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Blog: Look What’s Growing in the The Kitchen Garden

I must say the weather in June and July has been perfect for growing vegetables. Everything is doing well and I have started to harvest the first tomatoes.
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I must say the weather in June and July has been perfect for growing vegetables. Everything is doing well and I have started to harvest the first tomatoes. The garden was planted during the first week of June, a bit late for around here but I think it has caught up nicely. This month I have been weighing my harvests to see how much our garden will produce. So far we have harvested tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, potatoes and garlic. I have used almost a pound of basil and two bunches of cilantro to date. I will calculate my July harvest and post it so I have some kind of record.

 

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This week baby cucumbers are beginning to form. I can’t wait for the first cucumber! I hope my plans to use plants to attract pollinators means all the flowers will be pollinated. If you have ever grown cucumbers or squash there is nothing more disappointing than having the flowers fall off and the resulting start of a fruit shrivels up.

 

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This year I plant sweet alyssum in between each row of cucumbers. Bees and other pollinating insects love this plant.

 

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The cucamelons, once they had their roots settled in, grew like crazy. Tiny tendrils eagerly latched on to the netting I provided. Yesterday tiny yellow flowers appeared.

 

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I see a swelling behind the flower in this photo. Cucamelons are grape sized fruit so a harvest will not be far away. It’s a dainty vine but don’t let that fool you. It is a vigorous grower and I train stray tendrils along the netting to keep it in control.

 

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The miniature peppers are producing tiny fruit. Remember the red plastic I used. Well, I have come to the conclusion that it did help the plants produce more fruit but the plants without the red plastic are noticeably taller plants. Until I harvest I won’t actually know. Perhaps I need to weigh the harvest for each row to see if the red plastic worked. Mind you, all sorts of factors can come into play like moisture levels in the soil, fertilizer or weather.

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I have forty-five tomato plants on the go and this year they look better than ever.

 

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Farmer Jim made some large posts and screwed them on to the sides of tomato beds. I attached baling twine from one post to the other and will use the twine to train my tomatoes. Baling twine is used on bales of hay and is not recycled around here. I like to think I am doing my part in reusing something over again. Using twine is easier than having so many stakes in the garden.

That’s it for today. I am heading back out to plant but that’s another post. With the cooler temperatures this week, its perfect for working in the garden.