Back to the Garden (and Harvests)

My wife and I have been gone for a week and a half on vacation (more about that in a later post). Before we left, we did our best to put the gardens on autopilot. We watered, mulched, and then watered a bit more. We crossed our fingers and hoped everything would make it while we were away. This has been a very dry year, and plants has been struggling.

When we got back, everything seemed to be doing pretty well. We even had about a half inch of leftover rain in the rain gauge. That’s not a lot, but it’s the first rain we’ve gotten in September. We got less than an inch in August (we average 3 inches per month in both months). At this point our area is in an official drought, and our yearly rainfall is about 11 inches below average. This is really hurting local farmers, since irrigation is not widely used here, or subsidized by the government as it is in many parts of the country.

In early September I planted lettuce in the greenhouse, and mulched it heavily with shredded newspaper. I was happy to find it growing along nicely. I should be able to start harvesting some of the leaves in a couple of weeks.

Daytime temps are still getting pretty hot in the greenhouse, so this won’t be the best lettuce, but it will be good to eat all the same. This New Red Fire doesn’t get real red in the heat of the greenhouse, but it’s a good grower and tasty.

I also was surprised to come home and find some ripe figs! I’ve planted several figs on the south wall of our workshop building, and they are thriving there. The variety in the bowl is Brown Turkey. They are so sweet!

This plant is at least 8 feet tall, and loaded with figs. Here’s one that is almost ready to harvest.

Also waiting to be harvested was some Swiss chard and a few tomatoes. The fall-planted chard is really producing well for us.

We managed to harvest 3.5 pounds of goodies in this short (for us) harvest week, bringing our yearly total to 754 pounds. For more harvests visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Mondays.