I had to clear out some of the beets shading my cucumber plants, resulting in this. Finally, a harvest the wife actually likes, and so do I . Greens get boring after a while. These are Touchstone Gold and Shiraz.
Next some turnips and the first Azur Star kohlrabi. The white turnips are Hakurei and the others, according to my planting map, are Boule D’Or, but clearly are not. Hmm, where did I plant the Boule D’Or? These are Royal Crown, a purple top F1 hybrid from Sakata I purchased from Pinetree. They look very nice compared to the typical dried out store-bought turnip. Besides being good roasted or mashed, they are a good low-carb substitute for potatoes in some recipes.
Finally, I picked some lettuce. I was very bad about planting lettuce this year, but these two did get in the ground. These are Winter Density and Marshall, both Romaines. Unfortunately, they are showing signs of bolting, so I have about a dozen heads to harvest soon. Why did I plant 6 of each?
More peas, and plenty more where these came from. This is 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg). So my plan to trellis them rather than grow them in a block seems to be paying off, and they are much easier to pick. Next year I only need to plant half as many.
The onions are starting to size up, so I need to start pulling and using some of the ones I want fresh (and there are a lot of them). These are Red Candy, Tropea, and White Candy. The White Candy went into the lemon risotto for our Fourth of July salmon. The foliage on the Copra storage onions is already showing signs of falling over. The leaves are very tall and at first I thought it was wind from one of the storms that pushed them over. I think I will be harvesting them soon.
What I also noticed is that many of the onions are showing thrip damage. Onions for me have been pretty trouble free, but last year I figured out I had some apparent thrip damage and even some purple blotch. Thrips are hard to control. They are hard to see, being about a millimeter in size, and they produce 8-10 generations a year. The rapid reproduction means they can quickly develop resistance to whatever you spray them with, so you have to alternate sprays. Apparently spraying Surround clay on onion foliage repels thrips and they can’t build up a resistance to what is a mechanical control. Maybe I will try that next year. I have to find some more uses for my 40 pound bag of Surround.
That is what happened in my garden last week. To see what other gardeners around the world are doing, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.
What a colorful array of beets and turnips! Onions too! Oh, and peas! Nice job.
ReplyDeleteI too am impressed with your beets and turnips harvest. Your onions are way ahead of mine hoping mine will size up soon .
ReplyDeleteLovely harvest. Last year I picked onions at the beginning of August. But I have some Copra this year that are already starting to fall. They aren't big enough either. Your beets look so pretty. I'm not a fan of them, but sometimes I grow them just so I can harvest the pretty roots. My townhouse mates like them a lot, so they are never wasted.
ReplyDeleteYou sound like me & my late lettuce! That Marshalls romaine is a beauty - I planted some Pinares & it is still tiny. I tend to plant closely & I think the leaf lettuces are shading them out as the romaine grows a bit more slowly. And that is a whole lot of peas for one picking - I'm glad that your trellising has worked out.
ReplyDeleteVery lovely harvest, especially beats and peas. Gorgeous colors.
ReplyDeletedo you have a pic of your trellis system? i'll be planting fall peas next month and i would like to make a trellis for them. thx.
ReplyDeleteKaty, there are pictures in various posts but nothing specific. I use 1/2 inch galvanized electrical conduit, which is very cheap (<$2 US for 10 ft.). For the peas I cut it to 8 foot, used a 4 foot cross piece attached with elbows. The frame is erected by sliding it over 1/2 inch rebar (2 foot pieces) driven in the ground. You can weave string back and forth or use garden netting.
DeleteLook at all those gorgeous colors! Nice harvest of peas, I failed to get any peas other than pea shoots into the garden this spring and I really miss them. I would never guess that you had any problem with your onions, they look great.
ReplyDeleteWow beautiful colors, lovely beets, turnips, and onions.
ReplyDeleteLOL, why did you plant six of each? Because ... we all get a little stir crazy in the spring and plant everything we can get our hands on. :) I'm very envious of the beets - I had an early planting that failed so I have a long wait ahead of me.
ReplyDeleteEverything looks delicious. That is a ton of peas and your early onions are impressive. And your roots look completely unblemished. How do you eat your beets, do you roast them or put them in soups? I wonder how the peas and turnips would pair together in a béchamel sauce.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been able to grow any potatoes, beets, turnips, or peas here. I'm going to try again this fall and next spring. It might be a matter of timing.
I love the top photo of your colorful beets. The color contrasts of the peas are very pretty too. I thought I saw some purple blotch on my onions the other day. I hope I am wrong but I am keeping an eye on it. Oh, and why did I plant so many kale plants? Well, at least I can feed it to the chickens :)
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