Applestar's 2016 Garden

[applestar]

I'm making room for the 6 full sized squash maturing out there -- plus the 2 I hand pollinated have successfully set.
...and I have 5 or 6 full sized luffah as well as a number of intermediate size as well as immature fruits developing on the vines.


- Top left is a runty curved Tromboncino -- labeled 8/10 but (guess what ?) August of 2015. I wanted to try tasting one that was fully mature, but even fully cured, it wasn't sweet ...though it was flavorful in its own way. (I think I will just eat them as summer squash) These few were all the seeds in the tiny seed cavity.

...Unlike the Not Kakai which looked more like a straight necked yellow squash when immature. The seeds had hulls, and I saved a little bit but mostly baked them with the flesh. The resulting cooked squash was like spaghetti squash but not separating into strings. It wasn't exactly crunchy but stayed firm even after further cooking. I had to be creative to make it palatable -- used 1/2 in a Philippine style spicy vegetable and beef stew with okra, green and immature tomatoes, and immature runner beans (diced into the stew green pods and all -- yum! very "meaty") I tried to mash the other half of the baked squash by cooking with diced potatoes until the potatoes were cooked, but the squash remained firm and had to be cut up into chunks.

- Last of the three, fully matured Kakai that were harvested this summer was peeled, sliced, salted, then blotted to be put in the dehydrator, seeds and all. This is DH's favorate (and nearly only way he will eat squash).

[applestar]

Today's harvest --



Some of these went into the Sweet potato leaves sautéed in sunflower oil with minced garlic and myoga, diced okra, green and not quite ripe tomatoes, then added leftover chicken/noodle soup, diced nasturtium leaves, a seeded Hanoi market pepper. Lemon juice and tahini to finish.

[applestar]

Hoping this will work to extend season for this bed of Sweet Potatoes

[applestar]

- Trifoliate Orange "Flying Dragon" and Apple melon, one each Petite Nigra and Chicago Hardy figs
- cherry tomatoes and peppers (Jalapeño, Bulgarian Carrot, Hanoi Market g2, skinny Yatsufusa, hooked Takanotsume)
- heavily russeted runty Yellow Giant Bell (hoping for enough seeds to try growing again next year)
- very disappointing raspberry production this fall.



- one of the medium sized Luffah fruits had developed a damaged stem and started to russet and soften so I decided to harvest it -- hoping this one has sufficiently matured fibers to harvest a sponge...I'm giving it a few more days in the house to see if the skin will show signs of "slipping", Flying Dragon fruits (above) in the same bucket
- Apple melon (above) in the berry container FINALLY matured (it's been very cool/cold)
- Bulgarian Carrot on the plant before harvesting
- Wire basket: Stevia, Roselle leaves, Ao (green) Shiso, Aka (red) Shiso, Pickarow cucumbers struggling to mature fruits in the cold so these are bumpier and about 1/2 sized, Myoga, test picked Christmas Lima and Runner beans that are FINALLY setting pods including a couple of very long/huge ones that were hiding near the bottom of the vine. A little white onion.

[applestar]

SUCCESS!

[applestar]

I harvested one of the two most mature Thai Kang Kob cross squashes yesterday. It's the one with a depressed side that I asked about before. It had a more dried up stem of the two. I left the other one on the vine for now.

When I was looking at the photos, I realized that these two are NOT exactly the same -- the one I harvested has a narrow extra rib between each lobe as well as being slightly more flattened. I'm going to have to carefully trace back the vines and see if they are coming from completely different spots in the spiral which may mean seeds from different cross combos, or if they are one of 2-3 plants per "hill" and just different segregate of same cross.

[applestar]

[applestar]

- Do you recognize a pepper plant next to the green fence post in the foreground? That's the Brazilian Starfish pepper at the end of the '16 Cherry Lane cherry tomato row. They are still all green fruits and eye-ing the weather forecasts for pending frost, but you GOTTA grow this crazy pepper alongside your regular indeterminate cherry tomatoes. The growth-habit of this tall 'vine-like' plant fits right in, and you can't beat the fun shape of the fruits.
- scarlet runner beans on the arch trellis are producing like mad now -- definitely prefers cooler weather
- the other arched trellis of pole beans are the Christmas Limas -- lots of huge but still very green pods.


- the biggest bushy pepper plant in the left-side raised bed by the fence is a cluster of three Madame Jeanette pepper plants, late planted but way bigger than even Brazillian Starfish or Aji Pineapple which were planted at the same time, definitely bigger than Maui Purple or Czechoslovakian Black, also planted in the same bed. Fish pepper planted here didn't make it.


- I slipped cut-off jammy leg over two large luffah on exposed side of the fence to keep them warm....
- there has been an increased digging activity everywhere, including the sweet potato bed under the slitted plastic cover intended to up the temperature inside where I found three holes. If these are moles hunting the plentiful earthworms, it should be OK, but if they are chipmunks, then my sweet tater harvest is doomed.
- I rummaged around and found one decent sized tuber and one small -maybe 1"diameter. All the rest I could find were marker to pencil thick and I left them in place and covered them back up again.
- BST Ladybug pepper plant staying warmer inside a re-purposed bird-feeder tube

[applestar]

Added comments to the photos I posted yesterday

[applestar]

Last time I was out harvesting and taking photos, etc. was Sunday. I've been under the weather fighting a cold, running an errand on Tues, ... life. Very aggravating when it's nearly end of the season and there are a lot to do in the garden.

So there was a lot to harvest today, including the massive flush of overgrown shiitake which was a completely unexpected surprise as well as the smaller Kikuza pumpkin. You know how all the developing squash photos I posted never showed this one? ...I didn't know it was there



Three big luffahs, some consolation raspberries, pea eggplants, edamame, runner beans....

[applestar]

More shiitake, edamame, and Donkey Ears sweet peppers that I stripped the three peppers from so I could repot/downsizing the pot to bring in for overwintering.

[applestar]

[applestar]

-- pulled the carrots to make room for planting garlic cloves. Got Elephant and Tzan Turban planted. Still need to plant Georgian Crystal and Russian Giant Marble Purple Striped.... so late! But I should be OK as long as I get them planted before the ground freezes.

... also planted about half of the 50 saffron crocus bulbs I bought to replace my little group of saffron that seems to have died. I need to figure out where I can plant the rest where there might be a little more protected micro-climate... maybe the Kitchen Garden by the brick patio.

... sowed Senposai, North Pole lettuce, Tokyo Bekana baby Chinese cabbage, and more WallaWalla onion seeds

The squash leaves were completely frosted, but the vines seem to be still alive so I'm leaving the squash unharvested until the last possible day. With the canopy of leaves gone, I discovered another little fruit that had been hiding

[applestar]

Some of my Elephant Garlic are refusing to split into cloves. These are what's left after planting the BIGGEST rounds. I might plant a few more or just give up on them and eat these....

[applestar]

... also planted about half of the 50 saffron crocus bulbs I bought to replace my little group of saffron that seems to have died. I need to figure out where I can plant the rest where there might be a little more protected micro-climate... maybe the Kitchen Garden by the brick patio.

It seems that I was a little premature in declaring them dead. Unbeknownst to me, they quietly started to bloom in the last few days...


...I finished planting the saffron in these three locations. It's hard to find locations that get some sun through late fall despite the lengthening shadows of surrounding houses and trees, with micro-climate that tend to stay warmer than the rest of the garden to ensure they survive the negative single digit winter temps of Zone 6, and that tend on the dry side during their summer dormancy.


Left -- probably the best spot in terms of growing conditions, but probability of predation by mice, chipmunks, and rabbits (until properly fenced) is highest
Top right -- I cobbled together some leftover pavers for the little Kitchen Garden bed to hopefully provide a modicum of thermal mass. I'll figure out a way to pretty it up later.
Bottom right -- a little iffy since it's on the Northeast side of the house, but it IS the highest end of the slightly inclined/sloped yard.