Thornless Blackberry Flowers
The blackberry bush is laden with flowers, indication of a good harvest.
Hope I get to the ripe berries before the birds and the insects.
Yesterday was a very busy day. According to the weather report, night time temp will be staying above 50º as of last night, so I transplanted my bittermelon, Chinese celery, celeriac and Chinese long beans, gave each a nice drink of fish emulsion fertilizer. They are all happy in their new home.
Before transplanting the bittermelon seedlings I pinched off the tip of each, this will encourage branching.
Peas are looking good, stakes the snow peas and sugar pods. Hoping to plant my soybeans this week and maybe angled luffa, cucumbers and squash.
Choy sum not doing well at all, most are very skinny, as you can see from the above photo. I cut off the flowers (just above the last leaf from the ground, should have harvested earlier), fertilized the remainer of the plants and hoping for a cut-and-come-again harvest. Added the flowers to my spinach soup, they were tender and tasty not to mention added a lovely color to the dish. Remembered to take photo after I ate the soup, which was too late.
Harvest was good this past week.
◊ Spinach, 4 pounds. Shared a portion with neighbours, made soup with part of the harvest and froze the rest.
◊ Red giant mustard, 2½ pounds. Made soup and froze for the future.
Harvest lettuce, left: oakleaf; right, don’t know, was from a package labeled mesclun. Made a delicious salad with just oil and vinegar, oh so good.
Copyright © by Norma Chang
Visit Daphne’s Dandelions http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/ for more Harvest Mondays
Garden to Wok 
I look forward to seeing your gorgeous juicy berries – your garden is in full swing – well done my friend 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Hello CCU,
I am looking forward to the juicy berries, need to make sure I get to the berries before the birds and insects. My garden is coming along, should be in full swing next week.
It’s nice vegetables. Planting vegetables and eat them by myself is perfect. 😀
Hello Cocomino,
Yes, freshly harvested vegetables are perfect.
All those leaves are looking so succulent and delicious Norma! I’m just starting to pick my lettuce, spinach and chard and it is so good to again have a bowl of home grown salad…
Hello GD,
Agree, after the winter, a bowl of home salad is sooooo good with just a simple dressing.
Your blackberry flowers look beautiful. And I see I’m not the only one to grow choy sum. I do love it.
Hello Daphne,
My choy sum did so much better last year. Read your choy sum post and agree the weather has affected the harvest. I am hoping for plump and tender shide shoots.
You have a wonderful variety of greens in your garden, I look forward to seeing the bittermelon grown..c
Hello Ceciliag,
Yes I do have a variety, a little of this and a little of that. Bittermelon harvest is around July/August.
Looks like you were able to bring in a lovely harvest of greens, despite it being a busy time — It’s so nice to be back in the garden and eating what we grow!
Hello Leduesorelle,
Yes, it is very nice indeed. Actually I still have some of last year’s harvest in the freezer, but fresh is definitely better.
Norma, I got a chuckle out of you remembering to take a photo after you ate the soup. I can’t tell you how often that happens to me. The food looks so good that I forget to photograph it and go straight to the eating. Your photo of thornless blackberries is inspiring. I have two plants but they’re not doing well. I may need to replant them. Do yours spread like regular blackberries?
Hello Lou,
I am glad I am not the only who forgot to take photos in a timely manner.
Yes, the thornless blackberries do spread, but I think it spread less than the regular, the berries are huge and sugar sweet, getting to them before the birds and insect is a challenge.
Nice looking greens!
Hello Zesty,
Thanks.
I love your harvest Mondays Norma. Your harvest looks great. I planted a pot of just lettuce this year too. My garlic and green onions look great. We had an amazing long weekend 28C yesterday at the cottage. We’re on the road home making the 3.5 hour trip home (at least we hope it will be 3.5 hours and not more).
Hello Eva,
Thanks. I was just going to harvest the outer leaves from each lettuce plant but I needed the space for my bittermelon so pulled up the whole plant, still plenty in the garden will have to get some friends to come by and harvest as I will be needing the space for my sweet potatoes.
Glad to hear yur garlic and green onions are looking great. Feels good watching things grow, isn’t it? Were you writing from a laptop in the car?
Believe it or not Norma, I often use my iPhone 3Gs to comment on blogs during down time. It takes a while to get used to the mini keyboard and I have to scan the auto correct (there have been some real weird corrections!) but all in all it’s fine and convenient. I also do entire posts from the phone…crazy but true! We actually beat the traffic and made it home in the normal time! But I wouldn’t have wanted to leave any later, that’s for sure!
Hello Eva,
Glad you made it home from the cottage in the normal time.
Thank you for this update! I enjoy so much reading about your garden harvest! I have just realised I have choy sum seeds I have never sown because I didn’t know what it was (a friend sent me some seeds from Japan and didn’t know herself what it was; this is the only plant I haven’t identified so the package has been lying unopened for 2 years… Thank you for this photo! I will sow it straight away (if it’s not too late).
Hello Sissi,
Whether it is too late or may be too early, all depends on where you are, what planting zone are you in?
Switzerland (but not the high mountains zone). We have very mild Autumns, so maybe I can try it… I can make a small test and risk a couple of seeds.
Hello Sissi,
Try a few seeds at may be 5 – 10 days intervals and see which date works for your area in Switzerland.
4 pounds of spinach and 2.5 pounds of red mustard? You certainly did have a good harvest for this time of the year. Aren’t those blackberry blossoms pretty? It’s such a mixed bag trying to grow berries of any kind. There’s so much anticipation watching the plants blossom and the berries grow. And then, just as they mature, the birds, squirrels, and insects descend. It can be so frustrating. I’ve a similar problem. The neighborhood raccoons like my tomatoes and they’ve a knack for picking them the night before I had planned to do so. I’ve yet to figure out a way to outsmart them but hope springs eternal …
Hello John,
I had a good harvest except for my choy sum, I was really disappointed. You know I never paid much attention to the berry blossoms until now that I am blogging. Let me know when you figure out a way to outsmart the wild life.
By the way, the kolkwitzia does have a fragrant. Went to Locust Grove yesterday to take a sniff, it is a delicate scent, one needs to get up close and personal to enjoy the fragrance.
Oh those black berries are going to be great! Will you put bird netting over them?
Hello Mary,
I tried bird netting but somehow the birds managed to get in but cannot get out then I have to release the bird so I gave up on netting.
Sounds like another productive weekend Norma. I thought of you this weekend I I finally managed to plant a few flowers and some herbs/vegetables in my garden. It is a very small little patch, but hey, it’s a start. I bet your lettuce was just amazing in your salad!
Hello P and P,
It was productive and hectic. The problem with gardening in the Northeast with such a short growing season and unpredictable weather is one needs to make hay when the sun shines, its a challenge with timing. Yes, the lettuce salad was out of this world with just a simple dressing.
Glad you got planting done over the weekend. I beleive your weather pattern is pretty close to ours.
There is lot of advantage to having a smaller and more manageable garden patch, I think if I had a smaller patch, my garden would look a whole lot better organized and cared for.
I’m starting to get obsessed about growing berries. I like the idea of a thornless variety. it would be so great to have freshly picked berries for breakfast!
Hello CCBG,
Yes, fresh picked berries for breakfast is a special treat.
Four pounds of spinach is a LOT of spinach! Wonderful harvest pics, as always!
Hello Pooks,
It was a lot of spinach in the basket, but not much in the pot.
Looks like an abundance of blackberries is in your future! Good harvest of spinach this week.
Hello Kitsapfg,
I hope I get to the ripe berries before the birds and insects, it’s a challenge since they are up earlier than I am.
ooooo blackberries – yum, yum, yum. A scarecrow perhaps?
Hello Loz,
One of my neighbours had scarecrow and owl but nothing seems to work, there are so many birds, I tried netting but there frequently is that one bird that finds a way to get in but cannot find its way out, gets trapped under the net and I have to release it, adding insult to injuries.
I hope you get to the blackberries before the birds too. Fresh grown blackberries are the best in my book. 🙂
Hello Kristy,
I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Blackberry flowers already??? Is that not *really* early? I’m not familiar at all with different varieties of blackberry – the only ones I know really are the hedgerow variety which grow during the early autumn here, so the flowers are usually out in very late summer. I never heard of blackberries flowering so early. How lovely to have blackberries on the way in earnest so soon!
Hello Charles,
I don’t know if my blackberries are earlier this year or not. This is the first time I noting the dates. Yea for blogging!
I like the color of you oakleaf, Norma!
Hello YC,
The color of the oakleaf lettuce is very pretty.
The two things I miss most from our old place down south are my berries and my asparagus. Okay I miss gardening most of all and then the berries. I love your gardening posts.
Hello Maureen,
Thanks. you don’t have a garden? Hopefully you have a farmers market nearby so you can load up on berries and asparagus. I going to be demoing at the Rhinebeck Outdoors Farmers Market in June.
I have also a thornless blackberry tree! My flowers haven’t opened yet! Your salads are looking so fresh & tasty too! 🙂
Hello Sophie,
I think mine is earlier this year, but then this is the first time I am documenting dates, will see what happens next year. Yes, the salad was fresh and tasty, so much superior to the store bought.
Thank you for the advice!
Hello Sissi,
You are welcome, I would love to hear about the results.
I have never seen blackberry blooms before, so beautiful!
Hello Sawsan,
Yes, they are beautiful, sitting back and waiting for berries.
Beautiful blackberry flowers. I’m having problems in germinating bittermelon and wintermelon this year, maybe the seeds are old.
Hello Mac,
Do you not save your own bittermelon and wintermelon seeds? I stopped growing wintermelon. If it is not too late to start I can send you some bittermelon seeds, the only issue with my seeds is that they got cross pollinated. I planted the white variety next to the green variety few years back, resulting in a paler green bittermelon.