Second Crops

Planting second crops of peas and beans and other vegetables at this time is well worth the effort. My fourth crop of lettuce is up and thriving.  The last harvest of lettuce from the previous pot is ready for harvest and after harvesting, the new pot will be ready. I will continue to seed lettuce for as long as the frost holds off.

Greetings fellow gardeners,  

As I write this, it is very hot. The too-many cats are draped over chairs like the clocks in a Salvador Dali painting. This heat is hard on my vegetables as they are so close to harvest. I am watering in the morning to prepare them for the day. You may notice that your larger-leaved plants have leaves that look like they are wilted even though they don’t need water. Don’t panic! This is a protection device they employ when it is too hot. They will bounce back when it gets cooler, later in the day.

Second Crop of Peas

I have left some of my peas to go to seed. I don’t have any pea seeds left in my stash, so this works out perfectly. Once the pod starts turning beige, it gets papery and is easily opened to reveal the seeds. If you would like a late crop of peas, now is the time to plant. I am going to use my toilet roll method again to start the peas once the heat breaks. The high heat and humidity would make germination very difficult.

It would seem that I am now the lady with shallots. I came upon some shallots in the late spring, so I planted them in one of my tomato pots. They are ready to harvest but they are small. If you want to plant shallots, they really should be planted in the early spring, and I think they would do better in the ground rather than a pot.  That being said, the method of planting them in a pot that I saw on a gardening show showed them alone in a huge pot, so that is another option.

Second Crop of Other Vegetables

The pole beans and nasturtiums that I started a week or so ago are ready to move on. I found a nice large pot and a reasonable tomato support and planted them. I used garden soil in the bottom and some good potting soil on top. The pole beans should be ready before the frost if all goes well. Planting peas and beans and other vegetables at this time is well worth the effort. My fourth crop of lettuce is up and thriving.  The last harvest of lettuce from the previous pot is ready for harvest and after harvesting, the new pot will be ready. I will continue to seed lettuce for as long as the frost holds off.

There is an update on my radish seeds:  the second crop is doing well.  The skins have not turned papery and exploded. I was able to pick a pod to taste and wow! It is delicious. It tastes like a radish-bean cross and would make a pop of flavour in a salad. 

The humidity continues to be tough on all plants, tomatoes in particular. Soon the heat will break, and all will be well.  I was asked to do a fifteen-minute, lunchtime talk on Indoor Fairy Gardens for Trowel Talk Live. You can find more information on these talks on the Ottawa Carleton Master Gardener website, http://www.mgottawa.ca/. The too-many cats were very interested in this talk and were quite helpful. You can see it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7wdJA0hxi8 

Contact Judith through her Website https://www.lapisdragonarts.com/. Find more weekly Veggie Bites experiences on the Veggie Bites page.