First Storm of the Season

After a two weeks of 95-105oF temperatures and no rain, last night we had our first "severe" thunderstorm storm of the season. The gust of wind were over 75 miles per hour and the hail and rain were pounding down hard on us for about 2 hours. While we lost electricity for over 12 hours, we were grateful that the power came back on before the next day's heat peaked. 


How did my garden fair?  


From my house, I could see that the pole beans were knocked over and a few of the tomato cages were slightly tilted. The damage was a little worse than what I could see when looking out the window. Tomato plants were ripped out of the ground by the weight of their monstrous size (over 6'), their cages twisted to the point where they don't stay in the ground, the tops of onions were pushed to the ground, soybeans and green beans were crushed by the weight of the fallen tomato plants, and we lost two more apples. Though I think my garden looks ugly and messy right now, I guess it could have been worse. Hopefully everything bounces back and everything starts to look normal again.

Tomatoes have arrived...and they are delicious!

Cherry Tomatoes

That's right suckers! I harvested the first cherry tomatoes of the season today.  Woohoo! By Thursday the latest, if the rabbits do not get them first, I will have 3-4 large tomatoes to harvest (Roma and Better Boys). Yummy yum yum!  Tomato season has begun!

Today was THE Day

Today was the day! After months of anticipation, weeks of speculation, and hours of digging (ok, maybe that was an exaggeration), I finally harvested 45 large garlic bulbs from my garden. 

Freshly Harvest Garlic

I probably could have harvested the garlic a week or two earlier, but we had some rain and I wanted to give the bulbs a little extra time to begin drying out. Since my plan is not to use all the garlic bulbs in the next 3-4 weeks, I am curing the garlic so it can be used throughout the year.  

After carefully digging each plant loose from the soil using a sturdy garden fork, I gently tapped off the majority of the soil from the bulbs and roots. Next, I layered the garlic, with all their leaves still attached, onto an old bath towel in a warm/dry spot, protected from sunlight (my garage). The plants will stay there for 1-2 weeks to dry**. After this time, the leaves should all be dead. Once this occurs, I will trim off the dead leaves (leaving about 4-5 inches of stem), clip the long roots to about 1-2 inches in length), dust off the excess dirt that remains on the bulbs, and return the garlic to the towel in the garage. After 1-2 weeks, I will transfer the bulbs to a cool/dry spot (my basement) to finish the curing process (and where I store the bulbs for future use).

Post-trimming of Garlic

** WARNING: if you don't like the smell of garlic, you may want to find a shady spot outdoors to do this step (examples: outdoor shed or barn).

Invasion

Spotted Cucumber Beetle 

This week, cucumber beetles, mexican bean beetles, japanese beetles, and squash bugs have begun their invasion of my succulent fruits. To help control these savage beasts, I strategically placed several sticky traps around the most susceptible crops - cucumbers and zucchini. These traps are helping a little bit but yesterday I had to bring out slightly heavier artillery. I sprayed the bush and pole beans, cucumber, zucchini, and raspberry plants with some organic Safer brand Tomato and Vegetable Insect "Killer." This didn't do much in the last 24 hours so today I spent some time plucking the insects off the plants and dropping them into a dish detergent and water solution. I will do the same tomorrow as well. Hopefully I can hold off a few more weeks from applying stronger (non-organic) chemicals.  

    

Day length and onion bulbs

Walla Walla Onions

This year is my first year growing onions in my garden. While I am not expecting softball size onions my first year, all three varieties (Red Zeppelin, Walla Walla, and Copra) are looking great.  

Here is a picture of a rapidly expanding Walla Walla onion. These were grown from transplants purchased from Johnny's Seeds. With the longer days of June, the onions are looking beautiful, healthy, and are forming bulbs.  

I will have to start some Walla Walla's from seed in August to over-winter. I have read that growing the onions over the winter makes this already sweet onion, even sweeter. I will let you know next year if there is a difference ;) 

Lost Fruits

I learned a very important lesson today - trellis and cage vegetable plants when they are young, small, and before they have begun to fruit. Otherwise, you will have a few casualties...

Green Cherry Tomatoes

First summer harvest

Yippy! Today I harvested the first of the summer produce - just over 1 lb of zucchini, a handful of green beans, and a single jalapeño pepper.    

Zucchini

Bush Green Beans

Pruning Tomato Plants

My tomato plants are growing vigorously at over 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide. I noticed that some of the plants were extremely bushy, to the point where I couldn't even reach my hand in to grab a tomato if one were ready to be picked. The lower leaves were also blanketing the ground and covered with dirt from water splashing on the leaves. So, to minimize fungal diseases causes by poor air circulation, I pruned the lower branches of all the tomato plants as well as a few branches within the plants that were inhibiting the growth of tomatoes on the vines. The tomatoes are going to be even happier after this "light" pruning.

Careful:  WIDE load

Branches too close to ground 
and needing to be pruned

Post-pruning

Destructive Rabbits

Damn rabbits had a field day in the vegetable gardens today. A family of 5 rabbits pulled the lower leaves from all the sweet pepper plants in garden, chomped the first true leaves off the soybeans, and chewed through the cucumber fence. I understand eating the soybeans with their tasty virgin leaves, but I don't understand the purpose of pulling leaves off the pepper plants. Perhaps these plants were victims of a taste test for the baby bunnies.  Chewing through the cucumber fence...well, that is completely uncalled for.  Seriously, there is plenty of room for these creatures to run through the garden. Granted, they are probably preparing for a quick exit once the plants are full grown in a couple of weeks.  

Lower leaves of pepper plants removed

Soybean's first true leaves chomped off

Hole chewed in the cucumber fence

Raspberries

Ripe Raspberries

I picked my first two raspberries of the season today. Delicious! I can't wait until the rest of the raspberries are ripe.

Growing Onions

Red Zeppelin Onions (Scallion Size)

I started these Red Zeppelin onions from seed in January, transplanted the seedlings in the garden in early April, and today I harvest about a dozen scallion size onions. When full grown, the onions will grow to be about 4 inches in diameter and will be properly cured for long-term storage. I am a few months away from that stage, but today's harvest provides much needed room for the remaining onions to grow.