July Update: Harvest+ Clean Up + Fall

It's the end of July!! The summer seems to be flying.  It's been a busy, busy weekend.  I lost two days during the week due to a freak'n cold.  I literally slept for two days and spent any time awake stuffing myself with spicy, super hot soups and stews.  I was eating my weight and then some in food and I think it worked since yesterday, I felt almost 100% with tons of energy!! 

Anyway, end of July means harvest time in these parts... 

This weekend, I harvested tons of tomatoes and long beans.  The long beans have been one of my best producers this year.  After the first flowers, they haven't stopped giving me beans.  It was sad deciding to kill it today.

I chose to kill the bean plants because 1. I'm tired of eating beans.  2. I'm tired of eating beans.  3. I'm going to be eating beans during the winter since I had to freeze a lot. 4. The beans were starting to slow down a little and I've noticed more insect activity.  I would definitely grow this variety again though. 

My melons are just starting to ripen, which is exciting but not without some issues. Due to heavy rainfall this year, the muskmelons have been over watered and have started to crack as they ripen.

This was one of the French cantaloupes I had to pick because of the huge crack.  It had a nice flavor but wasn't close to being ripe.  My Ananas d'Amerique a Chair Vert have also started to crack.

This is one of the first Ananas melon picked.  It was good but not ripe enough, I think.  I picked another yesterday because of a huge crack developing.  It's being held in the fridge for a couple of days before eating to see if the sugar develops more. The Ananas melons totally smell like pineapple when ripe!
The melons I'm finding cracked and unripe, I'm duct taping the cracks to keep the cracked areas from rotting and to hold them on the vine since melons don't ripen once removed early.

Yesterday, I also picked my first Desert King watermelon...

At this point, I prefer Orangeglo watermelons that I had grown last year.  Desert King still has a nice, less watermelon flavor but due to over watering, I think the sugars didn't develop this year. 

I'm also regularly picking perilla leaves.  My perilla plants did really well this year...

They aren't super tall, but they are HEALTHY!!  I am also expecting Korean squashes. Finally!

My Korean squash plants just got bigger and bigger without producing female flowers.  I think I have some pollinated now. AND.....

Korean melons ( cha mae).  These were supposed to be early producers but I had some insect issues in late spring that delayed the plants from growing properly.  They came back with a vengeance and I now have 4 to 5 melons growing.  The variety in English is called, Early Silver Line.

So besides harvesting, I am in the midst of cleaning up and prepping for fall planting.  As mentioned before, the bean plant was killed today (R.I.P.), I also had to kill my zucchini plants.  I'm actually surprised that they produced so well this year, but of course, I had some issues with squash borers.

They burrow into the stem of the plant and chew them up leaving a nasty, mushy mess.  I was fortunate that I was able to harvest some baby zucchinis before killing the plant.

Next on the list of clean up planning is to kill one of the Riesentraube tomato plants.  They produced tons of little cherry tomatoes and now I feel that just one plant will be enough for the rest of the season.  I'm swimming in tomatoes right now! More like drowning!!
At some point, I will have to clear out the bed with the perillas, Korean squash and Thai basil to make room for fall collards, kale and napa cabbages. 

Fall planting is starting now. I kind of feel like I may be a little behind but oh well. I've planted seeds for lettuces, Korean mustard, komatsuna, carrots, daikon radishes and Korean radishes.  I transplanted Swiss chard seedlings.  I think next season, I will definitely start seedlings in the raised beds instead of indoors.   Some of the Swiss chard seeds that I had planted early in the spring started sprouting mid summer, which gave me healthy seedlings to transplant into their fall location. Purely accidental but advantageous.  I'll probably do the same with collards and kale next year.

So this is my crazy garden now....well, minus the long bean plants....

Crazy and out of control! Happy Gardening!