Its That Time Again...

Pots and planters are being cleaned and gardening starts. Yay!!

Our first round of peas (Marvel) went in on the 13th, along with some French Breakfast radishes and Tom Thumb lettuce.

I will be gone for a few weeks as soon as the weather between here and New Mexico stabilizes and want to have as much in place as possible for Richard to tend.

We are trying something new this year...New Potatoes.

Richard and I both miss having them and we grew loads of them in the U.K...so this is how we are fitting them into our Idaho Falls garden.





I am using our big barrel tubs and planted the first today. The barrel is emptied of soil except for a few inches and I then provide a base of steer manure. The seed potatoes are placed on top then a few inches of soil is placed above them. I put fertilizer pellets on the top of this layer.

This pot will be covered with black material each evening to help keep the soil warm and ward off frost.

 ....and I wish I could figure out how to place these photos side by side...more lessons to be learned.

I've never grown potatoes in a container before so this is a rather exciting experiment.

First Frost Warning....

We received our first Frost Warning of the autumn this morning. Time to go out and think about what to harvest, what to cover....and hope for the best.

Spinach, and more Spinach....

 The beds are definitely thinning out as harvesting goes on....and as crops are harvested I'm putting in more Spinach. It likes the cooler weather and I'm hoping to get enough for a good freezer stock before frosts set in.

This box has Spinach now planted in the end where the Leeks were and another row of Spinach coming up next to the Green Onions.

 The end box has late Peas in, Radish, Green Onion and off course, Spinach.

Richard's Apples are starting harvest...though slowly. A lovely crop almost perfectly blemish free thanks to our Apple Expert neighbor.

Autumn is arriving, slowly but surely.

The garden is still very productive but there is just a hint of autumn in the air.

A few pots are finished and are being cleaned and prepped for winter....and more spinach and lettuce is going in :)

This is the last of our leek harvest. I'm pretty pleased as it was a very dense planting and I didn't grow these from seed so I couldn't select the variety.

I had a bit of a problem with bolting due to the heat. Next year I will need to watch my watering much more closely though the loss was minimal.

This is our third pot of snow peas...with a fourth on the way. It seems to be enjoying the cooler weather and is already very productive.

Richard does love his snow peas.

So far we have harvested three of the Cleopatra melons. They are like a cantelope with very good flavor and will produce in our shorter growing season. They have been fun but I'm not sure if they are space worthy.

The "Fairytale" eggplant has started producing. I continue to be amazed at how much production we have out of the eggplant pots. Next year I may cut this down to two....you can only use so much eggplant.

We are continuing to harvest peppers and will be grilling more this evening for freezing. I'm so happy we decided to try to grow our own. Their productivity has been incredible and we just wouldn't have them if we hadn't taken it into our own hands.

Cucumbers are still going...though they have slowed down.

Not thrilled with my tomatoes. We've grown enough to freeze but I really need to learn more about growing them if I'm to have greater success next year.

Courgettes are still coming...as are beets, green beans, green onions, onions and lettuce. This is definitely a learning experience...not all on the "great" side, but a learning experience nonetheless.

Harvest and New Plantings

We arrived back from a wonderful visit to Port Townsend to find a lot of work to be done in the garden.

Our neighbors were kind enough to water for us and nothing was stressed but much was ready for harvest.

Today we harvested the first two heads of cabbage, eggplant, cucumber, beets, lettuce, snow peas, carrots and Kentucky Wonder and Fortex green beans.

My turnips came out a bit bumpy as I was not aggressive enough in my thinning. Lesson learned. I now get to spend this afternoon prepping beans and carrots for freezing.

This afternoon I will clean veg and plant new seeds. Decisions, decisions.

Mid-Summer Adjustments

We've reached the point of the year where its time to pause, rethink what has worked so far, and start planting for autumn.

My peas this year were a disaster and it was all my fault. Richard prepared a wonderful trellis system for me and I had him place it where I could not get to the peas because of other plantings.

These have now been moved and are being replanted. Hopefully some peas will arrive before the year is out though I may be rethinking the entire pea thing next year.

Speaking of peas this is a photo of our current pot of snow peas. The package said that they did not require support so I decided to simply plant them in the pot and see how it went.

We have been harvesting peas but nothing on the order of what I usually obtain..sooooo










The next pot is back to the regular system with the support in place. Snow peas are already showing and I'm hoping that these will provide a better show of produce.

This is a photo of one of the eggplant pots. I've been searching the web like crazy trying to find out what is the best size to pick and believe that we will have eggplants ready in 3 or 4 days. I'm amazed at the number of eggplants in each pot and they will keep producing for quite some time. Gifts for the neighbors :)

This is a photo of our HUGE cucumber pot. Loads of vines, healthy as can be with lots of blossoms....and no cucumbers developing. The smaller one has 5 or 6 coming so I'm simply going to be patient.

I didn't place a marker in this so I'm not sure what the variety is (I seem to do that with at least one plant or row a year!).

...and the experiment that didn't work.

Leeks do not thrive in pots...lessen learned. These will be pulled this afternoon whilst Richard is at his Chukar's game and perhaps more snow peas.

Bean harvest has started in earnest and must be done every day now.

Three spaghetti squash are developing, tomatoes were fertilized and courgettes are being harvested.

We are due for a trip to Western Washington soon and I'm nervous as can be about missing harvests because they plants won't be picked and may go dormant. Such is life.

Carrots!

I was thinning carrots the other day and was rewarded with some wonderful new ones that were delicious for dinner.

My history with carrots is not great so this has me very happy. I planted another row today and will probably do one more short row which should keep us happy through autumn.

These are a japanese turnip hybrid that have really performed well so far. I have them in one of the fence raised beds inbetween the parsnips and they worked well for keeping the short row productive whilst the parsnips made their slow start.

I baked a few of these the other evening and they were just great. We will see how the rest do. Perhaps I have solved my turnip problem.

My first cucumber pot is starting to show veggies. This one is already twice this size since I took this photo a few days ago. I believe I have about five showing at the moment.

My other cucumber pot, which is twice as large as this, is showing wild flowers and vine but so far no babies.

Back to the garden to plant some more green onions, etc..