brassica

Mid Season Bounty

Jen Powell1 Comment

Our garden is growing like crazy! Some vegetables are starting to ripen, and we’re eating lots of fresh stuff. We had a lot of lettuce, which I’ve been trying to pick before it bolts. We have had zucchinis galore! I’m growing three kinds this year, a regular green type, a yellow zucchini, and Zucchini Rampicante (a long type that curls). I’ve even just picked a couple of vine-ripened tomatoes! (Usually I’m waiting on some of those till later in the season). My garlic is almost ready, and we’re getting cabbage. Below you can see the photos of the garden:

  • Here is a picture down the path of our main garden.
  • Here you can see one of my giant pumpkin plants. The fruit you see is the one I chose to grow large. Any others I will pick off so that one can grow giant. I have three giant pumpkin plants this year.
  • My zucchini Rampicante plants against a trellis. These zucchini are so tasty that I am growing them again this year. They also turn into a winter squash if you leave them on the vine. (I usually don’t).
  • Here is my zucchini bush patch. I have 6 plants here, three green zucchini and three yellow. They are starting to over-run us. I am freezing zucchini like mad and we are eating a lot of it too.
My husband next to my Mongolian Giant sunflower plant, first in Mid July and then just this past weekend. He is 5’10” for reference. The plant is still growing – supposed to get up to 14 feet tall. In the second pic you can see one of the curly zucchini in the foreground.
  • Two of my cabbage that I picked. They formed some nice heads.
  • Here they are cleaned up. Not the hugest heads yet but I was super impressed.
  • My first ripe tomato! It was a 3-tomato mass that had grown together. I couldn’t even pick it without breaking the stem, the three tried to come apart.
My cabbages are doing fantastic. I have most of my brassicas together in the main garden this year, and I’ve been diligently spraying them with a “cabbage moth spray” I made to keep the stupid cabbage moths away. In my attempts at cabbage before I wasn’t even able to get heads, because the moth caterpillars ate them. So now, I make a spray by putting citrus (lemons or limes) and garlic into a jar, and fill it up with water. I let it soak for a week or so on the windowsill. I then strain it into a spray bottle (topping the bottle off with water if it’s not full). Then I spray every couple days or after rain. I make sure to spray a lot down into the middle where the heads are forming, I think the moths lay their eggs in there. They still do a little damage but they aren’t decimating the plants.
  • Here is my first sunflower to bloom in the main garden. It’s supposed to be more of a red variety.
  • Here is a torch sunflower (Mexican sunflower). These are about 5-6 feet tall now.
  • Here is a sunflower in my cottage garden. It’s not very big – the plant had broken, but then kept growing, so I think that is why it is stunted.
  • I have poppies galore! I have two spots in the cottage garden where they re-seeded from last year, and then one spot I planted a mix of them. I’m hoping they continue to re-seed. I didn’t have any luck with poppies until last year.