No "cockle shells" or "pretty maids," in a row or otherwise, but some things are growing nicely. Here's an update on the edibles.
BERRIES:
The raspberries haven't done much this year, beyond miles (or so it seems) of brambles. The berries are small, and most are drying out before ripening. Probably my fault some how. Maybe irregular watering. I think I'll move some of the new plants (that will fruit next year) to a different bed and reclaim this one (if it's possible to get out all the berries, which pop up many feet from where they started) for veggies.
Nice boysenberries though! I've been taking them to work to add to my break-time yogurt. My family doesn't care for boysenberry's "core" or seeds, so they're all mine.
Blueberries are beginning to ripen in earnest. "
Jelly Bean," a compact (very small!) plant has plump full-size berries. The plant itself is rather fragile, and so bushy I have to be careful not to snap off branches when I harvest. "
Jelly Bean" is a Bushel and Berry (
www.bushelandberry.com) variety, formerly known as BrazelBerries. Draper, Legacy, and Blue Crop are ripening too, with Draper and Legacy producing the most. The Blue Crop dropped most of their fruit, I think due to underwater during a brief hot spell a few months back.
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| Draper |
The blueberries are located in a sunny spot nearly under a cedar tree, which provides them with ongoing acidity from its needles. Because of the tree roots there was no way to plant the blueberry bushes in the ground, but they do well in large containers. They may need an upgrade to larger nursery pots next year.
TOMATOES:
Tomatoes are right on schedule!
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| Siletz |
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| Sungold |
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| Brandywine |
Brandywine is a potato-leaf tomato. It's pretty obvious why when you compare their leaves with potato leaves!
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| Brandywine tomato leaf |
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| German Butterball potato leaf |
The blue chocolate tomatoes have been planted. They were slow to germinate, and after a few false starts I got four nice seedlings. Two are in a big planter, the other two await containers.
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| Blue Chocolate |
POTATOES:
The potato cage has become Earwig City. I knew
something was eating the leaves, and badly...
... but I had no idea what. Whatever-they-weres were not affected by the Sluggo Plus (I guess potato leaves were more tempting). So, I moved aside some of the straw this morning and there were the culprits, earwigs! I'll try some diatomaceous earth, they don't have to eat that for it to take affect, they just have to walk through it, or have it dusted on them. I hate killing, even garden enemies.
Apparently the taters themselves are still growing fine.
PUMPKINS:
Nothing much of note. They are growing, and one has tendrils.
CUCUMBERS:
Starting to climb. This one has a tomato cage to help it get to the fence trellis.
GREEN BEANS:
The less said about green beans the better. Let's just say they aren't doing well, despite the photo above showing one looking good. I think it's earwigs again.
TOMATILLOS:
Again, damaged leaves. I'm not sure they will amount to anything producing fruit.
ONIONS:
Having never grown them before I don't know if they are on track or not. They
are bigger than when planted.
EGGPLANT:
It's an edible, but I don't eat it!
Patio Baby is full of beautiful purple blossoms.
Not much was planted this year. Next year I really need to schedule some vacation days to prep the garden more.
* Move the raspberries to the bed the Brandywine is in now (or move that bed to a sunny spot and forgo the berries).
* Build two beds with the raised bed corners I bought.
* Attempt to remove the orange mint and boysenberries planted in the 4 x 4 recycled gate bed. It gets great sun, and has productive soil that are wasted on what were supposed to be temporary quarters.
* Lots and lots of organic matter - compost of all sorts (plant based from the garbage company, steer manure, chicken manure, mushroom compost, even my own finally dug out of the compost heap).
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