The Dawg Patch

[GoDawgs]

lol, was thinking of you @GoDawgs when I found turkey thighs at Publix yesterday.
And your garden is looking so good!

Gah! Turkey thighs! So did you buy any? LOL! The nearest Publix here is about 25 miles away in an area that I rarely pass through.

And thanks for the kind words about the garden. I think that next year I'm dropping leeks. They don't get used in much and take up freezer space. It's one of those "Let's see if I can grow these" things so that itch is now scratched. That space can be used to expand snap pea planting. And I'm dropping growing corn in a bed too. A lot of work I can do without and I'll just add another row or two to the main planting outside the raised bed area. Maybe try staggering that to extend the corn season. Two smaller blocks instead of one big stand.

[PlainJane]

I did pick up a couple of packages and may go back today after I make more room in the freezer.

I’ve cut back to one eggplant as that’s plenty to cover me and my immediate neighbors.
Haven’t cut back on tomatoes yet but I will have to someday.
I still grow leeks and will probably keep growing them as the entire allium family is easy to tuck into odd garden corners. Am expanding my cantaloupe and watermelon plantings this year as I’m not crazy for okra or sweet potatoes.
We are finally in the path of some rain!

[GoDawgs]

Oh good, @PlainJane! Hope you get a nice soaker'.

These seasonal changeover times are good times to reflect on things to change while the memories are fresh.

Tonight I was looking at the pole bean quad pods and some of the young plants already reaching out for the poles. Then I noticed all the space in the middle of each quad pod, space that's there now but won't be usable later as vines wrap poles and shade out the middles. The thought occurred that I can use that space to grow something else there too. It would have to be something that makes quick and be done by the time pole bean foliage shades them out.

I could even mark the pole leg locations really early before the poles are even up and get an early jump on planting something in the middle. Maybe small groupings of those neon Asuka turnips or those pretty 45 day Kolibri kohlrabi. Daikon radish? Hmmmm, I'll have to think on that. Any suggestions?

[Whwoz]

What about lettuce?

[GoDawgs]

I've never had much luck with lettuce here. They're flea beetle magnets. They always hit the turnip leaves too but I don't mind spraying the turnip greens as I don't eat them.

The recent rains have the grass growing at top speed. Pickles will be tending to that today and I'll be mulching the garden and doing the weed whack between beds. Maintenance!

[PlainJane]

I think the kohlrabi would work, and any kind of radish.

[GoDawgs]

This morning's project was to lay down the cardboard boxes over the watermelon area for weed suppression. It worked very well last year.

24.05.11 Watermelon bed with cardboard mulch.JPG

The cardboard got watered down well, covered with leaf mulch and watered down again. Ta daaaaaaa!

24.05.11 Watermelon bed mulched over cardboard.JPG

To the left of the watermelon patch is the first planting of potatoes.

24.05.11 First potato planting.JPG

By the time the watermelon vines get to them, the potatoes will be gone and I'll do the same mulching for that area too. Then the vines can play there all they want.

[JRinPA]

Radish is my early, quick crop that I plant in such a space. The little round red ones. They taste best anyway, before it gets hot. Currently, between two rows of snap peas. I will have the radish completely cleaned out before the peas get too tall.
I find it odd when Kolibri kohlrabi is mentioned since my semi savoy spinach is called Kolibri as well.

[GoDawgs]

These are Crawford pole beans, the first to start climbing their quadpod. Crawford is what I call a multi-use bean. You can pick them for fresh beans, pick them at the shelling stage and they make good dry beans. Last year was the first time I grew them. And as you can see, there's room in the middle of the poles for an early something.

24.05.11 Crawfords first to climb.JPG

Here are the palleted tomatoes. Pickles installed the second cages a couple days ago, tying each to the cage they are sitting on and also to a pole stuck in the bucket. Then she added horizontal poles across the tops of the lower cages and tied them to that as well. Then the horizontal poles were tied to the pallets. There will be NO blow-over of cages due to wind!

24.05.11 Tomato, eggplant row.JPG

On the pallets right now are there are twelve regular tomatoes, two dwarf tomatoes and four eggplants. There are five more dwarf tomatoes I will plant out today in those empty buckets on the other end.

24.05.11 Room for Dwarf Tomatoes.JPG

There are four eggplants this year, the usual Millionaire and Chinese String and two new ones I'm trying (Matrosik and Rosita) thanks to @Ginger2778's generosity with her seeds. Hard to resist that! If they all make we'll be flooded with eggplant. Recipes are being collected.

24.05.11 LtoR Ch. String, Matrosik, Millionaire, Rosita.JPG

Lots of mulching today, mostly bean beds.

[GoDawgs]

Yesterday was a gardening day off as some friends came over for a cook out around mid day and later we had a pop up t-storm dump an inch of rain on us in about an hour. We'll take it!

The garlic is almost ready by the look of the foliage. I felt around a bulb and they're no longer rounds; there be cloves! Maybe another week or two. I'll have to pull one next week to see where they really are. These are two of the three rows.

24.05.16 Garlic is almost ready.JPG

This morning I added stakes to the pepper beds on their down wind side to give them something to lean on. Later when they get bigger I'll loosely tie them to the stakes.

24.05.16 Peppers staked.JPG

I also got a second and higher run of twine added to each side of the 'Jumbo' bean row. Those have already grown taller than the lower run of twine.

This is one of two cuke trellises. the first two sections are National Pickling cukes and the last third is Suyo Long. First time for that one. Gotta get these mulched.

24.05.16 Suyo Longs and Natl Pickling cukes.JPG

An unknown Asiatic lily I bought from Jackson & Perkins ages ago. It's growing amid a bed of space-hogging asters.

24.05.16 Unknown J&P Asiatic lily.JPG

And finally, we picked peas again today and got a peach basket full. I think we've reached peak harvest. Powdery mildew is making its way up the vines so next week will probably be the end of them. Time to go start shelling!

[PlainJane]

Love that lily.

[GoDawgs]

Here are the peas from yesterday's picking. We shelled them out last night while watching hockey. It took almost three hours of shelling at a pretty good clip but we got them done and ended up with 4 lbs 2 oz shelled! The blanching and tray freezing has started this morning but it will take a while. The big freezer is pretty full and there's room for only two cookie sheets at a time. Peas in, peas out, peas in, peas out. At least it doesn't take but a few hours to freeze a tray full.

24.05.16 Probably peak Wando pick.JPG

24.05.16 Shelled peas, 7 lbs 10 oz.JPG

The potato sets bought in case the first ones rotted in wet soil were later planted. Right now they're flowering more than any other potatoes we've grown! I wonder why.

24.05.16 Potato flowers.JPG

Speaking of flowers, the Caprician Fiesta daylily is blooming. This one is about 5" wide.

24.05.16 Caprician Fiesta Daylily.JPG

We have rain coming in so not much will get done in the garden today. At least last evening I got the almost-finished compost pile turned. Then I added another 5 gallon bucket of veggie scraps to the ongoing pile and turned it too.