Tag Archives: Zucchini

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

Mini Greenhouse: Using Roofing Panels to Warm the Soil

Using Fiberglass Roofing Panels to Create a Mini Greenhouse, Extend the Season or Warm the Soil

A few weeks back we had a spell of warmer weather and I waited till the end of it to attempt a sowing of pole beans. A couple weeks after the fact I decided to look for the seed as nothing was coming up. I dug around and found…nothing. The soil didn’t look disturbed so I’m not thinking it was birds. I’m guessing it was just too cool and wet and the seed rotted. When the weather gods predicted another bout of warm weather I was on it. It occurred to me that I could possibly get a jump on sowing if I could warm the soil. Remembering a mini greenhouse I used in gardens past I made a trip to the lumber yard and came home with an 8′ long roofing panel. Once upon a time these used to be made out of fiberglass and perhaps you can still find them but any I’ve found locally have been PVC or ‘polycarbonate’. I’m hoping they will work as well (and last as long) as the fiberglass panels used to. I’ve used them to extend either end of the growing season when just a few degrees can make all the difference. My hope in using them this time is that they will help to warm the soil a few degrees so that the bush beans I plan to plant there will have a better shot at germinating should the weather cool again (a very real possibility around here).

Shopping List

  • 1 clear or semi clear roofing panel. 26″ wide and the length of your choice. Mine was 8′ long
  • 4 1″x2″x16″ stakes per panel
  • length of wire or twine to secure the panel

Preparation and Installation

  1. Cut a 1/4″ notch into each of the stakes, a few inches from the top. This will insure that the wire or twine stays put. I cut my panel into 2 4′ sections but they can also be left whole.
  2. Once you decide where you want your panel to sit, drive two of the stakes into the ground approximately 6-12″ in from each end of one side of the panel.
    Drive two more stakes in 12″ from the first two. If two panels are being installed next to each other you can use 2 less stakes as the middle stakes can secure both panels (see image).
  3. Gently fold the panel into an upside down U shape and set it between the two stakes.
  4. Tie string or wire, crossing over the panels. Thats all there is to it!

Garden Happenings

Harvest

2 large bags filled with lettuce, kale and spinach
The Palco spinach is showing signs that it is about to bolt which necessitated harvesting that 1′ wide bed. Since I wanted the space on either side of it I decided to harvest one of the beds of the Mild Mesclun mix that was ready. I also harvested the rest of the red and butter lettuce from the bed next to the peas. I ended up with two large bags of green goodness, one filled with lettuce and the other with spinach and kale. Way more than we will ever eat I decided to fill some 1 gallon bags for the local food bank. I ended up getting 8 1 gallon bags in total. 3 spinach, 2 kale and 4 lettuce. 8 to go to Helpline and 1 bag of spinach for us.

Sowing

It may be too warm but I sowed two short rows of Renee’s Farmer’s Market Blend lettuce in the shade of the peas.

On the balcony I started a pot of SMR-58 cukes, Astia zucchini and another attempt at “Italian Pesto basil. ALL of the batch I started inside this spring ended up dying. Not sure if it was a rot or ? Need to investigate that.