Harvesting Edible Garden Tour - September 2011

Welcome one and all to the Monthly edition of the Harvesting Edible Garden Tour.  A place where you can come and find out what is harvesting all over the gardening blogospere.  So what you say could be harvesting in Irish Gardens at this time of year?

 My greenhouse still gets warm most days so I still have Eggplant harvesting.

 The sweet peppers that have been growing in the greenhouse - The only sweet pepper plant to survive the crazy summer weather finally had a pepper ready to harvest.

 Chives chives and more chives.

 Still got a few tomatoes left that came ready this morning.

 Green beans finally are plumping up enough to harvest as well.

Carrots - finally after watching all summer the plants very very slowly get bigger I had carrots ready.  Guess they didn't want to get bigger than this just like last year.

So lets see what is edible and harvesting in your garden?  Post and leave a link below.

Updates from the Greenhouse

Today was the first snow fall of the season.  Nothing stuck.  It was barely enough to even say it snowed but....infact it did...kinda.

So this year was the first time I have ever tried to grow anything that can be eaten.  Until reacently I had a huge black thumb.  I couldn't keep anything alive unless it was planted outside....and sometimes not even then.  But something changed.  With my Greenhouse I have come to trully enjoy gardening and found out that I do have a bit of a green thumb...it just takes patience. 
Anyways I have been turning on a small heater on the greenhouse floor every night and it seems to keep the over all temp above 40.  Now I was smart and the heater is on the floor....heating up the dirt and so on...as heat rises I put the guage near the top....this way I know that above the plants it is staying over freezing.  So far it seems to have worked.  The damage was already done for the tomato plants but with luck they can hold on long enough to rippen the fruits on the plant.  So here are some visuals of what is now going on.

After some pruning to remove the dead branches and a few tomatoes gone bad this is what Bob looked like.  I tried to cut as much back as I could so that what was left would have a chance.

Here is one of his tomatoes.  Still small but looks good.  Can't wait for them to start turning.....I do hope that they still will.

And like her counter part Bobbet here got a good pruning as well.  She had a lot less to cut off except for the top.  But again I wanted to give the tomatoes on her the best chance they have of maturing

A really cool picture that almost includes all her tomatoes.  Most are indeed still to small like the others but with some luck and a few more not quite so cold days maybe they will finally mature.






The pepper plants on the other hand have needed no trimming.  I belive part of this is due to their location.  They are along the north wall...which is right up against my house....and they are about a foot away from the west wall.  The tomatoes are all along the south wall.  They get the colder windows.  Not sure if this is the reason or not but thats what I think.  The top few leaves on the tallest of the pepper plants have begun to crisp but the peppers themselves still seem to be growing.

I stood on my tippie toes to get this pick from over the peppers.  They weren't supposed to be this close together but somehow they are.  But they don't seem to mind.   The ones that are the tallest seem to be having the most problem with crispyness in the leaves....but other than that all seems to be ok.

Something I have found out that unlike tomatoes peppers don't have a universal shape.  Granted in the store they all pretty much look the same...and most of mine are but how they get that way is not the same.  This guy here is long and skinny...but I have others that are short and fat. 

While my son and I were checking out the plants a few weeks ago this little pepper fell off.  Total length is less than 2".  But it was cool to look at.

Although small they packed quite a punch.  They tasted very good.  These are the first of the peppers that were actually picked.  I could have waited longer but I really wanted to try them.

Here is one of those 2 peppers that were harvested.  You may have to enlarge the picture but if you look close you can see black dots...nope not bugs...the seeds.  Proof that I guess I should have waited longer to harvest.  But something that I learned about peppers is that the seeds are  not mature untill the pepper is ripe.  Now here is the kicker a pepper isn't ripe till it is red...much like a tomato.  So did I harvest too soon?  Well no actually.  To get a Green Pepper I have to harvest before they turn yellow and then red.  Could I have waited another week or so?  Absolutly it would have been bigger. 

This year gardening has been full of surprises.  Things I didn't think would grow did...and some didn't.  Others well lets just say I have learned a lot.  I don't regret anything that I have done as next time I will know better.  I will learn from my mistakes. 

Gardening has be educational in my house.  The kids are learning how things grow...the most basic circle of life.  Shannon was most interested in harvesting the plants and then the seeds.  She now loves salad all because I grew some lettuce and she just had to try....after she helped me harvest and cut it up.  Aiden has learned that not everything can be touched.  Sometimes peppers fall if you touch them.  But he has also seen tiny plants become large ones and then watched them develop.  Infact he was the one that told me a tomato was turning different colors.  Just a simple observation but he knew that it ment something else was going on with the plant.

I will try to update on the garden's as often as things change....hopefully it's another harvest.

Saved from Frost and Not so much

So I was lucky enough to have to forsite to try to bring inside a few of the veggies I have growing before a major frost.  In fact one of my tomato plants was brought in the day before a plant killing frost hit.  And man am I glad I did. 

As I was going thru the Greenhouse Saturday I noticed that my Greenpeppers had some new additions.  And not in the way of fruit.  New seedlings.  Silly pepper plants desided to have babies.  Not sure how that happend but well it did.  So knowing that even though they would be slightly protected with in the greenhouse I wanted to give these little ones a fighting chance and dug them up and potted em up and brought inside.

Yea they look a little weak but I think they will make it.  There is actually 2 peppers on one of them.  And these stems are all 1/2 the size of the Mommas in the greenhouse.

So now here is a look at the tomato plant that I brought in...before I dug him up.  Meet Bob JR

Yup he isn't very big but he has over 15 tomatoes on him.  So I thought he was worth saving.  That and he is completely unprotected out here in the garden.  So here is a look at JR after being dug up potted up and brought inside.

He was cut back a little.  Needed to remove some of the dead leaves but other than that he is looking ok.  Although small he has always looked a little wilted so kinda hard to tell if he is having issues or not.  But will keep an eye on him.

So as I said November 1st was a killing frost for me.  Aparently my greenhouse is great for the summer but unless I find a way to insulate it better not great for freezing temperatures.  On the greehouse floor all the herbs are doing great.  The Green Peppers so far seem to be handling it ok but my tomato plants.....not so much.  Bob and Bobbet being the tallest of the 4 are looking quite crispy.  So to show what the killer frost did to my greenhouse tomatoes meet the rest of the family.  Bob and Bobbet you know, meet the other 2 children Tom and Tomara....brother and sister to Bob JR.

Bob looking crispy at the top but seems to be ok closer to the floor. 

Bobbet my tall beauty is also crispy at the top but down low may be ok.

The biggest problem I have with Mom and Dad here is that they both have at least 6 tomatoes on them but they are near the top.  And only one or two if any are fully grown just waiting to ripen.  Going to leave them and hope for some warm weather or that just the leaves are really the only loss.

Now for the 2 kids in the Greenhouse.  Tom, Tomara, and Bob JR were all sown the same day but planted in different places.  Jr was transplanted first in the outside garden.  Tom and Tomara when transplanted went right to the greenhouse.

This is Tom.  He is about 1/2 the size of Bob JR but stands much straighter.  He does have a few blooms on him though.  And much like Mom and Dad a little crispy at the top.  Poor guy has not produced any fruit yet.  He just got his first blooms last week.

This cuttie here is Tomara.  Again like Tom is much shorter than their brother JR but again stands taller.  She had a few blooms soon after she was transplanted but she wasn't strong enough to hold the weight of a tomato so the blooms were pinched off.  Unfortunatly like Tom she has not produced any fruit.  She has no flowers right now either.  Tomara though seems slightly less effected by the cold than Tom was.  She has less crispyness.  As you can see in the picture the herbs in the pot in front of her are just fine.

With luck they can hold out a little longer and I can find away to insulate so that the greenhouse can at least stay around 40. Not great weather for them but at night they can take it. 

Something else that has been noticed during these past few nights of below freezing weather is that the greenhouse is one or two degrees higher it does drop in temp fast.  But once the sun is up....the temp rises.  And though it may only get to maybe 50 outside during the "heat" of the day where the sun is highest the temps inside still reach over 85.

Until next time....have a good one.  Keep warm.

Progress everywhere.

The Jiffy Greenhouse:

After just shy of 24 hours in the Green house these little gems have taken off. The growth is just amazing. Granted this is the time for them to be growing but hey.

Sweet Corn..

..Green Beans

Cauliflower..

..Broccoli

Green Pepper..

..Peas

The Outside Garden:

The Garden off the kitchen has also shown a lot of progress over night. I am sure that the rain storm last night helped. The Rhubarb is starting to get it's trademark color. And the Onions are popping up all over. The onions that were already showing are just getting taller....off to a good start.

Jiffy Greenhouse

On May 26th I started 70 pods of seeds. 6 different seeds each all in a row.
Green Pepper
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Green Bean
Peas
Sweet Corn



On May 30th Seedlings started to appear.

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Green Beans

Peas

Sweet Corn