Harvest Monday - July 07, 2014
This past week we FINALLY started to harvest some sugar
snaps. A couple of weeks ago, I was
wondering why everyone, even those in my zone, seemed to be harvesting their
peas and mine had just started to flower.
Then I realized that I had planted them late this year – May 2nd
instead of mid-April - because I was pre-occupied with finishing up the beds
& fencing for that area. So hurray for
sugar snaps – my favourite pea!
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| Sugar Snap Peas |
And we have yet another newcomer to the Harvest Monday
lineup this week: Cucumbers! Well, that should actually be “cucumber”, as
I have only harvested one so far:
Peas – 1,564 grams (3.45 lbs)
Scapes – 126 grams (0.28 lbs)
Spinach – 42 grams (0.09 lbs)
Strawberries - 714 grams (1.57 lbs)
Swiss Chard – 1,434 grams (3.16 lbs)
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| My Daughter with the First Garden Sweet Cucumber |
This cuke is from one of the Garden Sweet plants. When I started
the seeds back in May, I sowed some in cell packs and others in larger
cups. I had read that cucumbers do not
like to have their roots disturbed and I was wondering if there would be a difference
between the seedlings grown in the larger vs. smaller containers.
Well, the harvested cucumber came from a plant that was sown
in the larger cup. However, I have two
other Garden Sweets from that original seeding - one from a cell pack and another
from a cup. Both of these are just
starting to set a couple of cucumbers and, quite frankly, there is very little
difference in how well they have grown and their size, even compared to the one
that has given us our first cucumber. The
Garden Sweets are the only ones that I was able to follow up on in my little
experiment as all but one of the Suyo Long and Lemon cucumber plants died when I
transplanted them too deeply.
Like last year, I have a lot of baby cucumbers that are not
getting pollinated & simply drop off. I
planted borage in the corners & in the center of the long side of each squash/cucumber
bed, as I had heard that it was a “bee magnet”.
I think I overdid it as the plants have gotten HUGE. I'm thinking that two plants per bed (not SIX!) would have been more than enough.
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| Borage - This is ONE plant! |
But where are the bees?
I see lots of tiny bees (most are no more than ¼” long) but,
surprisingly, they are on other plants, not on the borage. I can probably count on one hand the number
of regular size bees I’ve seen in the last month. A
study released recently by Harvard has, once again, found a link between Neonicotinoid
insecticides and the huge decline in bee populations over the years due to colony
collapse disorder. What’s especially scary
is that the study speculated that the colder the winter, the greater the number
of bees that perish – and this past winter was the coldest we have had in
decades. Those poor, poor bees....I have
a feeling that companies like Monsanto will not change their practices unless
forced to through government regulations…so hopefully the government gets a
move on before the damage gets even worse.
This past week the strawberries continued to trickle in -
the June bearers are much smaller now (about half the size they were at the
start of the harvest) and the Fort Laramie has produced only about a handful of
strawberries all week. It is an
everbearing variety, so I’ll hopefully have more berries, here and there,
throughout the summer.
The Pak Choi has finally bolted & I picked the remaining
heads. I have not been as diligent on applying the diatomaceous earth on this bed in the last couple of weeks, so I do have a bit of slug damage. Over the past month, the pak choi
produced a great crop – almost 13½ pounds from 7 heads planted only 12” part –
not bad at all. I have another round of
transplants in the basement, but they are still a couple of weeks away from
going outside – I have to work on my timing on this one for next year.
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| Last of the Spring Planted Pak Choi |
I picked quite a lot of Swiss chard, which I prepared &
froze for winter eating. And lastly, I
harvested a few leaves of the bolted Galilee spinach, which I talked about in
my last
post, as well as the last round of scapes.
My harvest totals this week were:
Chinese Cabbage – 3,004 grams (6.62 lbs)
Cucumbers – 268 grams (0.59 lbs)Peas – 1,564 grams (3.45 lbs)
Scapes – 126 grams (0.28 lbs)
Spinach – 42 grams (0.09 lbs)
Strawberries - 714 grams (1.57 lbs)
Swiss Chard – 1,434 grams (3.16 lbs)
Total For Week – 7,152 grams (15.77 lbs)
Total To Date – 23,351 grams (51.48 lbs)
To see what everyone else has been harvesting over the past
week, head on over to Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Mondays.
Till next time…☺
Borage will get away from you for sure. I did the same thing with Nasturtiums one year! All over the place.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely learned my lesson!
DeleteA great week! A cucumber already! Wow, mine won't be ready for at least another month!
ReplyDeleteIt was touch & go there for a bit with the cucumber seedlings, but thankfully, most of them pulled through :)
DeleteWow on such early cucumber and love those peas. Really miss mine now :(
ReplyDeleteThat's the thing with peas, especially sugar snaps - you are swimming in them one minute, then missing them the next.
DeleteYou are ahead of me in the cucumber harvest, mine are just starting to bloom. If you continue to have problems with cucumbers getting pollinated you might try a parthenocarpic type, they are self fertile and will set if nary a pollinator comes along. Borage is a wanton self sower around my garden, I find it popping up everywhere!
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping I have enough plants that even if a lot of babies drop off, I'll still get a good harvest - we will see. I may have to go the parthenocarpic route next year.
DeleteI've never really noticed problems with transplanting cucumbers, but I do lose some occasionally. I always start them inside then plant out after 2-3 weeks. I'm a fan of the parthenocarpic types too. I grow them in the greenhouse and every female bloom makes a cucumber without pollination.
ReplyDeleteI had read somewhere that they don't like their roots disturbed but as you said, transplanting really doesn't seem to harm them as far as I can tell - so long as you don't bury their stem like I did ;).
DeleteThose peas look delicious! I already miss my peas. Congrats on your first cucumber.. and it is a lovely one. What's really upsetting about those pesticides and the bees is that flowering plants from most nurseries are loaded with neonicotinoids.
ReplyDeleteThat is so true. And when you think of all the millions of annuals & perennials sold each year - ugh. All the more reason to start our own from seed.
DeleteSpeaking of things I wish I'd grown this year - snap peas! I've never actually grown them before but will have to put them on my list for next year. Yours looks great.
ReplyDeleteThanks Thomas - They are so much sweeter & juicier than the supermarket variety and, as far as peas go, they sure to give you a big bang for the buck.
DeleteI love borage, the flowers and the cucumber flavour leaf, and wish I had a plant in the garden, but it does take over your garden.
ReplyDeleteBoy - I wish I had known that before I planted them. This is starting to sound like when I planted mint in my first garden years ago & was forever trying to get it out again afterwards!
DeleteYour peas look wonderful. I didn't grow any because of the late spring. I thought there wouldn't be enough time. Now I know better. That is a good sized cucumber.
ReplyDeleteIt is surprising how well they have done, even after the very late start - I just picked another pound today. Goes to show, it's always worth taking a chance because you just never know.
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