Operation Green Thumb has made it to official summer. We are roughly half way through the Zone 5 growing season. So how are the gardening newbies doing?
We’ve harvested radishes and planted a second round. One more new gardening term to add to our list. Succession Planting. We’ve harvested spinach and replaced them with beets. We’ve harvested lettuce in the Cut and Come Again method…and they are COMING AGAIN!
Soon to be ready are carrots which should be ready to pull on July 7th. The package says 68 days and that is starting to look spot on.
Also newly planted in Bed A is one of our herb gardens. Planted from left to right are Parsley, Dill, Oregano, Basil, Cilantro and Rosemary.
Started from seed and soon to be transplanted to four gallon containers is sweet corn. Harvest for the sweet corn should be in late September beating the first frost by 2 or 3 weeks…we hope…
What else can be harvested? Peas and beans have some produce ready. We picked about two dozen peas last Sunday for a small family get together that went over very well. Beans we can pick a few this weekend for our Independence Day feast!
We have two rosemary plants that survived the first round of indoor seeds. This herb is known for poor germination. One plant is in a pot, pictured below. One in Bed A which may have been a tactical error. Rosemary does not transfer well from a bed to a container…according to the experts…whoever they are…
Peppers are a large portion of our container garden. We have one container each or Sweet Pepper, Yellow Pepper, Jalapeno, and Pepperoncini. Plus two containers each of Beaver Dam Pepper and Tabasco Pepper.
How are they doing? There are plenty of fruit on the Pepperoncini, Jalapeno and Beaver Dam plants. To date nothing on the Tabasco or the sweet bell type peppers.
All of the tomato plants whether in Bed C or in a container are bearing fruit. None have turned red yet, but it shouldn’t be too long.
Disappointments…so far…
Strawberry. not one strawberry plant emerged.
Cucumber, the vine is half way up the net trellis and should reach the roof top, but there are only flowers and no fruit so far.
Zucchini, lots of male blooms, but female blooms have been elusive…so far. It is possible that one female bloom is on one plant. Stay tuned…
