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Only 8 days since the last update which were filled with heat and sun with intermittent thunder showers. Things are growing and we are just starting to harvest and eat. Take a look and see what we have going on this week in the Pickleman Family Garden!
It is only 8 days since my last update and the garden is looking like this. I haven't snapped a pic in the last week but it is a little taller and I have pruned. Let's take a closer look.
Tomatoes
You can see some of the pruning I have done on the 8 or so various tomato plants. At their base, I have sprinkled compost and fertilizer, and I have snipped off all the branches below the tomatoes themselves. Makes for better air flow which is essential.
When we look a little closer at about half the plants, I stopped counting at 50 tomatoes. We have been plucking the early ones off in order to inspire more fruit growth and it seems to be working. Can't wait for them to be ripe enough to eat and a little concerned they might all ripen at once.
Peppers
Peppers are kicking ass too. These ones are called Candy Cane Sweet Peppers and you can see some of the stripes. I picked the first one early and it was delicious! I forget whether these are supposed to turn red when they are fully ripe but I am loving the yield so far.
Might be due to the early summer heat waves but the normal peppers seem to be a month ahead of last year. They seem a little skinnier than the ones at the grocery store but already 6 inches long and much tastier.
As usual, the jalapenos are the give that keeps on giving. Edible within a month of real growth and they keep popping up so that I can harvest 1 or 2 per day. Pretty damn spicy too!
Not nearly as spicy as these habaneros will be. They are a little behind the jalapenos but there seem to be quite a few of them so hopefully the yield is big! To me, they are the best pepper when it comes to a balance of taste and heat. Plenty hot and very tasty! These are the ones I am excited for.
Bringing up the rear as far as development goes are the Carolina Reapers. I was concerned I had a dud of a plant but they have really started to pop recently with the heat. Look at these nasty little critters!
You can see where these puppies clock in on the Scoville meter. Seeing as a small slice of ghost pepper in a sandwich last year made me cry and hiccup with a brutal mouth-pounding heat that lasted a half hour, why would I do it? Well, this year I might as well pretty much double the heat. Just 1 plant will produce enough peppers to assault a couple dozen people of low intellect and 1 pepper in with all the habaneros and jalapenos in a sauce will make it punishingly hot. Can't wait!
Other Stuff
I am growing more than just tomatoes and peppers. This is a big ass spaghetti squash with my hand for scale. Every time I plant squash, they dominate the dojo and try and squeeze everything else out. I prune them and try and get them to grow vertical so that the squash don't lay in the dirt. So many of these growing now that I have to pick them before they pull the vines down with their weight.
Out of a dozen seeds, this is the only snap pea that emerged from the ground. It is now growing like a weed and climbing up the trelace I made with reedy grass grown last year and some twine between them.
We are also getting the first of our cucumbers. Seemingly all of those seeds grew because I have a jungle of 4 different kinds of cucumbers growing into each other. English to Snackers to Telegraph to Pickles and piles of flowers. Hopefully next update I can pull one ripe one off each to compare them.
Blooms
I read that planting some flowers between all the veggies might help with the pollination and result in more veggies! Makes sense so you can see some the Nasturtiums starting to grow near the peas. These will turn out to be colourful edible flowers and the seeds are easy to harvest for planting next year.
You can see in the tomato picture where I planted another edible flower. This one is Calendula which come up nice and yellow and almost look like a weed at the beginning.
PLenty more blooms where that came from as my roses have already bloomed and fallen off. The Hydrangeas are starting to pop with a steady diet of water soakings and some coffee grinds added to the soil.
The day lilies are also looking great. They always grow so lush and green with plenty of bright orange flowers. I learned that they will grow new flowers (instead of concentrating on seeds) if you pinch the wilted blooms off. I have started doing this and, with any luck, another round will pop so August is as colourful.
A week away from the garden due to camping and cottaging should make for some big changes by the time the next #hivegarden post is up. Hope your garden is kicking ass too!
Cheers to all the Hive Gardeners growing and sharing food.
This is the second chapter of the 7th season of the Pickleman Family Garden. Almost ready to plant for a long warm season with 1 less tree to block the sunlight.
Mom started me along my path of growing stuff when I was a kid. Motivated by so many blockchain blogging gardeners, I figured I would plant and share and learn as I reclaim as much grass space as I can. It has turned out to be a fruitful experience and I hope to inspire you to sow and grow no matter what your location or experience level is.
You know, the older I get, the more I am into the first option.
