The rain barrels were finally installed, all four of them, on Sunday, and for once I looked forward to the rain on Monday, which filled them all up in 15 minutes! We have a fifth (metal) barrel, a well-made one which we got from a neighbor, but before I use it I want to ask him about the paint he used on it, whether it could have lead in it.
I slashed down the potato plants in the Keuka Gold and Red Norland bed, and have taken enough potatoes for this evening’s meal. I will harvest that bed piecemeal until I need it for planting something else -. The problem is that we don’t have a good root cellar area yet for storing potatoes. There are also green beans, Swiss chard, onion tops, some slug-eaten kale and parsley.
The two larger eggplants have started blossoming, so we’ll have eggplants if the weather cooperates as of now. The tomato plants are looking good too, though nothing is close to ripe yet. Only the cherry tomatoes look like they might be a bust: the plants are 5 feet tall but all stem, and very few leaves and flowers. I need to harvest the basil, which has finally taken off, for pesto for freezing. The Provider and Maxibel beans are doing well, the mature ones are yielding every day and the new ones are up, next to the peas. Only the lima beans aren’t producing, at all – maybe it’s too early.
Amie has been helping a lot, carrying the harvest basket, picking beans and eating them too! Here she is moving a different kind of harvest along…
love to see your wonderful garden.
i really want rain barrels, too. this year they would have been great!
isn’t it remarkable to see how much you can make with a garden? a different space, food, a different way of relating to the outdoors, a way to spend some of your time…