harvest time

I know, you live in the Chicago area, upstate New York, the Arctic circle.... But I don't, and to combat the high humidity levels here, I get to brag.

In addition to the meals of homegrown lettuce we've been enjoying and the swiss chard and the whopping two meals of snow peas, plus three cherry tomatoes, I went ahead and harvested my onions. They were an experiment; I knew nothing about them when I impulsively bought a set of 100 baby onions. I'm not sure what happened, whether they were unhappy, or if someone nibbled on them, but the tops were all gone. I did some reading and learned that they wouldn't grow any further, so I dug them babies up. While not exactly grocery store quality, they'll do for my first attempt. I think I'll put some in this fall to try again; I'm pretty sure a fall planting will work in our zone. (They'll still harvest spring-summer.) I peeked underground at my garlic (yes, it is garlic) and saw bulbs with only the circumference of a nickel. I'll wait and see if they improve. They came from the grocery, started to grow in my pantry, and were planted. No cost to me, anything edible will be progress. Seems like a plant that can grow with no sun, no dirt and no water should be happy even in Georgia clay.

The guys have gone to buy some seeds. I ripped out the snow peas since the weather is too hot now, so we have room for something new. I'm not sure what they'll pick. Pook wants to grow carrots, but they'll be an experiment in our soil, even amending with sand. CD mentioned both pumpkins and cucumbers. There is a Something growing out there too. A few years ago we had a surprise monster pumpkin plant (considering only one pumpkin had been put in the compost the year before) and got, in addition to many yards of vine, three gorgeous 10" pumpkins from it (unfortunately, in July). Last year, and maybe twice, we've had volunteer cucumbers. They fall in the category of plants-that-camouflage-the-part-I-want-to-find, but I love homegrown cukes, so I hope that's what we've got, or what they buy.