Monday, August 1, 2011

Harvest Monday - August 1, 2011

This week, to my utter disbelief, we were invaded by Japanese beetle.  Plum tree was just a outline of leaves and clusters of beetles all over! yuck! yuck! 

Japanese beetle and skeleton leaves!!

Fortunately I had just read Amy's blog on the beetles and was ready with a bucket of soap water and my oldest son(I couldn't get myself to touch those beetles).  He picked dozens (wearing gloves) and the next day my dear husband did the rounds and picked off more and now the situation is under control(touch wood!).  We are still picking 10-12 everyday and will continue to monitor and watch the leaves and plants more carefully.

This Harvest week belongs to Eggplants and Yellow Squash!!  I was pleasantly surprised to find about 8-9 yellow squash all about the same size on a single plant.  Not that we eat a lot of them, but any large harvest that I pick from the garden, makes me feel on top of the world :)  Then came a harvest of eggplants and another bigger one!  I've never picked more than 1 at a time and not more than a few in the entire season!  Ofcourse, it helped that this year, I tried mixed varieties of eggplants and over a dozen plants :) 

Yellow Squash and zucchini

1 tomato and few beans

Fairy Tale Eggplants and zucchini

Yellow Squash and Orange beets with greens

Orange beets cleaned and trimmed

Green beans

Mint

First cucumbers, zucchini and Fenugreek leaves

Fairy tale, long purple and apple green Eggplants

Zestar! apple (dropped while picking beetles)

Garlic chives scapes

For other harvests, please visit Daphne's Harvest Monday.

11 comments:

  1. Beautiful harvest! I have a fairy tale eggplant, with an eggplant on it. I love everything about my eggplants. They are beautiful plants, have beautiful flowers, and beautiful veggies. (And I love to eat them.) Enjoy your harvest.

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  2. Thanks! Indeed eggplants are a great addition to any garden. I love them too:)

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  3. Fairy tale eggplants are the latest things ever! Great harvest this week. I have garlic chive envy.

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  4. I wish my eggplant and yellow squash would be as productive as yours! How many Fairy Tale plants do you have? We have at least 12 eggplants here but only 4 are producing so far, and not nearly in the same quantity as last year :(

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  5. Oh wow so many pickings from your garden. Nice harvest of squash, eggplants and other edibles.

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  6. I am so sorry about the Asian Bettels....they are such a pain; but the rest of your harvest looks great! THat is so neat you grow fenugreek!

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  7. Beautiful harvest. And I won't touch those Japanese beetles either. Their legs feel too sharp. But I'd put on gloves and do it. But I've only had one bad beetle year up here. I see them occasionally, but they never stick around in my yard.

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  8. Great harvest! Those orange beets are beautiful. I HATE japanese beetles with a passion. This is the first time we've seen them in our garden. Luckily their aren't too many of them but the damage they do is pretty significant.

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  9. Nartaya - I know you've had good harvests of fairy tales too! They are really productive. Garlic chive is really easy to grow, infact, I don't give it a second thought(for 2 yrs now:)

    Nikki - I've planted over dozen mixed varieties of eggplants, some of them are just starting to bloom. So I hear ya, it's always a few that are productive, rest just take up space :)

    MKG - Thanks! I will not delve into things that aren't growing yet(hint : tomatoes and bell peppers)

    Allison - Beetles are a major menace! Since I've learnt to grow fenugreek, I will plant them as much as possible :)

    Daphne - This is the first year with these beetles for us, so hopefully, it will be the last in a long long time!

    Thomas - Your orange beets were much larger in size, I pulled mine, since they were not growing in size anymore. I hear you on the japanese beetles!! Yuck, wish they were extinct...

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  10. Glad to hear you've gotten the beetles under control! Nice harvest, I haven't had this much to harvest yet... hopefully soon!

    Amy

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  11. Thanks Amy! We aren't finding that much anymore, but will try to keep on top of the situation! Weather hasn't been too good here in Zone 4, has it? Hopefully, August will be better.

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