The Patchwork Kitchen Garden: The Eleventh Week
“Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.” – Hippocrates
This week in the garden we had a lot of rain. It practically rained everyday this week so really I didn’t spend too much time outside. But the little time that I did spend outside was absolutely wonderful.
I picked my first pea pod this week to see how the peas are progressing. I wasn’t pleasantly surprised by how many peas were in the pod. Inside I had five plump little peas that I actually got to try fresh from the garden. To say that these peas were the sweetest peas would be an understatement, they were so delicious and they positively bursting with sugary sweet goodness. I can’t wait until the rest of my pods are developed enough to pick. Honestly, it’s going to make me so happy to shell my own sweet English Peas and have them fresh from garden to table.
The peas aren’t the only veggies that are almost ready for harvest. Recently, my white and red potato plants started dying back. You might think, “dying plants doesn’t sound too good.” But when it comes to potatoes, it’s a signal that the plants are done growing potatoes below the soil and whatever potatoes that got produced during the months of growth are just waiting to be harvested. Currently I’m waiting for the plants to die back a little more and keeping the watering to a minimum. I want the soil to relatively dry so it’s easier to dig up the taters out of their spring trenches. I’m really hoping for a nice harvest but I won’t really know until I dig, so let’s all think happy potato thoughts until then. Hopefully by next week I can finally see what lies beneath.
Other than this exciting news, everything else seems to be thriving and almost everyone survived the aphid attack. The combination of the vinegar solution and the bout of steady rain really got the situation under control. Now the Ladybugs and other carnivorous insects can keep it under control. Any damaged leaves from the vinegar spray were pruned off and now everyone is growing bigger than ever. The only other casualty besides my Dill is unfortunately my one Foxglove. Those aphids really sucked the stalk dry and it started to yellow. My only option was to cut the stalk off and hope that it grows new shoots. I probably won’t see new growth until next year, until then I will nurse it and make sure it stays healthy.
Even with this little bit of bad news, the plants are thriving in the summer weather. Especially my tomatoes and peppers. The tomatoes and peppers are starting to bloom and I’m counting the days until I will see my first couple of summer veggies come on. Which makes it exceptionally exciting to see a few little cucumbers and a couple pumpkins growing out of my compost. For me personally, this is the only good thing about summer. Seeing months of hard work paying off and literally seeing the fruits of your labor.
Well, that’s pretty much it for the week. Like I said I really didn’t have much garden time because of the rain but it was oddly still productive and still very rewarding.
Down below you can see the garden in all its glory in the gallery. Until next week, Happy Gardening!
