Garden Update 9/23/16
Welcome to the first day of Fall! I am typing this as a steady rain is falling, and it really feels like Fall has arrived here in Minnesota. We have cooler temperatures, leaves have started to change, and farmers have started harvesting standing corn in their fields. Can you believe it? Where has our growing season gone? Unfortunately, that means I am way behind on a number of things including my Harvest and Putting Up efforts, preparing beds and planting fall greens (yikes, it hasn’t happened at all). Time does not seem to be on my side, but these are thoughts are for other future blog posts. My focus on this blog post is another garden update!
I will have two Garden Updates this week: the main garden and the Hybrid Rain Gutter Grow Systems/Wicking Beds. I want to separate the two because these posts get pretty large, and I want to use a lot of my photos that I have been taking. As always, you can get almost daily garden updates on Instagram, which feeds Twitter and Facebook, and I have done a couple garden updates on Periscope as well. Please check those out.
Garden Bed 1
Garden Bed 1 continues to produce cucumbers and tomatoes – 9/23/16
At the start of the 2016 season, Garden Bed 1 had four varieties of tomatoes, red onions, basil and cucumbers in it. This is my longest bed, and it has traditionally been my tomato planter. As the season wore on, some plants were removed due to blight (basil) or critters (red onions). More recently, I have been harvesting tomatoes and cucumbers out of this bed, and it has been productive. I have a ton of tomatoes on the vine yet, and I can’t wait until they ripen up. Below is an assessment of the plants in this raised bed.
Plant |
Assessment |
Opalka Roma Tomatoes |
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Amish Paste Tomatoes |
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San Marzano Roma Tomatoes |
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Cherry Tomatoes |
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Cucumbers |
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Red Onions |
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Garden Bed 2
The chaos of Garden Bed 2 seems to be working; tomatoes and beans are working together to produce! 9/23/16
Garden Bed 2 is a mish-mash of climbing plants including pole beans and tomatoes. Pole bean plants continue to grow like crazy, and they have been productive! Properly managed, pile beans are clear winners in the garden and will produce and grow like crazy. It is interesting to see the tomato plants interact with the beans, and they actually are doing quite well and are quite mixed up with the bean plants. Below is a summary of this garden bed.
Plant |
Assessment |
Bush Beans |
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Pole Beans |
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Cherry Tomato |
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Amish Paste |
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San Marzano Roma Tomatoes |
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Garden Bed 3
Garden Bed 3 is empty for the most part. The potatoes and tomatoes from the bins have encroached on Bed 3. 9/23/16
Plant |
Assessment |
Garlic |
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Yellow Onions |
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Peppers |
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Tomatoes |
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Potatoes |
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Garden Bed 4 and 5 and Vertical Garden
Garden Beds 4 and 5 are doing quite well with onions and parsley. The vertical garden is empty for now. 9/23/16
Downy mildew wiped out my basil plants in August, and I did not come back around to replanting the Vertical Garden. That is my fault. I just had too much stuff happening. Based on some decisions Julie and I have been making about our future in this rental house, I will be using the Vertical Garden a lot next year. When I say a lot, I do mean A LOT. I also made a decision to plant greens indoors, so I will move ahead with that plan.
Bed 5 had basil until blight hit. I was frustrated with critters digging up my onions this season, so I took what was left and planted them into Bed 5. I have been pleasantly surprised that they have started to grow again, and they look pretty healthy. I am pretty excited about that!
Plant |
Assessment |
Parsley |
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Onions |
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Guerrilla Garden
The zucchini in the Guerilla Garden were spared from squash borers; can they be spared from the frost? 9/23/16
The three zucchini plants in the guerrilla garden took off once I eliminated the squash borers. All three plants look really great, but I have not harvested any zucchini yet. The female blossoms are just not being pollinated and are rotting on the vine. Friends like Pam at Growing North and The Garden Voyeur have both recommended hand pollination. I have never tried it. However, it is late in the fourth quarter, and I would love to grow some of my own zucchini. Let’s see what happens!
Male and female zucchini buds. I will have to make the love connection. 9/23/16
Here is a summary of the three zucchini plants in the guerrilla garden.
Plants |
Assessment |
Zucchini |
|
Watch
I posted a Garden Update video on the Small Scale Life YouTube Channel (which you should subscribe to and share with your friends), but you can watch them right here.