We thought we’d share how everything is doing in our Teaching Gardens now that we’re halfway through our season. Compare with your own gardens and let us know if you’re having similar luck (or misfortune) in your neck of the woods!
BEETS– Eeks. Do we have to start with them? Leaf miner has been making a steady meal of the greens, despite our best efforts to squish the little white egg sacks on the leaf undersides. Our greens are also not especially green; they’ve gone reddish purple (and, no, they’re not a purple-leaf variety). Phosphorous deficiency? The wrong pH for beets, which prefer between 6.0 and 7.0? We’ll be soil testing in the fall to pin down the culprit.
BROCCOLI – Our broccoli definitely suffered from the early heat and did not produce well for us at all this year, with the exception of these beauties that came out of our Clinton site. They were among the earliest planted and seem to have gotten the timing just right.
WINTER SQUASH – The Butternut vines have shot out in the last two weeks and are now making their way down the aisles in healthy, green swaths.
CARROTS – Ours are growing very well (despite most of our staff and Gurus insisting that they never have luck in their own gardens), but most of the roots are still dime-size in diameter – too early to harvest just yet. Except for our Teaching Gardener Maria’s carrots, which are downright amazing and got a round of applause last class.
CILANTRO – Always a polarizing crop! It’s growing well and our gardeners are either harvesting it happily or trying to give it away as quick as they can.
CUCUMBERS – They’re vining their way up our trellises and flowering – no fruit visible yet.
EGGPLANT – The largest our gardeners have is roughly the size of a golf ball, but the plants are hale and more pollinated flowers are obvious, so we have high hopes for a good year for eggplant.
GREEN BEANS – We’re elbow-deep in the harvest right now, but can’t wait to get the bean-beetle fodder out, out, out! Fortunately, most of the bean beetle damage occurred too recently to have inhibited the plants’ production. Still, next year, we’re considering using row cover for added protection against the pests.
GREENS – Our greens have almost uniformly begun to bolt. The July heat is too much for them so we’ve been scrambling to harvest what’s still useable and screwing up our faces as we taste test the arugula that’s gone by.
KALE – Yep. It’s growing. Slow. And. Steady.
ONIONS – Patience! If you want your onions to grow to their full potential, it’s not quite time to harvest. Ours are looking stellar this year and it’s been a test of patience not to pull them all out right this minute, but we’re waiting for the greens to brown and dry before we begin curing and harvesting.
PEPPERS – These caught us by surprise by maturing so quickly; we’re already harvesting beautiful bell peppers and flawless green jalapenos. Keep ‘em coming!
RADISHES – In all three Teaching Gardens, we’ve had our first envy-inspiring crop. If folks hadn’t planted radishes to start, the colorful harvest of their peers has inspired them to give them a try because, really, what’s more fun than pulling up glittering ruby root crops?
SQUASH – It’s that time of the season. The zucchini and summer squash have begun producing and the recipes for using them up have begun to dot our Teaching Garden conversations.
Our zuke obsession of the moment? Easy squash pancakes: 1 grated zucchini, 2 tbsps. thinly sliced scallions, 1 large egg, 4 tbsps. all purpose flour, ½ tsp. baking powder, salt and pepper. Stir and spoon into a buttered/oiled large fry pan over medium heat. You’ll get 5 zucchini medallions in just a few minutes. They’re great topped with Green yogurt or sour cream.
Sadly, in Leominster, powdery mildew is making itsway through the Teaching Garden beds thanks to a heavy infestation in a neighboring plot. We continuously prune the most affected leaves to prolong our plants’ lives and get as much production as we can, but once present, powdery mildew cannot be “cured.” We’ll spray with a milk mixture (1 part milk to 9 parts water) to slow the progression and hope for the best.
TOMATOES – The excitement is palpable in our classes where everyone is closely monitoring the ripening of their (and their neighbors’) tomatoes. Most have had one or two cherries so far, but we haven’t seen a fully ripe beefsteak just yet. Still, we daydream….stuffed tomatoes….BLTs…caprese salads….mmmm….
And that’s what’s growing in our Teaching Gardens! Let us know what you’re seeing in your own plots and we’ll keep you posted as the harvest continues. Happy gardening!