Late July. By now I am typically rolling in tomatoes. But not this year. The tomatoes continue to lag behind in ripening.
But they are gorgeous:
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| Brad's Atomic Grape |
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| Cherokee Carbon Heritage |
The peppers, on the other hand, have been growing quietly and steadily, with no fanfare. I picked several last week for this beautiful array:
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| First pepper harvest: Purple Beauty and Cubanelle |
Some went to meals (roasted peppers with cheese) and the rest got chopped and bagged for the freezer.
The Trail of Years pole beans are started to mature as well. The pods turn a greenish purple when they are ripe and I am just now seeing them turn:
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| The earliest ones turning |
The disappointment this year has been the broccoli. I planted three healthy plants and they took hold and grew. Last week I noticed that the heads suddenly looking unusually shaggy; florets were growing up above the crown. I cut one for supper and found myself cutting away a lot of it: something not quite right. Not bugs, not rabbits, not sure what. I didn't think too much about it until I cut the second one yesterday to prep it and ended up with over half of the broccoli inedible. The core of the broccoli was rotting, literally. Those florets that had shot above the crown? I think they were trying to escape the spread. I cut the third and last one this morning and found more of the same. I salvaged what I could for eating and the rest will go to compost.
All I can think of is the title Heart of Darkness:
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| This is what all three heads looked like inside: not pretty |
Insofar as I am working through personal issues of capacity, the loss of the broccoli makes it easy for me to say "no broccoli" next year. Yes, I am already planning next year's gardens. Not intensely, mind you, but keeping notes in my harden notebook about results, issues, and such.
And keeping my focus on this year's gardens, surely there will be tomatoes coming my way. Soon, I hope.
2 comments:
I've had that happen to broccoli too, and it's always disappointing. I've wondered if it was due to too much rain, but not really sure. The atomic grape tomatoes are lovely, and those beans are too. We're looking forward to our first peppers and beans, probably weeks away yet. Enjoy yours!
Laurie, I don't think we haven't had enough rain (steadily, regularly) to do that kind of damage. And while I do water the garden, I am fairly conservative, so who knows? Maybe when it was getting started, when I did water more heavily, but that was before the plant had even started putting more than a leaf or two out. We will enjoy what we salvaged!
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