July Garden

Our summer garden, facing west.Summer garden, view facing northeast.

The weather this year has been nearly ideal for gardening. We've had a nice mix of sun and rain and an early summer which set us up nearly 2 weeks ahead of schedule. We also installed a drip irrigation system and it really made a difference during the oppressive heat of the last few weeks. There are a few lessons we've learned this year which will hopefully help us with next year's garden:
1. Use floating row covers on all transplants. Gives 'em a fighting chance against the hungry hordes.
2. Seed squash directly. I tried starting them in biodegradable pots made of composted manure thinking that it would allow me to transplant them without disrupting the root system. All my curcurbids went into shock and slowly atrophied for the first month out there in the wild, then got eaten by nearly everything.
3. Plant more peas and fava beans. We had lots this year, but only a handful was ever ripe at any given time.
4. Plant peas/beans and squash together. The legumes will act as a green fertilizer and by the time the squash vines really start to take off, the peas are already dying back.
5. Weed the raspberry patch. Even if you think your raspberries are the most wild and voracious variety, there are weeds out there that will out compete even them. Just our luck every single one of them in the state happen to have landed in our raspberry patch.
6. Birds eat Sluggo. I don't think it's toxic to the birds, since the active ingredient is a minute amount of iron phosphate, but they will trash your plants in the process. More on that below.
7. Pinch back the side shoots on young tomato plants to promote more fruit development and control the overall size of the plant. This was a tip from local organic farmer Michele Roy. It's too late this year, our tomatoes are already an enormous snarl, but we'll have to give it a try next year. So far, our tomatoes are blight free (knocking on wood). The new location and the red mulch are working well, I think.

This year I wanted to grow some more unusual varieties and sought out some highlighted by Slow Food's Ark of Taste. The slender peppers developing above are Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Italian Frying peppers. I'm really psyched to try them.
Another Ark of Taste varietal we're trying for the first time is the Fish pepper. The variegated foliage is like nothing I've ever seen in a pepper. It's an African-American heirloom from the 19th century. The searingly hot fruits of this plant are best described as the gobstopper of the pepper world. Apparently they start off a creamy white with green stripes, then develop an orange hue with brown stripes, and then eventually blush a deep red. I can't wait to see it person!
Revolution, not an Ark of Taste varietal, but I've included the picture here because the sight of sweet peppers growing makes me so excited.Thai hot peppers. We have 3 of these little cuties just bursting with blossoms at the moment.Our zucchinis took a beating this spring. First they were shocked when I transplanted them and refused to grow for about a month. Then they got a huge infestation of striped cucumber beetles and squash bugs. I squelched their uprising with some safer soap, but then the slugs moved in and nibbled them down to stalks. I scatted Sluggo around the squash mounds, but the carnage just got worse. The next morning I found the remaining leaves tattered, the stalks beaten down and the Sluggo completely gone. It took a few days to figure out what was happening. Our local crows really like Sluggo pellets and a whole gang of them were pecking holes through the leaves and mashing the stems in their haste to get all the Sluggo first. I witnessed this feeding frenzy first hand and had to chase them off with a broom like a crazy person. I ended up putting a little floating row cover over the battered remnants of my poor plants and miraculously they came back. Our first zucchini is on the way, 3 weeks late, but still coming along.A Benning's Green Tint Patty Pan squash ripening on the vine.Delicata squash, also a bit late to the growing season after the cucumber beetle/slug/crow fiasco, is now growing strong.Another new addition to our 2010 garden is Romanesco, pictured above. We used to find this amazing fractal vegetable in the farmers markets in Santa Monica and it tasted so much better than any other cauliflower we'd ever experienced. Since we've moved back to Maine, I haven't come across any in the local markets but I gather someone only recently developed a variety that might grow up here, given a little luck and a long growing season. We thought we'd give it a try and see what we could get. The inflorescences have just started to peek out from the center of some plants. They are only about 2 inches wide, but when full grown should be about 7-8 inches across. An heirloom pole bean flower. These guys produce slender red beans with a taste and texture that reminds me a lot of haricots verts. They are just starting to come on line and are lovely.Japanese Black Trifele, a Russian heirloom, and one of the best tasting tomatoes out there. There, I said it!Here's a new Ark of Taste tomato we're trying this year -- Valencia. Fruits are orange and sweet and sound delish. This varietal was developed in Maine!Our artichoke that survived the winter is setting bud. We've named this plant alcachofa in honor of Joaquin.Some lettuce varieties still manage to stay tender throughout the midsummer heat. I wish I knew what variety this one is, but I don't because it came from a greens mix. It's been the only leaf lettuce that hasn't bolted on us.
Edible organic French Marigolds at the start of each row help to deter some insect pests and make a lovely addition to our salads.