Tag Archives: Leeks

Nightshades on Parade

Tomatoes are iffy here.  To do well you have to find a sunny spot, a warm micro climate works best.  My garden spot just is at the edge of the garden and as such doesn’t serve tomatoes well.  Our little balcony is another story.  High up on the south side of the building, the sun warms the area early and continues through most of the day.  Varieties suited to containers are my mainstay and this year is no exception.  This past month has seen the harvest of the Tiny Tims I purchased at the local garden center.  A packed purchased on Amazon was either crossed with something else or mislabeled unless Tiny Tim has grown in to Jack’s Giant. Fortunately a neighbor with more space adopted Jack’s tomato and my little TT has been putting out fruit for the past couple weeks.  The Lil’ Bites cherry that I started from seed has also started ripening.  Wow are there going to be a LOT of cherry tomatoes.

Of the nightshades that have done wonderfully this year are the Russian Banana potatoes I planted back in April.  We had our first ‘official’ harvest a couple of weeks ago.  Almost 5 pounds from one small tuber.  I planted 10 and am planning to stagger the harvest to have potatoes well into the Fall.  These fingerlings are wonderful roasted or baked.  I’ve not tried preparing them any other way so can’t speak to how they would do boiled or mashed.

The zucchini are thriving with the Oya.  I’ve only watered them through the clay vessle.  It probably helps that we’ve had fairly frequent showers this summer so far.  Not sure how they would fare in a drier year.

Some green onions and a couple of leeks from the early planting.  The leeks can be harvested any time from now on.  They’ve done quite well.

The beans have started coming in.  Nothing really seems to bother them here.  I’ve yet to run into Mexican bean beetle or rust.

Harvested:

  • Beans - Roma & Topcrop
  • Cukes – SMR-58
  • Green Onions
  • Leeks
  • Potatoes – Russian Banana
  • Tomatoes – Tiny Tim (purchased as transplant) & Lil Bites
  • Zucchini

Planted:

  • Beans – Contender

Running out of Space

I’m typically much better in the planning department garden wise. I have a map and a schedule and while I don’t always follow it 100% I am pretty good about getting just about everything in and out if not on schedule pretty close to the plan. This year is totally different. No plan, barely a map and the garden is full well before I am ready to quit planting. Part of the problem was the many rows of garlic I planted last fall. Nobody needs that much garlic but like an addict needing a fix I just kept planting. Fortunately the kale isn’t long for being pulled. I picked one plant clean this weekend and will get to the other three as soon as we can eat what we have.

The leeks are about 5″ tall and went into the ground today. I planted about 30 for us and had barely made a dent in what had come up. I gave the extras to Anita, the owner of Rock Farm.

I accidentally demolished one of the rows of beets I planted last month. Large feet and not paying attention. Today I planted a 2 more rows of the cylindrical beets where the Roquette was. I noticed a few beets survived the winter as tiny seedlings and are sending up some seed pots. They are next to the ow kale and will come out as soon as I can get the kale picked and pulled.

I also scattered some dill in an 18″ circle. Last year I planted the dill with the nigella. Not a great idea as they look too much alike.

It looks like the birds have made off with the bulk of my peas. 3 seedlings have emerged and there are holes where the others should be. I replanted into some 4″ pots that I’ll keep on the deck till they get big enough to be able to fend for themselves.

The kale, chard and zinnias I started under lights were large enough to go into 4″ pots. The basil is suffering. Not sure what the problem is but it isn’t happy. The green onions were a bust too. I picked up some variegated nasturtiums and started 6 pods of them under lights.