Eggplant and Garden Growth

The garden has grown very tall this summer, providing a nice foliage screen on the deck. The radishes have been harvested and pulled out of the pot to make way for more lettuce. The peas are finished, and the tomatoes are just beginning. Lettuce and basil have been plentiful this summer, with fresh salads every night and lots of basil pesto. Just one cucumber plant has provided us with almost more than we can eat, although we make sure that we eat every single one! However, we do have more chillies than we can possibly consume, but I just leave them growing on the plant and they are available when needed. So far, the largest harvest as compared to plant size has been the cucumber. The peas were so sweet and delicious, but they took up a lot of room and the number of peapods was pretty limited. We are now looking forward to carrots, eggplant and tomatoes - the long awaited tomatoes!

Today's Harvest - One Spoonful of Vegetables

Each day I get a little bite of vegetables from my garden. Today it was a handful of peas and a tiny carrot.

Garden Log #3

The front yard garden bed was planted on July 12 with the following vegetables.

Seeds:

Kohlrabi Purple & White Vienna Blend (Brassica oleracea)

Radish French Breakfast (Raphanus sativus)

Turnip Purple Top White Globe (Brassica rapa)

Bok choy White Stem (Brassic rapa Chinesis Group)

These vegetables were chosen because of their short growing season and the limited amount of time left in Michigan before frost.

I also planted these transplants:

9 Cabbage Bonnie Hybrid

1 Sweet Banana Pepper

1 Mammoth Jalapeno

1 Jalapeno

2 California Green Pepper

3 Black Beauty Eggplant

1 Japanese Eggplant

28 Little Gem Lettuce

Butterhead lettuce transplanted on June 30

Herbs planted July 16:

Lemon Thyme

Silver-Edged Thyme

Chives

Greek Basil

Dill

Italian Parsley (4)

Rosemary

I also planted a variety of annual flowers in the bed including impatiens, marigolds, petunia, allysum, and vinca.

All transplants, except the lettuce, were fertilized with a sprinkle of time release fertilizer in the planting hole.

Creatures of the Night

If you have a problem with an unidentified insect eating your vegetable plants, it may be a good idea to do a little investigation.  Every morning, upon examining my garden, I noticed large holes in the leaves of my Japanese eggplant and my basil.  So, I took a flashlight and went out there after dark to find the mysterious predator.  As you can see, these earwigs were not too hard to find and didn't seem concerned that their midnight meal was being watched under a spotlight.  They just calmly kept munching on the tasty eggplant leaves, making large holes, and destroying the plant.  Now, multiple sources have told me that earwigs do not eat green plants.  Hmmm... I think they're wrong.

Tasty Snack

Somebody enjoyed a big eggplant leaf salad last night.  I'm suspecting the earwigs that I've seen scurrying around.