July 17 column: Vegetable garden update

I can’t believe how quickly this summer is zipping by! Since it’s Sunday, it’s time for another of my garden columns. This one is a vegetable garden update: Wacky weather causing confusion for crops. (or you can read my column lower in this post)

In it, I discuss how most of the veggies are growing. In general, everything is doing well. The artichokes are finally putting on new growth (although I did lose a plant to a stealthy gopher recently, grrrr!). The peas are just about done for the season, but we’ve really been ‘Laxton’s Progress’ and ‘Sugar Magnolia’.

You’re looking at some ‘Italian’ pole beans at the top of my bean arbor. We’ve already had our first picking!

Bill just harvested the garlic and shallot crops, so I already have planted that bed with cover crop seeds (a mixture of rye, buckwheat and field peas). I’ll let them grow until the buckwheat gets ready to flower, and then whack! I’m going to chop them down and turn them into the top layer of soil so they’ll decompose. That will add lovely nutrients back into the soil.

The potatoes (‘Yukon Gold’ and ‘Viking Purple’) are both doing well. I think I can start sneaking a few new potatoes from the plants. Yum.

The photo to the left shows some of my ripening grafted ‘Black Cherry’ tomatoes. They’ll turn more of a pale brown, which certainly makes it tricky to know if they’re ripe!

The onions (see photo at top) are coming along nicely and they’re of a decent size to harvest for cooking, so I’m starting to harvest every other one to leave extra room for the remaining ones to form large bulbs for winter storage.

I just harvested my first pole beans this week, so it has been busy-busy around here lately. No rest for the weary and all that.

I promise to continue to give you a vegetable garden update from time to time, and it’s just about time for my next video tour of our vegetable garden so stay tuned…

Vegetable Garden Update column:

by Susan Mulvihill

With all of the temperature extremes we’ve been experiencing this season, it’s a wonder anyone’s vegetable garden is growing.

When I first transplanted my pepper starts into the garden the third week of May, I was feeling rather pleased with myself. The plants were robust and the picture of health. A month later, the plants were still the same size but with leaves that were a sickly shade of yellow.

Heat-loving crops such as peppers, eggplants, artichokes and tomatoes haven’t exactly cared for the frequent returns to chilly weather, following our short spells of high temperatures. And who can blame them?

Overall, my vegetable garden is doing well and hitting its stride. The peppers seem to be back on track now. There are young melons growing in the hoop house, the cabbage plants are starting to form heads, the bush and pole beans are blooming, and there are plenty of tomatoes growing on the plants. I’m even harvesting zucchinis. Life is good.

This year, I’m growing two types of peas: a shelling pea called Laxton’s Progress and a new sugar snap pea called Sugar Magnolia. The former has petite, 2-foot-tall vines that are quite prolific. The latter is noteworthy because it is the first purple-pod sugar snap pea. Developed by Alan Kapuler — a molecular biologist, plant breeder and founder of Peace Seeds — the pods are crisp and delicious, plus that purple color means they are high in healthy anthocyanins.

I’m just getting ready to harvest the garlic and shallots that were planted last fall. Garlic can be pulled up when the lowest two pairs of leaves turn brown. The stems of the shallots have fallen over, indicating they can be harvested as well. Each crop will be kept in a dark location to dry, then moved to the basement for long-term storage.

As soon as that bed is empty, a cover crop goes in next, to replenish the soil with nutrients. A seed mixture of buckwheat, rye and winter peas works well for this. All you have to do is lightly loosen the top few inches of the soil, broadcast the seeds, water them in, and watch them grow. Once the buckwheat starts to bloom, I’ll chop up everything and turn them into the top layer of soil so they can decompose.

I’m growing Copra, Yellow Sweet Spanish and red onions this year and they’re doing really well. I’ll harvest every other onion throughout the summer, which provides extra room for the remaining plants to form large bulbs.

The artichoke plants like to play a trick on me every year. They just sit in their bed for the first month and a half, and just when I start to fret over them, the plants go through a growth spurt. This year is no exception but wish they’d get growing soon.

One problem I’m really noticing this year is how much shade can impact vegetable plant growth. Trees growing near our three largest raised beds — which contain paste tomatoes, corn and winter squash — have apparently put on just enough new growth to shade the south end of two of the beds each morning. It has made an obvious difference: on the north end of those beds, the plants are growing beautifully, but the plants on the south end are half the size of the others. This is a good reminder of the importance of sunlight so it looks like some serious pruning needs to happen this fall.

Now if we can just get the weather to settle down, our gardens will all be doing great.