The Modern Victory Garden

Sunday I planted out 36 broccoli (Premium Crop) and 12 swiss chard (Bright Lights) starts.   They went into the garden section where the pea patch had previously been.   I covered the bed with some netting because we have had a rabbit visiting the edge of the garden lately and while I am not too concerned about some of the plants being nibbled on, I am concerned about baby plants getting eaten down to the nub which kills them outright.                       

This is one of several important fall crop plantings that will occur over the next several weeks.   I still have kale and chinese cabbages to transplant out as well, but I ran out of time (and open bed area) this past weekend.   I am hoping to get them attended to on Friday.   My big challenge is going to be to find another open bed area big enough (and soon enough) to plant the fall crop of spinach.   Everything is largely in use at the moment and yet, I will need to plant the spinach patch within the next two weeks if I want to have spinach in September.                                  

While I am definitely thinking about the fall crops, I am also focused on the summer garden that is really coming into it’s own at this point.   The cucumbers have tiny female flowers/fruits formed.                            

Unfortunately, the bees seem to have all largely disappeared over the past several weeks.   Those cucumbers are going to need them and my pumpkins are not getting pollinated.   I am probably going to have to resort to hand pollination soon if they don’t return.                 

I have been keeping a careful eye on the first Siletz tomato to ripen.   It is a little shop worn because this green fruit has been formed for quite a while and had to wait patiently for the weather to warm up - but it is finally getting ripe and I think it may be ready by either Thursday evening or Friday.      

The Siletz plants have lots more tomatoes formed and growing so this one should soon be followed by a more steady supply.   The bush beans and kidney beans are flowering and I think we should have green beans fairly soon.   In the meantime, we are getting a bounty of sugar snap peas and zucchini.   The spring crop of broccoli is winding down but I am still getting a good harvest of side shoots, and I have been harvesting the large leaves for my flock of chickens.   Tonight’s dinner was a stir fry with Pad Thai sauce using the current bounty from the garden and some strips of lean beef and chinese noodles.                                             

For the last two years the Gold Rush zucchini has far outperformed the green zucchini variety.   This year, I switched green zucchini varieties and planted “Partenon” which has been very prolific and for some reason the Gold Rush plants have been rather unproductive.   I suspicion it is in part due to the lack of working bees in the garden currently.   I hope this is just a temporary dip in my bee population due to weather or some other circumstance and that they will return soon.       

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener