Gardeners' hard work rewarded with huge and varied harvest at Davies.

Hi Everyone,

HARVEST TODAY 136 lbs.      YTD 732 lbs.

What a busy day we had...and finished all our chores!! Our terrific crew: Jamie, Susan, Mary Elizabeth, Martha, Joyce, Cathy, Steve, Rita, Nancy and myself (I hope I didn't miss anyone). I came in late this morning, but when I got there everyone was busy harvesting. Things we picked today were tomatoes, bush beans, chard, cucumbers, cantaloupe, herbs, fennel, beets, carrots, eggplant, okra and peppers (jalapeño, serrano, shishito and pablano).

Everything piled up waiting to be weighed.

The peppers are finally starting to put out. We are way behind last year on the peppers. Cathy pulled about the last of the beets and carrots. More beets have already been planted and the plan is to plant more carrots Saturday. Two Minnesota Midget cantaloupe were picked today with more on the vines. We planted a second crop of these which are just starting to blossom.

Last of the carrots, beets and fennel.

The beans are plentiful on the first planting, and now we will be able to start harvesting some of our succession plantings by Saturday. The second crop of potatoes are growing up, and Steve hilled them up with our rich compost, which Jamie worked on this morning.

Peanut bed with sunflowers at the end.

The peanut bed looked flush this morning, so think it got a boost with the comfrey tea we put on Saturday. Martha and Nancy de-egged the squash plants and I injected some Bt in the stems as a preventative, although I haven't seen any of the waspy critters responsible for the SVB's lately. All the squash look surprisingly good. We should be able to plant one more succession of squash. Joyce tied up tomatoes and Mary Elizabeth watered. Susan and Cathy planted six Camilla cucumbers, four of which replaced the seedy 'Potato' cucumbers. Yep, we pulled those suckers out....too many seeds. Two more Camilla cucumber towers were planted on the other side of the garden.

Bubba's Black Beans....Bubba would be proud.

The black beans should be ready to start picking next week, and do we ever have a crop. I remember last year they went until nearly frost, so we have a lot of harvesting ahead of us.

We picked the clean leaves on the chard and plan on cutting the rest off about 3 inches from the ground to see if it will send out new shoots for a late season crop. Not listed above in the harvest was lettuce that we found in a shaded spot. It was a loose head that had not bolted or turned bitter, I presume because it was kept cool and out of the sun. What a nice summer bonus.

Overall, it was one of those days that made all our hard work worth the effort. Thanks to all the workers today, and to all those who have been working to make possible this wonderful harvest. Cathy delivered all to the women's shelter, and I know they were thrilled. Included in the delivery was another bouquet of zinnias, which always puts a smile on the face of the lady helping to unload.

'Til later,
Dianne