It has been three weeks since the last update and there has been some very noticeable progress in the garden!
Carrots:
Potatoes. These have really taken off. I have killed a bunch of potato beetles and hadn't seen any for over a week, but this morning there were a few more that I had to dispose of. Unfortunately, there were also several dozen larva that had hatched and had to be squished.
A bunch of these radishes have bolted, but I have been pulling them and making quick pickles as I have time. The first batch were good, but a little too sweet and Angela thought they smelled like feet and wouldn't even try them. I tried a different recipe for my second batch and they were wayyyyy too vinegary and gross. I keep adding sugar to the brine n hopes of fixing them and making them edible. The beets are coming along and I guess the scallions are, too.
These butternut squash along the top edge are growing incredibly slowly - FAR more slowly than their pumpkin neighbors. The turnips (9 per square) and rutabagas (4 per square along the bottom edge) are looking good.
The sugar pie pumpkins are going great and the pepper plants are tiny, but yielding some peppers. I had to untangle one pepper that was getting strangled by a pumpkin vine last night:
I need to find a new spinach variety, because these ones continue to disappoint. Some of them bolted before I got a single leaf off them. The broccoli plants are getting large and you can barely see some basil coming in behind them. Those are golden beets to the left.
The roma and cherry tomatoes are taking off. I need to get some cages on these babies soon...
E's sugar snap and snow peas are doing great. So is the fennel and soy beans (on the right). Even the broccoli looks good. All is well here.
L's green arrow peas aren't growing as tall, but are also doing well. Her basil is due to explode soon, which will be nice. I went out with a flashlight a couple of nights ago and picked off a half-dozen brown beetles. Hopefully, that will curtail the setback I experienced last year when I had closer to 30 of them and they seriously delayed the basil harvest.
Last, but not least... the garlic. I have harvested all of the scapes. We grilled a few, I put a few in my sriracha venison chili, and turned the rest into pesto along with some of the spinach and basil that I pulled from the garden. By the way... if you love pesto but don't like paying $20/pound for pine nuts, pumpkin seeds make a pretty good substitution. Buy them in the bulk bins at the grocery store and get them shelled (you don't want that papery husk) and raw so they're too salty.
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