so. And 18 lbs. of squash! That's pretty awesome, if you ask me. Last year I had 4 summer squash plants and got a whopping total of 2.5 lbs. of squash - total. Your harvests are beautiful, btw - so colourful and varied. All I have so far is greens with only a few strawberry splotches of red so I am dying for a bit of colour!

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    1. I really should try covering my squash, but I know I would be too lazy about hand pollinating. Plus we get at least two cycles of the vine borers in the south, so I don't think it would ever be safe to uncover them. This year I just keep planting more and more squash since I have plenty of space with the hope that the borers will miss some of them.

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  4. Lovely yellows in your harvest. I've totally given up on growing winter squash that isn't a C. moschata, like butternuts, because they are resistant to the borers. I just never get much of a harvest otherwise. And the butternuts are dependable even with the borers.

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    1. I don't know why I keep trying to grow pumpkins. Butternuts do usually survive longer, but the SVBs have still gotten them too. This year I'm trying Cushaw, which is a C. mixta, so far I have some very large squash and no borers yet.

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  5. Nice harvest, I'm still waiting for squash, cukes and tomatoes. Up here we get squash bugs and the borers, so double trouble, Fortunately, at least here, there is only one generation of SVB per year, so maybe your new squash plantings will be OK.

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  6. Your pasta salad sounds yummy. It reminds me I need to make one soon. I'm learning to love those C. moschata types since they usually survive bugs attacks here. I do have a couple of C. maxima varieties growing and so far so good this year.

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