The Modern Victory Garden

Friday night, I made the first exploration dig into the potato patch.   The Yukon Gold potato plants have begun to flop over and are starting to show signs they want to die back soon so I expected that the Yukon Gold potatoes were further along than probably the rest of the varieties were.   With the exception of the Yukon Golds (which are in the very front portion of this next picture), the potato patch is lush and still standing upright despite the very tall vegetation on these plants.          

And here is what I harvested from one plant of the Yukon Gold.   I think this is a good harvest considering it was only one plant. I diced these up, drizzled  them with olive oil and sprinkled on some herbs and salt – tossed them to coat evenly and then roasted them until tender and just crisped.   Nice to have potatoes back on the menu again.                              

Today I tackled several garden tasks including:

• Planting some carrots (Bolero) and kale (Fizz) in beds recently opened up with the harvest of lettuces and some cabbages
• Thinned the short rows of turnips
• Thinned the trays of seedlings down to a single plant per cell
• Watered the strawberries, several seedbeds, lettuces, cucumbers, and the bed with zucchini and paste tomatoes
• Pastured the chickens for several hours and kept an eye on them while I worked in the garden
• Layered on finished compost as mulch on the kale patch and the cranberries
• Pulled all the garlic up and laid it out to dry on the side deck area

Here’s the tray of seedlings before I thinned them down to one plant per cell using a small pair of sharp scissors to cut away the extra plants.               

And here it is after I finished the thinning process.   They will perk up and grow much stronger without the crowding and competition.               

I did the garlic pull today because the leaves were yellowing and the elephant garlic was lying over.   I have not weighed these yet as I want to wait until the tops dry down and are removed before I do.                              

The weather is warming up a bit and the three sisters planting seems to be doing better this past week as a result.                         

The pumpkins are running and are even setting fruit now.           

The pea patch is loaded with pods - many of which are almost ready for harvest.                                              

The sugar snap peas are producing well now too.                  

The bush beans (Royal Burgundy) look like they are half runner beans to me.   Behind them are the real pole beans (Blue Lake) but the bush beans are putting out just as strong a central climbing vine as the pole beans?   This is a new variety for me so I am not sure what to expect.                   

The broccoli patch is so dense with foliage that I have been stripping some of the lower leaves and feeding them to the chickens and yet it still has a thick bunch of vegetation.   They are producing some good heads now and lots of side shoots.   Planning to make my first broccoli harvest of the year tomorrow. 

The zucchini patch is thriving and is producing harvestable sized zukes.    

I harvested two of them this afternoon and used them (thinly sliced) as part of the toppings of a homemade pizza for dinner.                        

Since it is a long holiday weekend, I have two more days to putter around in the garden, which makes me quite happy!   The garden is getting busier now and I could use the extra time to get caught up on routine tasks.   I will not be spending all of my time in the garden though, as we will be doing a traditional barbeque dinner tomorrow and watching fireworks with much of the rest of the nation to celebrate Independence Day.    Happy Fourth of July!              

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener