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Corn Harvest

ears of corn
Perfect little ears of corn!

I’m thrilled with my corn harvest. Now, they were on the small side (about 7 ounces each), but as you can see from the above picture, they were absolutely beautiful! And delicious! I picked 25 ears out of my little corn patch.

Since I planted them at the same time, I had to harvest them at the same time, so the two of us ate corn every night for two weeks. I didn’t want to leave the ripe ears on the plants, for fear that the bugs might get to them, so some of them spent some time in the refrigerator. They held up very well.

But a fortnight of mandatory corn consumption gives one a new appreciation for succession planting.

Actually, I’ve always appreciated and understood the value of succession planting, and I do it with lettuce and beets and carrots almost every year. But corn, I was always told, needs to be planted in a “good-sized block” to ensure good pollination. Since succession planting in a small garden means planting a little at a time, planting a “good-sized block” every two weeks is out of the question. Pollinating by hand is the solution. As soon as the silks started to show I broke off a tassel and dusted them with pollen. I did this for about a week or so, till all of the silks turned dark in color. I don’t think the ears would have been as full if I hadn’t helped them along.

Next year I’m going to start ten plants every two weeks, from the middle of May till the end of June. I think as long as I plan to help with pollination, the results will be fabulous!

corn stalks

Bonus! I have a head start on my Halloween decorations!

Variety: “On Deck” from Burpee, Harvested from August 16 through 29. Yield: 10.03 pounds

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2021: Plenty of Peppers

This year I grew bell and poblano peppers. The poblanos have been producing for a while now, but I just started picking the bells. I don’t pick the bell peppers when they’re green (even though it would improve my yield!). I wait till I see a little red, then pick them, and let them ripen on the counter.

They seem to have survived the early season drama of tardy transplantation and cabbage crowding. In fact, all the plants are doing very well.

The bell pepper variety is called California Wonder TMR, and the poblano variety is Baron F1, from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. I’ll update at the end of the season with yield information.

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Peppers are Perennials?

I had no idea. According to info on the internet, if I could protect my pepper plants from frigid temperatures over the winter, I could use the same plants next year and get fruit much earlier than I usually do. That’s a smashing idea! I’ve got three poblanos and three bells out there now, and I’m definitely going to try it.

I potted up two poblanos and 1 bell and they’re in the basement near the grow lights.

I can’t wait to see what happens!

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No Good At Fruit!

Stunted blueberries, disfigured figs and rotten apples

I’ve been trying to grow blueberries, figs and apples for three years now, to no avail. The truth is, I don’t know much about them. I’ve read and researched and come up with suitable solutions for most vegetable pests and diseases, but I’m a novice at fruit. Also, I don’t have much room. I’m not allowed to plant just anywhere. I get dirty looks if I exceed my allotted space.

The solution, of course, is containers. I think if I make a nice container display on the deck or in a sunny corner of the front yard, I might not incur the wrath of garden-hating family members. Containers, and the soil to fill them, are expensive, as are the plants themselves. But I think they would be a worthwhile investment. And I could still plant them in the ground once my garden-hating family member buys his own house and moves out. I’ve decided to make that my priority for next year: 2022 will be the year I figure out fruit.

Picking the right variety is probably most important. Something productive and resistant to as much bad stuff as possible. Something suited to the weather conditions in zone 7A. Something with a compact growth habit that I can easily control.

I’m going to concentrate on the figs and blueberries first, because I know there are varieties of each which are well suited to container growing. Looks like I’ve got a lot of reading to do.

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Enough Cucumbers, Eggplants and Beans for Now

I think 40 pounds of cucumbers is enough. I’ve marinated them, tossed them in salads, stuffed them with herbed goat cheese and pickled them, and I confess, I don’t know what else to do. I did see online that they’re good grilled, which I may try this weekend (with the ten that I still have in my crisper drawer). The plants are still loaded with flowers and baby cukes, but it’s time to be done. I said this last year, but this time I really mean it: Next year I’m only growing one cucumber plant. Even two is too much to keep up with.

Variety: Homemade Pickles. Two plants, direct seeded in the garden the first week of June, Final Yield: 39.99 lbs. (though it could have been much more)

  • baby cucumbers
These plants show no signs of slowing down!

I think I’ve had enough eggplant too. Ten pounds is more than we usually eat in a year, and I’ve harvested that in the last month. This year I planted three, next year I think one will suffice.

Variety: Black Beauty. Three plants, started indoors, under grow lights in mid-March, and transplanted into the garden the first week of June. Final Yield: 10.38 lbs. (though it could have been more).

While I’m not tired of the beans, the plants do seem to be slowing down. I don’t think I gave them enough room. They grew up the trellis, then down the trellis, then up the trellis again. They’re looking a little scraggly, so I’m going to take those out too, and give the sweet potatoes room to grow. Next year I’d like to plant twice as many beans, so I have plenty to freeze. This year I only had one 8 foot row, and a sparse one at that.

Variety: Seychelles. One 8′ row direct seeded in the garden the first week of June. Final Yield: 11.31 lbs. (though it could have been more).

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More Than Last Year!

It’s August 15 and today I surpassed last year’s yield of 250 pounds. Picking these six eggplant helped.

I need to harvest another 125 pounds to meet my goal, but the garden’s still going strong, so it’s definitely doable.

August garden
The garden in August

The zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, corn, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, beans and cucumbers are still producing. Plus, I planted broccoli (under the row cover), cabbage, carrots, beets and radishes to harvest in the fall. I’m also going to start some lettuce.

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Nightshades and Brassicas Don’t Mix (but I did it anyway)

It’s only for a few weeks.

Apparently they both feed heavily on the same nutrients and would stunt each other’s growth if interplanted.

I wasn’t planning on planting them together. I was planning on planting one after the other (cabbage and kohlrabi in the spring and tomatoes, peppers and eggplant in the summer), but the first wasn’t finished when it was time to plant the second. So I researched the advisability of planting the second amongst the first. The answer was a resounding no.

But waiting would put me weeks behind schedule, so I did it anyway.

After harvesting two cabbages that were (almost!) ready, there was room on the end of the bed for two tomato plants. The eggplants went in where the kohlrabi came out. Then I just tucked the peppers in wherever there was a break in cabbage leaf-cover. That left me with 3 tomato plants and a pepper or two. The peppers I tossed (in the compost pile). The tomatoes I planted in grow bags.

I know I have to amend the soil in Bed #1 pretty heavily. If I encircle the root ball of each individual plant with compost (like a fertility forcefield) maybe all the dire predictions on the internet won’t come true.

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Poor Little Chards

They get no respect. First they were overrun by radishes and lettuce that bolted and burst into seed. Then they were infested by bugs. Now they’re blocked by bean towers that let no sun shine through. Sometimes I think that I’ve tortured them long enough and that the poor little things have earned a nice long rest in the compost pile. Sometimes I think that the cooler weather is coming on and they could bounce back and thrive. I don’t know what to do.

sickly chard plants
Poor little chard
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2021: Butternut Squash

Love butternut squash: in chili, soups and stuffings and roasted all by itself (with a little olive oil or sage butter). I didn’t grow any last year because I wanted to see if the zuchetta was any good as a winter squash. In my opinion, it wasn’t, so this year I made sure I had room in the garden for butternut squash. I started 4 plants the first week of June, but the vines have overrun the raised bed and grown into such a crazy mess, I don’t know if I still have four or not. Yesterday (August 1) my husband took a weed whacker to the very tall grass and weeds that had grown in between my raised beds while I frantically tried to pull the vines out of harm’s way. Some of the vines look a little dinged up, but I think they’ll be okay.

There are seven fruits currently growing, I hope I get at least twelve for the season.

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2021: Corn!

corn
Knee high by the twelfth of July?

The corn was planted June 1 (or thereabouts). Three eight-foot rows, twelve plants per row. The variety is “On Deck” by Burpee. They all sprouted, but some furry suburban backyard creature found them irresistible and nibbled quite a few of them to the ground. There are 25 plants left. Since broccoli, a heavy feeder, was grown in this bed in the spring, I worked some fertilizer into the soil before planting.

The vines winding through the stalks are butternut squash.

July 24: I saw some silks peeking out of the leaves today so I broke off a tassel and started pollinating! Small patches of corn usually need a little help.

I don’t usually have much luck with corn, but since this is a variety bred for small spaces, I thought I’d give it a try. Fingers crossed.