Fenton Friday: Garlic Harvest and more

This year's garlic harvest (pictured above) was just "okay." I blame the lack of rain this spring. And speaking of rains, we have been passed by with almost every promised rain system this past week. We got just a sprinkle from the last two huge systems that dumped tons of rain on the rest of the region. It is heartbreaking and I'm just about to cry. On top of that, more wildfire smoke from Canada is hovering outside and it is not very pleasant to be out in the garden. The garlic is now curing for 3-4 weeks in my sunroom before I use and store it.

In happier news, one of the mounds of Zucchini seeds ('Incredible Escalator', a climbing variety) has sprouted, though the other mound with 'Dark Star' seeds has not shown any signs of surfacing yet. We'll give those a few more days before giving up and replanting them with another variety.

The peppers seedlings are settling in and I planted an 'Ohenry' sweet potato that I got from our Seed Exchange last January. While I waited for it to be warm enough to plant it, it grew it a long vine in my kitchen window -- climbing up and through my blinds. I was able to untangle it safely and now it is twining wear I pulled the last of the spring peas out. 

I picked another quart+ of blackberries. Alas, when I went over today, I found a bird inside the plastic mesh I had draped over it, so I think that may be it for my berry harvest this season.

We also sowed our cutting garden flowers, where I had the garlic planted. We have 4 rows of flowers planted from shortest to tallest. They are: Cornflower 'Velvet Dawn', Scabiosa 'Black Knight', Zinnia 'Mazurkia', and Cosmos 'Apricotta'. In a week or so, we'll place the cut-flower garden mesh over the bed for the seedlings to grow up through. 

I also harvested more Lettuce for a salad and pickled some of the "rat tail" seed pods from the bolted Daikon Radish. 

I still have several seedlings to plant and seeds I want to start including beans, okra, and cotton,

Finally, we planted a PopUp Garden I was sent to trial (pictured at right) with a 'Mrs. Burn's Lemon' Basil and three Holy Basil seedlings in the top portion, then sowed Zinnia 'Thumbelina' in the side holster planters. 

How is your garden plot growing this week?

 

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 12th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See  past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above (at the top, left on this blog).