Sunday, June 3, 2012

June Garden Update

It’s been 10 days since I took the photos of my container garden for Almost a Garden.  Every day when I walk out onto our deck I am amazed at what can happen in 24 hours, let alone 10 days.  See for yourself:

And look, we grew three dogs in ten days too!  Kidding; just kidding.

To see this progress is one of the things about gardening and growing that I enjoy the most.  But I know a lot can happen between now and harvest time. 

It looks like I may be learning to make pickles this year.  My little cucumber plants are going crazy and are covered with blossoms and little cucumbers.  I’d like to harvest some very early for cornichon-type pickles.  Then I’ll let them get a little bigger for some dill pickles and maybe some bread and butter pickles.  And of course, some will be left to become lovely, unwaxed cucumbers for salads and refrigerator pickles. 

I’m hoping to have an abundance of tomatoes to can.  Last year I expected to have a steady supply of tomatoes just for eating fresh.  I didn’t.  Of the two plants I had, one would set volumes of beautiful blossoms only to have them wither and fall off.  As you can see, I’ve upped my odds by having a lot more than two tomato plants this year. 
See the little cucumber to the left of the text?  I've not counted them, but there are many.
The tomatillos have blossoms as well.  Granted, they aren’t as prolific, but I’m okay with that.  I usually only use tomatillos in salsa and other sauces for which I prefer to use them fresh.  If I end up with more than I can use at a given time, I may freeze them to help preserve their color.  This particular variety is supposed to be a lovely purple color.

I considered harvesting some of the squash blossoms, but in recalling how frequently squash vines get boring insects that cause the blossoms to fall off, I chose to leave them and increase the odds that I would actually get some squash.  The seeds were mixed varieties so at this point I have no idea what kind of squash we may get, but I’ve yet to meet one I didn’t like.

And I have my first gooseberry harvest! 


It’s not going to make a pie by any means (not even a mini pie), but I’m excited nonetheless.  Perhaps next year the bushes will be well enough established that I can get enough berries for pie.  I’m also very excited that a wild blackberry bush on our property is currently loaded with little green berries.  Hopefully as they ripen I can get to them before the birds.  It’s been a number of years since I’ve made blackberry jam and it’s one of my favorites.  Fingers crossed!

8 comments:

  1. What tremendous progress in such a short amount of time! I just called my mom and she was talking about her strawberries in the same way. Yesterday they weren't ready at all, and today they were just perfect. It's amazing how quickly things can change!

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    1. Isn't it just amazing?! I think that's another advantage to having the containers on the deck: they're accessible to see the progress every day.

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  2. Love the gooseberry, reminds me of Indian spicy tangy gooseberry pickle !! My mother has figs and the harvest is amazing this year am going to post the pix in my next post !! I wonder why I have limited my yard to just flowers do u think I shod take it to thenext level ?

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    1. Oh, Simi, I am so jealous of the figs - I absolutely love fresh figs! As much as I enjoy flower gardens (and am s-l-o-w-l-y working on the landscaping here), having fruit and vegetable plants that are beautiful as well productive is just a win-win for me. I've previously used varieties of small, purple chiles almost as ornamentals just because they are so beautiful; and even if my squash plants fail to yield a single squash this year, I'm enjoying the blooms so much right now that it will be hard to be completely disappointed. But sometimes I think my desire to grow edibles is just hereditary! :)

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  3. That's awesome Dawn - I love it and really love the 10 day photo comparison - so exciting!

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    1. Thanks, Joel! I just wish it weren't so bloody hot here right now. Sometimes we have to water twice a day. The down side of container gardening, I suppose.

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  4. I SO hate you .. Having said that as an introduction of myself, I really, REALLY don't. I just hate the fact that I LOVE LOVE LOVE plants & specially anything edible that I can then use to cook. So I've proven, not just to myself but also to others how bad a black thumb I have. That's on MY blog, if you care to have someone to gloat over .. Having said all THAT, the reason I'm visiting is due to a post over on Grow It Cook It Can It you made about making Rangpur lime jelly thinking it was a sweet mandarin. My question is do you still have any of that sourness left? I'd LOVE to have some! Like I said, I can't grown ANYTHING so I'm left to beg, buy or REALLY beg for produce from neighbors, farmers I see out in their gardens or just random people I meet. I have NO shame. As you can see. IF you had any, & if I paid for the shipping of it (since homemade jams can't be sold, right?), would you send me a couple of jars? I am death-defyingly serious about this offer. You can e-mail me or leave a post (I think) on my Wordpress blog/account .. Not sure how this works .. Or I'll ck back to see if you've responded?

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    1. Your comment really just cracked me up! I can promise you though, I do not gloat. I'm working on a post that will be up later today which will illustrate why. Suffice it to say, things in garden do not always work out as we would like.

      I'll check out your blog and try to message you from there regarding the Rangpur lime marmalade. Thanks for visiting my blog!

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