You know what I like about vegetable growing? You’re never quite sure what you’ll encounter each time you step into the rows and bend down to look over the plants. Unlike ornamentals (particularly the perennials I covet most) that generally just do their thing without much fuss, vegetables can be either hugely rewarding or hugely disappointing. I’ve got a little of both right now.
In the “hugely rewarding” category, my King Midas carrots are beautiful. They’ve all been straight and measuring about 1 inch around and 12 inches long. I’ve harvested a dozen so far and probably have another two dozen maturing. As pretty as they are though, they aren’t as sweet as I’d like for the carrot cake I’m so fond of making. Oh, and another big success (so far) is the popcorn, which is by far some of the healthiest corn stalks I’ve ever seen with no deer damage at all!
In the “hugely disappointing” category, my Eight Ball zucchini are nearly a complete failure. The plants were beautiful up until last week when a disease – dampening off or wilt, I believe – started taking them out one by one. I only had five planted and I’m down to one healthy one left. I’m routing for this one and giving it extra love. On July 15ht, I did harvest one beautiful (and tasty!) little zucchini off one of the other plants before it died and this one last healthy one has about 5 or 6 tiny fruits forming. I do have three sickly looking transplants I held over in the greenhouse in case my crop failed, but with this disease, I’m not sure it’s any use to plant more since new plants are likely to suffer the same fate. I’ll probably give it a shot though. The only consolation in all of this is that several other student squash plants are suffering similarly. Misery does indeed enjoy company.
In other vegetable plot doings, I applied another batch of compost tea on July 16th. I was hoping this application would do something to ward off the Mexican Bean Beetle larva that are camping out all over my bush beans. These bright yellow fuzzy oblong bugs are easy to identify but hard to get rid of other than picking them off when I’m picking the beans. There are also an uncomfortable number of grasshoppers in my garden and I’m sure they’re doing some damage.
My winter squash seedlings are coming along nicely in the greenhouse. I actually wish they’d slow down a bit as I’m afraid I won’t have a space ready for them in time if they keep up their current pace. This evening, the 22nd, I seeded radicchio and mustard greens in flats too. In this current heat wave, it’s hard to think about getting fall crops started, but it needed to be done.
I also direct sowed rutabaga this evening after pulling out the lettuce that had bolted. I amended the soil with a few scoops of bone meal in hopes of encouraging better growth of the root.
