And green onions from seed!!! These onions are the best we've ever grown.
On the garden front the very first tomatoes have begun to turn red and the cucumbers are about an inch long. Melons are doing surprisingly well, given the lack of heat, we expect to have enough for everyone to get a taste. Green peppers and celery are doing great, thanks to the black mulch.However because many plants will not set fruit when nighttime temperatures go below 8 degrees, we don't have anywhere the number of melons, squash and cucumbers we would in other years. Some things, like eggplant, never formed fruit at all this year. Last year there was weeks of cucumber salad for every member, this year it'll be more like a cucumber for every member. It's disappointing when we can't deliver on the "peak of the crop" veggies that every one looks forward to.
Despite dire predictions of "global warming", we haven't seen any of that around here in years. The last 3 summers have been getting cooler and cooler if anything. Next year there will be no "hoping" for a good summer. Were planning for another "bummer", and planting accordingly.
Next year we'll be changing our strategy for heat loving plants, growing them in long, unheated greenhouses called hoop houses, or covering the rows with agribond fabric to help keep the heat in. Whatever it takes to get back to decent yeids of curcubits!
In this weeks share:
- Mesclun
- Green Onions
- Carrots
- Golden Beets
- Yellow wax beans
- Kale
- Herbs
- Squash
- Bread
- Eggs
- And a surprise or two
2 comments:
Hi Matt & April!
I figured I'd check your blog to see how you were making out. It was reassuring (although a little sad) that we are all having the same problems this year. I, too, have inch-long cukes and one (1) eggplant! It came from the very first blossom on the very first eggplant I ever grew, which bloomed during those two or three hot days two weeks ago. More blossoms have opened on the rest of the 20 plants, but no more fruit has set. In other news, about 70% of my onions that should be bulbing right now have bottlenecked (bottle-shaped bulbs, thick necks and lush foliage) instead. They can be used in salads, of course, but they look a little weird. Research shows this is caused by - you guessed it - cold and wet conditions.
So, my marketing has been sporadic this season. If the frost holds off, I'm hoping for quite a bit of winter squash.
Your tales of mulch have me thinking of next year already, and, like you, I'm making my plans to hedge against another cold year. You are correct - each of the last four summers in Thunder Bay has been colder than the last.
And if 2010 turns out to be hot instead ... we'll just get more of everything!
The beets and carrots are just heavenly!! Beet & horseradish rissoto....yummmy....
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