Cabbage Years

Frost

The first heavy frost of the winter!

By now most of the broccoli has bolted. I can't wait to start again next spring!

We still have a handful of beets in the ground. These are tough plants!

Fall Harvest

Kohlrabi is not a household name but this variation on broccoli wins favorite brassica of the year. Each plant weighs 5 + pounds and produces sweet and tender flesh all winter.

Rutabaga will be one of the biggest producers this year. They can overwinter and each plant can supply many meals-worth of food.

We eventually harvested 5+ edible watermelons. The trick is to wait for the closest tendril to die for optimum ripeness.

The summer squash produced for nearly 3 months and overwhelmed us with zucchini!

We had a hard time keeping up with the eggplant. Such a beautiful plant.

This was one of several basil harvests. We made great eggplant Thai basil dishes all summer.

Our first cabbage of the year in all its glory!

Tomatoes and green beans kept us on our toes too!

The carrots didn't come until fall but they will continue to feed us all winter and into the spring.

Our first few waves of broccoli were amazing. We resorted to freezing half of it for savory winter soups yum!

Butternut and delicata winter squash will be a tasty winter staple this year!

We planted edamame (soybeans) as an experiment. Success!

The Growing Continues!

Cabbages are softball sized. Just a week more and we'll be ready to harvest.

The broccoli is ready to be picked. We will leave the plant and continue to harvest side shoots for months to follow.

Butternut squash is finally fruiting. They are taking over the garden paths!

It's hard to believe that this was just bare dirt two months ago.

Watermelon is getting huge. The catalog says these will get up to 22 lbs each. I guess we didn't need to plant two!

All the hard work is paying off. We are so glad to have a garden!

Carrots are just beginning to swell at the base.

Sean peeking at the winter squash.

Early Harvest

The Summer squash are piling up and the beets are from an effort to thin out the patch!

I was overwhelmed by the number of beets left in the garden so I bought some canning supplies. Pickled beets here we come!

Exploding with life!

In a matter of days the watermelon tripled in size.

Asian eggplant is ready for harvest soon.

I always forget how giant cabbage can get!

The Brussels are about ready to start forming in the crotches of the branches

I had to thin out the larger beets like this one to allow the others to mature. We are drowning in beets already.

Our 4 summer squash plants are overwhelming us with tasty zucchini.

I don't even recognize these huge watermelon plants. That is just two plants!

Our pole beans are forming flowers and will be fruiting very soon.

The cherry tomatoes have started to ripen!

Getting greener by the minute!

Crescendo

The very small beginnings of a watermelon.

Cabbage in all it's glory.

These early season cabbage are just about to start heading up.

Tomatoes will only ripen on the hottest days of summer. I'm still waiting!!

The carrots are beginning to shine through. To plant these we deeply dug the entire bed and mixed the tiny carrot seed with a gallon of potting soil. We then spread the seed mixture in small furrows across the bed. Carrots germinate slowly and the longer it takes, the more compacted the soil becomes. We are hoping the tap roots that will later form juicy carrots made it through the soil without too much trouble.