By Amy Swanson
Saturday was like old home week at the Garden. Knowing that Barbara had put out a call for volunteers, I popped over on Saturday to see if they needed any help. There was Carla, Marilyn and Bob Lund, Barbara Munkres, and Mark Sandeen, and some other volunteers that I had the pleasure of meeting.
Here are updates from the garden:
-Carla caught 2 squirrels and a chipmunk. Thank goodness, because after feasting on the corn, they had moved on to the tomatoes.
-Pumpkins were harvested! Not only super early, but these were the volunteers that were growing in the compost! And there are plenty more on those vines. (You can see them in the picture below.)
Weighing Pumpkins and Peppers
-The last of the 1st crop of green beans were harvested….the plants have re-flowered and we can expect more abundance in beans in round 2 coming later.
– I wasn’t around for the final weigh-ins, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we surpassed last week’s 50+ lbs of produce. This Saturday we picked: potatoes, cucumbers, squash, basil, rosemary, pumpkins, green beans, Swiss chard, beets, beet greens, green peppers and flowers. There was so much coming in that we had to set up a production weighing line.
There is a technique in harvesting chard. Carla cuts individual leaves down at their base, never taking the whole head, as you might with lettuce. Chard is a plant that as many others, responds well to being cut. It tends to keep producing if regularly cut.
Harvesting Swiss Chard
Know what makes Mark happy? Letting him carry the tray brimming with very fragrant basil and rosemary.
Rosemary and Basil