We really need to get on a better schedule again. I have been letting the kids stay up late, not even letting them out to ride bikes and such until after 7 pm, gardening up until it gets too dark to see at about 8:30 or 9 pm, and then watching tv, reading, etc until well after midnight! I am an early riser usually so being tired in the morning or the alternative, sleeping later and then feeling lazy for it, well, it's just not working! Today was the hottest so far, actual temp of 103 at 5 pm, heat index of 117. I knew it was going to be bad when I woke up and could barely see through the haze in the backyard, so I forced myself to do inside chores, but ended up really happy that I used the time wisely instead of just laying around all day!
Today's chore: Onion Day!
Because of the humidity, I have had my onions hanging and curing in the house for several weeks. I was able to ignore them for quite awhile since they were so pretty, but lately every time I walk by them or look at them sideways, the browned skins and tops would crumble and fall all over the floor! I took today as an opportunity to clean it all up finally. The few that were perfect were hung in mesh bags, but many were already bolting with wide necks when I harvested them, so all of those got chopped for the freezer.
I'm only cooking for myself and 2 little kids, so this will do nicely for stir fry and salsas into fall.
On to my pathetic garlic harvest. I "forgot" to order my garlic last year and on my way out the door headed to Minnesota for Thanksgiving I hurriedly planted a few of the previous year's harvest, thinking I would do more when I got back, but never did!
That's all I've got for this year, yikes! Good thing hubby the pizza chef isn't here, because I can hear him now, "oh, this won't do at all"!
The shallots, however, completely rocked out this year and I have no shortage of!
On the right is the remaining 1/2 garlic bulb and 3 shallots leftover from last year, I planted exactly enough!
Tonight, it's supposed to thunderstorm again so I didn't do anything in the garden except walk around with the camera wondering how the heck that stuff is living out there...
(sorry for hazy photos, humidity got inside my camera!)
The 1st Brandywine of the year
Sorry, I am obsessed with these Polish UFO's... they are getting so big!
"We're gonna need a bigger boat"
What am I going to do with all these peppers?
I just love the variegated leaves, even if the peppers look like yucky Okra, LOL
I didn't even know these were out there!
All those peppers are in this one bed!
Yuk, the Japanese Beetles are here... luckily they prefer my grapes and I noticed them over there tonight. These are my first apples, ever, so I really want them to live!
heehee, anyone have a bed that looks like this? pretty bad....! I kind of forgot about it back behind a shed and now it's full of weeds and Sassafras tree seedlings. I just dug it a month ago, but it's already been taken back by the yard.
Bells of Ireland - won't grow again, they fall over and look horrible!
My favorite right now!
I heard a rumor about the weather breaking tomorrow - I hope so because from the looks of things, I have some harvesting and spraying to do!
Gosh, I think things still look remarkably good out there, Erin. I was expecting everything would be wilted and brown around the edges. Your super-green thumb is obviously still alive and well!
ReplyDeleteWow, I so want to visit your garden! I've never heard of anyone getting humidity in their camera, what a pain! The UFO Polish are looking really neat!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe your pepper plants. All of my peppers get sun scald because there are only a few leaves per plant. Nothing at all like yours. Those are amazing.
ReplyDeleteYour garden is doing so well. Our peppers don't have any peppers yet and our tomatos have just started to get fruit. We are way behind!
ReplyDeletenot all is looking so good - I am saving the other photos for Garden Blogger's Death Day at the end of the month LOL!
ReplyDeleteWhere have I been??? I hate not having access to your blog at work.
ReplyDeleteThat bradywine looks amazing. I don't even think I have any fruit yet.
How are your artichokes holding up under the heat? A couple of mine are starting to yellow around the edges.
Oh, least the garlic that you have this year are big and beautiful!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I planted some shallots from the supermarket last fall. Only one out of 5 made it. It's completely spit oven now but I can't decide on whether or not to harvest it.
Everything looks good considering the heat you've been having. I do hope the weather breaks for you. Ours seems to have mellowed a bit. We had another 2 inches of rain yesterday but now it seems like we should have a few days without rain. I can't wait. I tried to harvest our raspberries yesterday and sunk into the ground up to my ankle. A little dry weather would be nice. I''ll try to send some of our cooler, drier weather your way!.
ReplyDeleteYour Polish UFOs look great!
Judy
I'm gonna have a lot of stuff for GBDD too! Nothing like high humidity to get virus running willy~nilly in the garden.
ReplyDeleteErin-
ReplyDeleteHow can you tell if you should save your onions or freese them? What does "bolted with wide necks" mean anyway? How do you know when they're ready to harvest? I have a LOT of onions planted and growing like crazy. I guess I'm going to have to research this!
Thomas, you will see my artichokes at the end of the month for Death Day! Yes, the peppers certainly love hot & humid coastal VA, but I DO NOT!! I don't know how all you Floridians and Gulf Coasters do it every year, you are brave gardeners! My queue for GBDD is getting quite full...!
ReplyDeleteHi Patty! When onions are ready to go to seed, or "bolt" they send up huge thick green stalks from the center with a flower head on top. The problem is, they are wide and open and so if you harvest an onion like this, the skins and neck will never dry and cure properly. You will know because after hanging them for a week or so, that center stalk will remain green and juicy looking, and basically they will rot from the center, since air and moisture can readily get in through this stalk. Ideally, they should be pulled before that center stalk forms, but after the onion has reached a good size. It's hard to judge! You may not have this problem as much since you don't have super high temps to send that onion into overdrive to cause it to go to seed, or "bolt". It's a constant battle here. Anyway, after hanging and curing for awhile, any that aren't drying or still have green center stalks get chopped and frozen so none is wasted! On a side note, I have to do this to most of them anyways since we don't have basements near the coast so nowhere to store veggies for winter! Keep posting pics of those onions on your blog, MamaPea or I will let you know when to pull them, LOL! It's a definite learning curve, this is my 2nd year doing onions, the first was a joke :)
Patty, here's a pic of the onions right after I pulled them on this post... enlarge it and check out where the leaves join the onion, some of them are really wide and have no "waist" - those have bolted, sorry you can't see the flower heads in the pic but they're there!
ReplyDeletehttp://gardennow-thinklater.blogspot.com/2010/06/todays-harvest-no-vampires-tonight.html
Erin-
ReplyDeleteThank you very much! :)
I know what you cacn do with all those peppers -- send them to me! My scrawny plants only manage to give me a dozen or so before they poop out. Also, if you can send a few sassafras seedlings my way I'd be very grateful too. Think it'll grow up here in the chilly north? :)
ReplyDelete