Summer Garden 2022

 

Thanks to the meal calendar, I have so many recipes ready to post that I haven't been doing any garden updates.  I like to show off any successes, as they are rare.

I harvested my garlic!  Well, one anyway.  If you let them go too long, the cloves separate and start to become their own plants, so I pulled one when the stalk became thick and the outer leaves were starting to die.  Those outer leaves become the "paper" coating over the bulb.  The bulb wasn't as big as I was expecting, so I hung it up in the garage to dry and left the rest to grow a bit more.  PS, cure your garlic somewhere you can't smell them.  The garage was a good choice because it stays dry without too much temperature change.

Once the spinach was out of the long planter, I made a chicken-wire trellis for this year's cucumbers.  "Make" is a strong word.  I tied it to the wall with twine.  The piece goes all the way to the ground, so I'm hopeful the plants with latch onto it.  It's easy to reach behind if that's where the cucumbers happen to grow.

I haven't killed the blueberry bushes yet, but they also aren't flowering or producing new blueberries.  I'm adding vinegar to their water once a week, which has improved their color immensely.  Websites suggest that once the weather is more stable they will be healthier.

The celery bolted in mid-May, so now I know they last a year when you replant from scraps.  Still a pretty good savings.  I'll buy another celery when I need some and plant that base.

The first carrot I pulled from the pot planting was lovely.  I should have taken a photo.  I'm still going to clear it to put the butternut squash in there, but now I know that carrots are just fine in a deep pot.  Pumpkin is going to go in the Pond.  I have more space in there than I realized, now that the peas are gone.

I didn't can my artichokes this year.  Any that I had to pick before I was ready to use them were trimmed, boiled, and then frozen for later.  Recipe using them coming soon.  There were three trimming sessions that left my thumbs blackened for a few days.  I'm getting better at it, though.  And seriously, how cool is it to say you grew more artichokes than you could eat?!