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| Pop up basil |
As I walked into the garden area at the gate, I glanced down and saw this basil that just popped up randomly along the fence line. The basil is in a raised bed about 4 feet from here. I guess a seed made it's way over to the fence and the conditions were just perfect. We love when nature finds a way, ha.
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| Lonely eggplant |
Got one eggplant (not enough to have a "Harvest Monday" post, ha) but there are about seven more on the plant, all in various stages of development, so it's bounced back nicely. I think eggplants are definitely something to put on the list for next season.
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| Jalapeño's |
I thought I got some pictures of the jalapeño's but I guess I didn't, so please feel free to use your imagination. They are doing great, though this may be the last harvest week or so for them. They have definitely done well for us and obviously like the hot weather conditions.
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| Squash in raised bed |
The surprise of the day was this squash plant. I gave up on the squash a few weeks ago because the raised bed they were in was getting too much water. I needed to redirect the water to the other beds to help them so I disconnected it and pretty much just stopped taking care of this one plant. Now of course, it's growing, getting big and there are three blossoms on it! Maybe the secret is ignoring it completely?
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| Sweet potatoes in a container |
And lastly, I realized we haven't given an update lately on the sweet potato experiment. Here it is! In one container, they are getting huge and growing vines like crazy. The other container is slower growing. Not sure why, the fickle nature of plants I suppose. Anyway, this is a first time for sweet potatoes so I'm not sure how long we have to let them go before they are ready. I'll do some research on that but I can only hope that when we dump this out, it is full of those wonderful orange jewels...we absolutely LOVE sweet potatoes!
I love those little surprises of nature - like your pop-up basil. Life finds a way!
ReplyDeleteThat is one tough squash plant. If it can hang on for a bit longer, you’ll probably be enjoying some produce this fall.
Those jalapeños are survivors! They can definitely take our summer sun and heat. I’ve had peppers last until Christmas - if a frost comes along, I just throw a cover on them for that night.
Your sweet potatoes are looking good! They should be getting ready for harvest soon. They’ll be sweeter if they are “cured” for about 10 days before eating -
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/vegetables/sweet.html
and
http://bonnieplants.com/growing/growing-sweet-potatoes/
For your experimental year of gardening, you have done a great job!
Happy Gardening!
Aren't surprises like this the best? The squash is definitely hanging on and is apparently happy, ha. I would be ok with fall squash, ha.
DeleteMan the jalapeños are loving it. I will just have to keep an eye on them maybe jalapeños for Thanksgiving are on the plate, ha.
I will read on the sweet potatoes. Thank you!
I've never grown sweet potatoes but I understand from my daughter who has that you must cure them before you can eat them. Daphne may have a post about them. I know she grows them.
ReplyDeleteI read something once about curing them. Thanks for the tip about Daphne, i will check out her previous posts about them.
DeletePop up pesto! Woo Woo
ReplyDeletePop up pesto, never thought about that but yep, it dang sure is! Too funny!
DeleteHmm I'm imagining buckets of jalapenos. :> If I'm going to imagine I might as well make it good.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do grow sweet potatoes. They do have to be cured. The curing is what makes them sweet. You want temps in the 80s for one or two weeks with high humidity. Then store them. The longer they are stored the sweeter they get. I can never cure them well up here as when I pull them it is fairly cold. I try though.