The Ornamental Vegetable Garden: Harvesting

I have a long post today. Hope you can make your way through it.

The week just past was perfect gardening weather. Cool mornings, warm days and periodic rains.

I'm now getting the rewards of harvesting crops other than salad greens, but I've had help. The dreaded Japanese beetles have been harvesting for a month. I think they're about finished (but I thought that a couple of weeks ago and was wrong.) There were so many more than I could collect in a kill jar, but I did that, too. I had to spray Sevin on a row of mature pyracantha bushes, the edge of the soybean field that is too near my garden, the echinacea in the wildflower garden before it bloomed (so the bees didn't get in the spray), the asparagus, my rhubarb (sadly, it can't be harvested for two weeks following a spray), the potato foliage, and my roses. Last year they were bad, but this year, they would have been devastating without Sevin. I practice organic gardening, but when people say to use non-toxic methods of control for Japanese beetles, I know they haven't seen a REAL infestation.

There are lots of beneficial insects around, but the ony one I know that might tackle a Japanese beetle is the assassin bug, and there just aren't enough of them to take on the huge beetle population.

If you see bugs like the assassin bugs (Reduviid family of insects) in the two pictures below, leave them be. They're helping you, and they're not eating your plants.

Looks like this assassin has itself a beetle lunch.

I also came across a lady beetle that I can't identify. I looked on several ID websites yet I couldn't find one that matched the description. Have you seen this bug? Do you know its name?

There are some yellow and black lady beetles on the sites I searched, but not with solid black head and pronotum and that particular wing pattern. There's a site called Lost Ladybug Project where I submitted this picture for identification. The site notes that they're not getting any funding at present, so it could be a long time - if ever - before I hear from them. [Ed: I found another site: Iowa State University Bug Guide. I posted the picture there and within a half hour (!) I had a response: Milkweed leaf beetle (Labidomera clivicollis). Thank you bug people! (Specifically: Maggie Furtak)]

I've read that there are three types of lady beetle that eat plants, but I only know of two. The others are all beneficial, feeding on plant-eating insects and fungi. If you see a golden or orange colored lady beetle with black spots on its back, get rid of it. That's either the Mexican bean beetle or the squash beetle. I don't think I've seen either of these in my garden, but I have seen plenty of squash bugs, which is a whole different beast. My 'Golden Zucchini' squash inside a tomato cage experiment is growing well, and unlike the previous years where I let them sprawl on the ground, I haven't seen any squash bugs. Knock wood. Maybe it's early yet. I didn't keep track of the timing, which I should have done.

These lovely dark yellow zuchhinis are good right off the vine when they're small, and when larger, good in salads, slaw and on spaghetti, slivered with a vegetable peeler. I always freeze some to put in soups in winter.

In previous years, my beets have not germinated well, grown uniformly, or resisted leaf spot diseases. This year, however, I have two good stands: 'Shiraz Tall Top' - a red variety that I've never grown before, and 'Golden' - a yellow variety that I've grown both last year and the year before. I don't know whether the success is attributable to the location (I've planted them in the area that gets some shade) or the weather. Maybe both. And maybe something altogether different. I'll rotate them to another spot that gets some shade next year and see if they do as well.

I'm sold on 'Tall Top'. The leaves are larger, and they mature faster than other reds I've tried. And I just ate some which I roasted in the oven, sliced and tossed in some of the leaves in a skillet on the stove top. A little pink Himalayan salt is all they needed.

While I couldn't harvest it to eat because of the Sevin spray, one of my rhubarb plants put out the biggest stalk and leaf I've ever seen. This is one of the plants I rescued from my mother's rhubarb patch where she doesn't let them grow any bigger than your index finger. The leaf was over two feet across, and the stem was 22 inches long and 1-1/4 inches in diameter! The other stems were as long as 18", and that's only slightly longer than any of my other rhubarb plants produces.

I've harvested three cabbage heads so far. These 'Early Jersey Wakefield' heads are teardrop shaped, and very mild tasting. This type will be a "keeper" for my garden.

The 'Cosmic Purple' and 'Kyoto Red' varieties of carrots I planted didn't produce well at all. They bolted almost immediately, and most roots were small and hard as a rock. I pulled them and replanted, because I can't believe Baker Creek Seeds is selling something inedible. I also harvested all the 'Koral' carrots and put in a second planting of them. Unlike the other two varieties, 'Koral' did extremely well. I had better carrots from them than I've had of anything previously. This will be my "go-to" carrot in the future.

I do hope the other two varieties do well in the second planting, because they're so pretty. 'Cosmic Purple' has a maroon skin and an orange core, and 'Kyoto Red' is a dark red-orange carrot.

'Cosmic Purple'

Ready for the freezer

Garden slaw: 'Early Jersey Wakefield' cabbage, 'Koral' carrots, 'Golden' zucchini

This slaw was delicious. For the dressing, I started with a recipe called Almost Marzetti's Slaw Dressing and adjusted it slightly to:

2 cups Hellmann's mayonnaise (Best Foods in the west - or, at least it used to be)

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup vinegar: about 1/3 of that being rice vinegar and 2/3 being Boone Olive Oil Company's Honey Ginger White Balsamic Vinegar (yum!)

2 tablespoons Gulden's brown mustard

about 1/8 teaspoon celery salt and 2 teaspoons poppy seeds

When I replanted the carrots, I didn't have grass clippings, so I lightly mulched the bed with mimosa tree leaves from suckers I'd cut off.

Later I remembered that I'd found aphids on some of the 'Koral' carrots, so I shouldn't have planted back into that same bed. If there were many aphids in the soil, I expect I'll have less of a successful harvest from this second planting. I don't think that's what was wrong with 'Cosmic Purple' and 'Kyoto Red', though, because I didn't see any aphids on the ones I did harvest. On the other hand, I didn't look that closely on the ones I tossed out. We shall see. Definitely next year, the carrots will be rotated to a different bed.

I didn't have any luck with the Chinese (Napa) cabbage last year, and I'm not having any luck this year. I did finally thin the bed, but still, they don't want to form heads. The one plant that seemed to be doing it got attacked by something that ate the entire center out of it. I can't see any damage to the outer leaves or anything around it, so I don't know who could have managed to do that.

I'll try a late summer planting (if I still have seed), but if that doesn't produce good results, I'm going to abandon trying to grow Chinese cabbage.

The shady end of the garden (gets late afternoon sun)

On a whim, I decided to plant some potatoes in the compost pile this year. And I'm so glad I did. I didn't think fresh home grown potatoes would taste much different than those you can get in the store, but I was so wrong.

I also didn't know that the flowers on a potato plant would produce seed fruit that looks like this:

They're about the size of a cherry tomato. The flowers do look a lot like a tomato flower. Both plants being in the Solanaceae genus probably explains that.

Potato flower

The good stuff, of course, is underground.

I got my potatoes for planting from the Amish at Fox Farm: red, white and yellow. Chopped them in fourths and stuck them in the compost pile. Here's a picture of my earliest harvest:

The cucumbers are beginning to produce, and judging by the number of flowers, if the weather doesn't go bad, there should be lots coming. I tried a couple of different varieties the first year, and quickly stayed with 'Marketmore'. They're a nice size, smooth and dark green, with a nice mild flavor.

'Golden Zucchini' (l.) 'Marketmore' cucumber (m.) Tomatoes (r.)

This guy will be ready to pick in a couple of days

The 'Jing Orange' and 'Red Burgundy' okra is approaching waist high and already flowering. So far, the Japanese beetles have been very sparse and easily picked off. I hope that continues. The following picture is from several days ago.

(UPDATE: 7/4) I should have been squatting down to look at the okra near the ground. I wasn't expecting to have any pods until it got a bit taller, so I wasn't paying close attention. I had to throw out a few that were too large - they get seedy and woody at a certain point.

4th of July harvest, left to right: 'Golden zucchini', 'Marketmore' cucumbers, 'Jing Orange' and 'Red Burgundy' okra.

It's amazing how well certain plants respond to heat. That includes the peppers, which I planted way denser than anyone in their right mind would do.

The tomatoes are another heat-lover. There are lots of small green fruits on each plant, and one of the 'Missouri Pink Love Apple' plants has a cluster of five full size fruits at the bottom of the plant, but they're still green at this time.

There's a metal bird house at the tomatoes, and I was excited to have a blue bird couple lay eggs in it this spring. They got one hatchling that survived to adulthood, and then one of them laid a second set of eggs. With the very high temperatures of June, I thought for certain that house would act like an oven and bake those eggs. But, I guess the birds are smarter than I am, because they have another baby they're tending. I hope it doesn't get roasted before it can fly away.

The parents keep a close eye on the nest, and whenever I'm working next to it, they "dive bomb" me. Fortunately, they don't let loose any bombs. Nor do they actually hit, but if I look up when I hear them coming, it's a little unnerving.

'Missouri Pink Love Apple'

'Black Beauty'

I've found in the past that as I watch the tomatoes every day and see them getting riper and riper, whenever I determine that tomorrow is the day I'll pick certain ones, that night somebody beats me to it. They never eat the whole thing, they just take bites out of all of the ripe ones that are low enough to the ground. This year, I'm putting granulated coyote urine on the ground around the tomatoes. We'll see if that doesn't discourage whoever it is. It looks like a nice seasoning mix.

In case you're wondering - yes, it smells rather disgusting. Even through the container. I will not be storing it in the house.

The lima beans ('Henderson's Bush') are looking good and starting to send out tendrils.

As for the flowers...they're all showing off.

Something I wait for eagerly each year is now in bloom: Stargazer lilies. They smell soooooo good.

And my new gardens are paying dividends.

Rose & herb garden in foreground, Dahlia garden middle left, wildflowers in background

'Lime' basil (l.) 'Cardinal' basil (m.) 'Red Rubin' basil (r.)

The roses are wonderful.

'Pat Austin'

While 'Pat Austin' is absolutely gorgeous and blooming prolifically, 'Charles Darwin' (another David Austin rose variety - both of which I bought this year) has been producing pretty much one at a time, and some of them look like a different variety. These following two pictures are pretty much what I expected it to look like (depending upon the color your computer renders, but it should be yellow). It's produced some that were almost pink, so I hope it settles in and decides to go ahead and be a yellow rose.

'Pink Enchantment' (an Eleganza rose) is doing well, after having a rough start from a mild winter and freezing spring. And the cutting I made from it last fall and have in a large pot is doing very well indeed.