Had a few first this past week.
Red Noodles Long Beans, Tohya Soybeans, Red Burgundy Okra & Ping Tung Eggplant
Red Noodle Long Beans made an appearance, the green Chinese Long Beans should be following this week.
Tohya Soybeans pods were full and plump, ready for harvest. Cut all the plants at soil level leaving the roots with the Rhizobia attached to enrich the soil. Pulled all the pods off the stems. Boiled the pods in salted water for 5 minutes, cooled, shelled and froze for winter use.
Got a few Red Burgundy okras, finally, hoping for more. Plants are flowering so should have a decent harvest.
The Ping Tung Eggplant is growing in a large container. Plant is doing well, I see flowers and a few baby eggplants.
Also harvest lots of Peppermint Swiss Chard, tomatoes, walking onions (I will be writing a separate walking onion post at a later date, stay tuned), amaranth, sweet potato vines and carrots. Did not take photos as they would look like previous photos.
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The heat wave for the past 2 weeks caused all 3 of the Oak Leaf Lettuces in the window box to bolt but the 3 Forellenschluss Lettuces are holding up just fine.
Forellenschluss Lettuce & Oak Leaf Lettuce
Look closely in the center of the oak leaf lettuce in the photo below and you can see the flower stalk is starting to form.
Bolting Oak Leaf Lettuce
Pulled all 3 Oak Leaf Lettuces but harvest only the outer leaves of the Forellenschluss.
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Also bolted were the China Express Daikon that were in a very large container. You can see the flower stalk in the photo below.
Bolting China Express Daikon
Pulled all the daikon. Cut the tender leaves into bite-sized length and stir-fried in a little oil, garlic, onion and ginger. S&P to taste, very good.
Peeled the small daikons and braised them with the Ping Tung eggplants, okras, carrots and onion in some chicken broth. A strange combo but pretty good, made a delicious side, who knew?
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The Shanghai Bok Choy I transplanted into the window box (photo below) in July are getting overcrowded.
Shanghai Bok Choy
Instead of pulling up every other plant decided to harvest the out leaves of each allowing the plants to continue to grow. Will continue to harvest the outer leaves until plants show sign of bolting. Will pull the whole plant then. Forgot to weigh but I am guessing about 1½ pounds.
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Remember the Forellenschluss Lettuce I mentioned in my July 27 post? Look at them now, so lovely and happy.
Forellenschluss Lettuce
Plan to harvest just the outer leaves sometime this week. Plants will continue to grow. Like the Shanghai bok Choy, I will continue to harvest the outer leaves until plants show sign of bolting and will pull the whole plant then.
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The tri-colored amaranth looked so pretty I hesitated to harvest, but harvest I must before they go to seed.
Tri-color Amaranth
Cut each stem about 3 inches above soil level, side shoots will appear for future harvests.
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The napa in the photo below are the ones mentioned in my July 13 post. At the time I was thinking of putting 4 plants in the window box glad I went with 3. The 2 on each end were growing by leaps and bounds crowding out the one in the middle. Decided to loosely tie them to allow the middle one to get some space and sun.
Napa Cabbage
When the middle napa gets a little bigger I may loosely tie it as well.
Loosely tied Napa Cabbage
Will loosely tying the napa help or hurt, don’t know but will learn soon. Right now they are neater and I like the look.
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My neighbor’s woodchuck crossed property line and is feasting in my garden. I believe it is the same one I saw in my garden few weeks ago. Should have hit it over the head when I had it cornered, instead I opened the garden gate and released it. Mistake. But what would I do with a dead woodchuck?
It started with the broccoli
Critter damaged Broccoli
Not much broccoli left to feast on.
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Soybeans were the next target.
Damaged Soybeans Plants
Not only was the critter eating the soybean leaves it was also feasting on the soybeans.
Soybean Shells
Can you believe the woodchuck actually shelled the soybeans? Ate the beans and left the shells.
The soybeans in the photo below are immature and needed more time for the pods to get full and plump.
Immature Soy Beans needed more time for pods to get full and plump.
Even though the Besweet 2001 and the Black Soy Beans were not ready I decided to cut all the plants, at soil level, and pulled the pods of the stems. Got about 4 pounds of mostly immature pods.
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After I pulled all the soybean plants the critter moved on to feast on the parsnips. I apparently have a gourmet woodchuck.
Woodchuck Damaged Parsnips
The whole row of parsnips have lost half their leaves. Hope this will not affect their roots development.
Found the hole that the woodchuck was using to enter the garden and plugged it. Will see if this deters the critter.
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Around mid-June I had sown some Lutz Beets seeds in a little empty patch in the garden and 3 different varieties of Swiss Chard seeds in another empty patch. All germinated, grew into beautiful seedlings and ready to be transplanted to the garlic patch.
Lutz Beets
Transplanted the Lutz Beets seedlings to the area where I pulled the Duganski Garlic.
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Swiss Chard – Top row: Fordhook Giant. Middle row: Golden. Bottom row: Ruby Red Rhubarb
Transplanted the Swiss Chard seedlings to the area where I pulled the German White Garlic. They are planted closer than the spring planting. The days will be getting shorter and pretty soon the weather will be getting cooler the plants will not be growing as fast and as vigorous as the spring planted ones.
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Had started Radicchio and Napa Cabbage early July in cell packs then bumped them up to 3-inch pots. All were ready for transplanting into the garden after I pulled the soybeans.
Top row: Palla Rossa Mavrik Radicchio. Bottom row: Napa Cabbage.
Planted 1 row of 10 Palla Rossa Mavrik radicchio and 1 row of 10 Napa Cabbage.
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Chinese Parsley (aka Cilantro) Flowers
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Everything looks so green and luscious Norma! That is one beautiful bunch of veggies in the first photo – love the red noodle beans. You have some crazy animals in your part of the world. I’ve heard of woodchucks but had no idea what they looked like… until now. I just googled – aw, they’re actually very cute! Like a cross between a beaver and a giant guinea pig. I guess they’re not so cute when they ravage your garden though…
Hello Saskia,
Thanks, the red noodles beans are gorgeous hanging on the vine in the garden. Yes, the woodchuck is real cute as long as it stays out of my garden.
That is terrible news about the woodchuck. I just discovered one in my garden about two weeks ago (I call them groundhogs here, same thing as far as I know). But surprisingly, I haven’t seen any damage even though I’m sure it’s still about somewhere. It certainly seems destructive so give it a whack next time you have the chance! Beautiful harvest aside from that .. and I agree that amaranth is lovely!
Hello Susie,
Yes, groundhog and woodchuck is the same critter. Hope I made it difficult for it to re-enter my garden and it goes somewhere else to find an easier target.
You do not have a gourmet woodchuck, you have an omnivore woodchuck. My prediction: in a few days you will find a new hole not too far from the old hole; that’s what happened in my garden. I constructed an underground barrier that way – the chuck dug a hole under my fence and I shaped it to fit a concrete block. That continued until I trapped the chuck in the old dog pen and it had to climb the 5′ chain link fence to escape. Never returned.
Hello Mary,
You are correct about new hole, keep looking whenever I am in the garden, in the meantime I put netting over my sweet potatoes and some of the other plants.
What an amazing harvest! This is the first time I have ever seen Burgundy okra. Sorry to see all the broccoli plants were damaged.
Hello Angie,
It appears broccoli is the woodchuck’s favorite food.
Nice harvest. Amazing how destructive a woodchuck can be. Hope he stays away from your containers. The Napa is looking good, I can’t leave mine uncovered because of flea beetles and cabbage caterpillars.
Hello Dave,
I elevate my containers so hopefully there will not be any critter damage. So far flea beetles are staying away from the container plants but not the cabbage caterpillars which I try to pick off by hand.
A very nice harvest this week! Looking very nice! Get that dang woodchuck!!
Hello Rick,
Thanks, how I would love to get that dang woodchuck.
I like that red long beans. I don’t see that very often here where I live.
Hello Ray,
Red long beans are becoming more popular now so hopefully you will find them more often where you live.
Such lovely produce! I love okra but never had red burgundy okra. How interesting. 🙂
Hello Ronit,
This is the first year I am growing red burgundy okra, will be my last as they are not producing well in my garden, growing season too short.
That’s a shame. It looks so pretty.
Hello Ronit,
I know, but I tried for 3 years with different varieties, same results.
I totally understand, Norma.
At least I’ve learned about this interesting type of okra, so thank you for that. 🙂
Hello Ronit,
You are welcome.
Too bad about your woodchuck. But it looks like you have lots of things doing well. I love those bok choy. I thought about growing some for fall but we have so many flea beetles this year that I wasn’t sure they would grow well.
Hello Daphne,
All my container plantings are doing well and so far no flea beetles, garden plantings not doing as well due to flea beetles and critters.
The amaranth is so beautiful. The flea beetles won’t leave mine alone, so it has more holes than leaves! I guess groundhogs/woodchucks must be attracted to gardeners judging by all the comments. We have them too. We also had them at our MG garden, where they ate over a hundred cabbage plants we were growing for the food pantry. We had to trap them finally, and take them out in the country far away from anyone’s gardens.
Hello Dave,
Were you able to replant your cabbage plants? I was told it is illegal to transport and release a trapped woodchuck.
Gorgeous amaranths and bok choy!
I am sorry to hear the woodchuck damages. I know how heart breaking that is to see our hardwork stolen by these critters. My neighbor gave me a Havahart if you would like to use it for a while.
Hello Nancy,
Thanks for the Havahart offer. I had one but gave it away. What would I do with a trapped woodchuck?
Gorgeous eggplant and Napa cabbage! Your whole harvest looks vibrant. Nice work, Norma!
Hello Sandra,
Thanks. All my container plantings are doing well.
Your greens are looking so lush! I wouldn’t have thought that there would be a difference between ground and container plantings for pests like flea beetles – that’s good to know. Your woodchuck experience sounds so frustrating! I hope that blocking it’s entrance is successful & keeps it out of your garden.
Hello Margaret,
I did have flea beetles on my container plantings last year guess they are giving me a break this year. I sure hope the woodchuck stays away.
Trap him and cart him to a wooded area away from your neighborhood but not mine:) They are cute but not in your beautiful garden! Nice photos!
Hello Phyll,
Didn’t want to deal with a trapped woodchuck so I gave away my Havahart trap.
Your harvests look amazing. I love the Red Noodle Long Beans and the Eggplant. Oh, I am so sorry to see the groundhog damage to your plants. It is amazing what some critters can do to a garden.
Hello Rachel,
Thanks, I am looking forward to a good Red Noodle Long Beans harvest.
That woodchuck has been extremely busy! What a shame those lettuces did the bolt. Your selection of beans is a lot more interesting than the beans I have in my fridge – mine are the standard variety xx
Hello Charlie,
Oh yes, a very busy critter hope it goes somewhere else. I read about slobolt lettuce varieties may give those a try next year.
Your garden is so lovely, Norma. No wonder the woodchuck has decided to dine al fresco courtesy of you!
Hello Betsy,
Thanks. I think the woodchuck will love your garden as well, sending it your way.
Ha! Ha! My poor garden is already a ruin. I’m afraid it wouldn’t measure up to your woodchuck’s gourmet taste! 😉
Hello Betsy,
Let the woodchuck be the judge. 🙂
As always…. Looking amazing, you sure did have a gorgeous harvest this week, Norma. And a woodchuck, what a nuisance, but I can appreciate why he finds everything so delicious.
Hello Anna,
Thanks.
Had no idea that cilantro is also called Chinese parsley. It flowers beautifully. I love that so many of your meals are straight from your own garden Norma. That has to be such a treat and very rewarding. I hope that plugging the woodchuck’s hole keeps him away!
Hello Kristy,
Yes, it is very rewarding to eat straight from my garden sure is a treat. Knock on wood, as of today the woodchuck has stayed away.
I’m absolutely stunned at how well things grow for you in pots! My herbs have flowered now because we’ve been away so much. Did I mention we got a lemon tree? It’s a Meyer lemon and JT called it Oscar (queue rolling eyes!) it’s got two sets of gorgeous flowers so I’m really hoping it will bear fruit this year. I plan to bring it inside in the fall. Figgy still goes into the garage until possibly two years when we repot it and it’s too heavy, but I’m sure I’ve told you all this before!😉
Hello Eva,
Cut off the flowers and the plant will branch and get bushy. Would love to grow a lemon tree but lack a sunny window to overwinter. Figs on Figgy?
We only had three and I didn’t my see any more right now but his canopy is amazing! Next year we’re building a screen enclosure for him.
Hello Eva,
Sounds like you are going to have a great fig year in 2016.
I didn’t know when was the right time to harvest the black soybeans, I waited and waited for the pods to turn brown, well I waited too long then I saw some pods popped open and spilled the beans 😦
Hello Mac,
Hope you were able to salvage most of the dried beans. I grow black soy beans to eat while still young and tender as edamame not as dried beans.
Thanks, learn something new.
Hello Mac,
Glad to know, wonderful how we can learn from each through our blogs.
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