Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 230918

Warmer. Highs in the upper 70’s to mid-80’s.  Next week will be cooler and wetter.

I’m starting to harvest the winter squash now. Unlike summer squash, I can leave them on the vine until needed without fear that they’ll blow up like clown balloons. Started off by harvesting one pumpkin and one spaghetti squash.

Two too big

Positively cornucopic

Starting end-of-season maintenance on the planter bags — pulling up the dead/dying plants and dumping out the soil. So far, I’ve done the cucumber and zucchini bags, plus a couple of tomatoes.

Winding down

But not gone yet

I’ve planted one of the bags with pickling cucumbers. Should be ready in mid-November, if the frosts don’t get them first. It’s a gamble, but I’ve got the spare bags and soil, so why not. El Nino autumn is theoretically warmer than average (which does not necessarily mean warm).

Week Ending 09/18	Vegetable (bold = final)	Count	Total Weight g	Unit Weight g	Grand Total	Total Weight kg
	Tomato	37	2523	68	232	19.86
	Butternut
	Potato				36	3.60
	Cabbage				2	0.45
	Tromboncino	1	255	255	26	5.52
	Cocozelle	2	1050	525	31	9.60
	Acorn
	Pattypan				5	2.5
	Zucchini	2	310	155	11	2.93
	Carrots				–	0.57
	Pumpkin	1	1216	1216	1	1.22
	Spaghetti	1	1183	1183	1	1.18
	Beets				–	0.25
	Beans				–	0.81
Grand Total						48.5

2019 has now crept ahead, at 49.7kg.

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 230911

Much cooler weather. Highs in the mid to upper 70’s and lows below 50F.  Next week will be slightly warmer, into the lower 80’s.

As I said last week, the harvest is thinning out but it’s not done yet. I harvested my second planting of beans — yellow beans — but didn’t get very many. That’s OK, since we’re not all that fond of beans. There’s perhaps fifty tomatoes yet to ripen, six pumpkins, four spaghetti squash, two tromboncino that I’m letting go to winter squash status, and at least one each acorn and butternut squash hidden in the jungle.

Tomatoes

Pumpkin

Spaghetti

Tromboncino

Acorn

Butternut

Week Ending 09/11	Vegetable (bold = final)	Count	Total Weight g	Unit Weight g	Grand Total	Total Weight kg
	Tomato				195	17.34
	Butternut
	Potato				36	3.6
	Cabbage				2	0.45
	Tromboncino	2	425		25	5.26
	Cocozelle	4	1170		29	8.55
	Acorn
	Pattypan	1	550		5	2.5
	Zucchini				9	2.62
	Carrots				–	0.57
	Beets				–	0.25
	Beans	–	100		–	0.81
Grand Total						42

Creeping ahead of 2019, now by four kilos.

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 23008014

Low to mid-80s. The coming week will be upper upper 90s and low 100s.

Lots and lots (and lots) of tomatoes.

Still not so many squash. One of the winter Trombones is all tan now.

Week Ending 08/14	Vegetable (bold = final)	Count	Total Weight g	Unit Weight g	Grand Total	Total Weight kg
	Tomato	53	4752	90	148	13.85
	Cucumber
	Potato				4	2.32
	Cabbage				2	0.45
	Tromboncino				20	3.47
	Cocozelle	2	694	347	22	6.32
	Acorn
	Pattypan	1	530	530	3	1.31
	Zucchini				6	1.52
	Carrots				4	0.08
	Beets
	Beans					0.38
Grand Total						24.07

Surprisingly, we’re only about a kilo ahead of 2019 now. I think it’s because in 2019 we had a number of tomato bags on the unwatered deck, and harvested them all just before going on our Alaska trip. This year the grow bags are all on the autowatering system, and will be harvested over a longer time.

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 2300807

Mid-90’s to start, around 80 at the end. Next week is all low 80’s.

Lots and lots of tomatoes. Made two quarts of tomato sauce that was 50/50 Early Girl and Romas .

Not so many squash. We’re letting a couple of the Trombones grow into winter squash size. One enormous Cocozelle that had hid itself behind a cinderblock added to the weight.

Week Ending 08/07	Vegetable (bold = final)	Count	Total Weight g	Unit Weight g	Grand Total	Total Weight kg
	Tomato	72	5875	82	95	9.10
	Cucumber
	Potato				4	2.32
	Cabbage				2	0.45
	Tromboncino	2	319	160	20	3.47
	Cocozelle	2	1290	645	20	5.97
	Acorn
	Pattypan				2	0.78
	Zucchini	1	285	285	6	1.52
	Carrots				4	0.08
	Beets
	Beans	382	–	–		0.38
Grand Total						24.07

We continue to lead 2019 in edible biomass — as in almost three times more.

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 230731

Continuing our hot summer. Very warm (mid-80’s) to start, and Hot (mid-90’s) at the end.

Harvest is picking up. Six hours after I posted last week’s GTUpMyN I picked two Trombones, two Zucchini, and one each of Pattypan and Cocozelle.

Harvested some more softball-sized, heirloom-looking not-Early Girl tomatoes, as well as lots of real EGs.

The Planter Tracker (sidebar) says the carrots are ready, so I’ve started harvesting them. Normally I wait ’till the end of the season and lift them all. This time around I’m taking a few at a time. At this point, ready means barely big enough. I have four that are about 20g each. We can have them in a salad.

Early Girl

Not Early Girl

Early Carrots

Week Ending 07/31	Vegetable (bold = final)	Count	Total Weight g	Unit Weight g	Grand Total	Total Weight kg
	Tomato	16	2010	126	23	3.23
	Cucumber
	Potato				4	2.32
	Cabbage				2	0.45
	Tromboncino	2	362	181	18	3.15
	Cocozelle	1	145	145	18	4.68
	Acorn
	Pattypan	1	400	400	2	0.78
	Zucchini	2	197	98	5	1.23
	Carrots	4	80	20	4	0.08
	Beets
	Beans
Grand Total						15.86

Courtesy of the Cocozelle (and a hot Summer) we are well ahead of our nearest competitor, 2019, in edible biomass — as in five times more. A surprising number of recent years hadn’t even gotten to the scoreboard level by the end of July.

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 230724

Once again, hot to very hot, with highs reaching 98. The air conditioning regularly comes on by 8AM. Lows in the mid-50’s to mid-60’s, just barely enough to cool the house to sleeping temps — even with the house fan on high, the inside temperature tends to be ten degrees warmer than the outside. Next week: more of the same, only mostly very hot.

Emptied a second potato bag. One large, one medium, and four small. About 500g total, e.g. one pound. Hardly seems worth the effort, but they’re very nice potatoes.

The crimson tide is beginning. Harvested three softball-sized, heirloom-looking tomatoes. The tag says EarlyGirl, but I suspect they’re Brandywine or such.

I tried lifting one of the Tromboncinos I was letting go to winter squash status so that the bulge was not rotting in the dirt. Instead, it broke off. The squash was a light brown, so maybe it was ripe already. We sliced it in half, lengthwise, and baked it, each getting one half.  Very good. As they say, vaguely Butternut flavor. Not as much meat as you might think.

I’m a little behind on posting photos, so here’s a compilation of this months harvests.

Pattypan

Tomatoes and Cocozelle

All our Cabbages

First of the New Potatoes

Week Ending 07/24	Vegetable (bold = final)	Count	Total Weight g	Unit Weight g	Grand Total	Total Weight kg
	Tomato	6	1161	194	7	1.22
	Cucumber
	Potato	2	475	237	4	2.32
	Cabbage				2	0.45
	Tromboncino	1	360	360	16	2.79
	Cocozelle	3	458	153	17	4.54
	Acorn
	Pattypan				1	0.38
	Zucchini	1	117	117	3	1.03
	Carrots
	Beets
	Beans
Grand Total						12.74

This time in 2021 the Zucchini were just starting to produce and there were seven spaghetti squash on the vine.

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 230717

Hot to very hot, with highs reaching 98. More of the same next week.

Found a small, shriveled, two-eyed potato at the bottom of our store-bought potato sack. I cut it in half and planted it in the small potato grow-bag I emptied last week. We’ll see what happens.

Lots of tomatoes, only one ready to harvest, a 55g Early Girl. Four pumpkins, mostly orange. Two biggish spaghetti squash.

We have three big Trombones what I am leaving for winter squash status. Both the Tromboncinos and the Cocozelles are starting fruit, then fading out at the four inch mark. I think it might be the heat.

Week Ending 07/17	Vegetable (bold = final)	Count	Total Weight g	Unit Weight g	Grand Total	Total Weight kg
	Tomato	1	55	55	1	0.55
	Cucumber
	Potato				2	1.84
	Cabbage				2	0.45
	Tromboncino	3	703	234	15	2.43
	Cocozelle	3	844	281	14	4.08
	Acorn
	Pattypan				1	0.38
	Zucchini				2	0.92
	Carrots
	Beets
	Beans
Grand Total						10.65

This time in 2021 the Zucchini were just starting to produce and there were seven spaghetti squash on the vine.

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 230710

Sunny, with highs around 90.

Harvested our first, and possibly only, pattypan squash.

Finally gave up on our indoor cabbage and harvested both heads. Leaves felt tough, but cooked down and turned bright green when we boiled them, so we make cabbage croquettes. I planted them back in early February, so they’re two months beyond the pick-by date.

Emptied one of the small potato grow-bags. Got one medium (98g) and ten small (25g). Only counting the medium. I’ll wait another couple of weeks before I do the next small  bag (there are three, total, with potatoes).

Picked some more Trombones. Here’s the scoreboard.

Week Ending 07/10	Vegetable (bold = final)	Count	Total Weight g	Unit Weight g	Grand Total	Total Weight kg
	Tomato
	Cucumber
	Potato	1	98	98	2	1.84
	Cabbage	2	450	225	2	0.45
	Trombone	1	67	67	12	1.70
	Cocozelle	2	337	168	11	3.24
	Acorn
	Pattypan	1	380	380	1	0.38
	Zucchini				2	0.92
	Carrots
	Beets
	Beans
Grand Total						8.53

This time in 2021, things were still growing. Scoreboard start wouldn’t be for another two weeks.

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 230703

Warm all week, in the mid- to upper-80s, 90s over the weekend, with intermittent CBs. Next week is all sunny and 90’s.

Continuing the comedy of errors that is my gardening, it turns out that the lone Delicata plant that I had hidden in the middle of the garden is really a Cocozelle. The color of the 1.4kg squash tipped me off. MJ is going to wedge it up for pickles. I have one house bag that I planted some Cocozelle in, which we don’t really need, so I added a couple of Delicata seeds. We’ll see if anything comes up. And speaking of big squash, I just found a 780g Zucchini hiding on the back side of the grow bag.

None of the wax beans in the north half of Section 3 have sprouted, so I dug it over and planted Lettuce (Black Seeded Simpson (65), plus Salad Bowl, Sylvestra (55)), Beets, and a couple more Delicata (90, early October) rounded out the day. All slots are now filled.

It’s been a week or so since the potatoes flowered, so I harvested some new potatoes, very good. The Interwebs say that potatoes are ready to harvest in about three months — 12 weeks — but that new potatoes are ready in ten weeks. Do they really grow that much in just two weeks?

Picked some more Trombones. Here’s the scoreboard.

Week Ending 07/03	Vegetable (bold = final)	Count	Total Weight g	Unit Weight g	Grand Total	Total Weight kg
	Tomato
	Cucumber
	Potato	8	760	95	8	0.76
	Delicata
	Trombone	3	275	92	11	1.03
	Cocozelle	4	2122	530	9	2.90
	Acorn
	Pattypan
	Zucchini	1	780	780	2	0.92
	Carrots
	Beets
	Beans
Grand Total						5.61

This time last year things were still growing. Scoreboard start wouldn’t be for another two weeks.

Potatoes

Not a Delicata

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 230619

The week kicked off with the hottest days of the month — 91F on Tuesday — then settled down to merely warm — upper 70s/low 80s, and then cool, with highs in the mid 70’s and lows in the low 50’s. Forecast is for more cold and wet (highs as low as 59F), then heating up.

I’m harvesting the various squash more often, to try to stay ahead of it.

Coco-Zuke

Coco-Tromb

Here’s the scoreboard.

Week Ending 06/18	Vegetable (bold = final)	Count	Total Weight g	Unit Weight g	Grand Total	Total Weight kg
	Tomato
	Cucumber
	Potato
	Delicata				1	0.38
	Trombone				1	0.28
	Cocozelle	2	135		4	0.40
	Acorn
	Pattypan
	Zucchini	1	137		1	0.14
	Carrots
	Beets
	Beans
Grand Total						1.2

This time last year I was still planting stuff and it was even colder and wetter.

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 230612

Warm all week: mid-upper 80’s.  Coming week has a cooling trend, into the mid 70s. Over on the coast I think this is June Gloom.

Continuing to fight the irrigation system, ineptly patching holes in the sprinkler hose. Amazon doesn’t seem to have anything better.

Harvested a 98g Cocozelle. You are supposed to pick them small, to encourage growth.

Tried to tie up a spaghetti squash, but only succeeded in breaking it off.

Planted part of Section 3 — Cherokee Wax Yellow Bush beans (53, early August). Saving one section for another tranche of lettuce, in a couple of weeks. Our first batch of lettuce is harvestable at the cut and come again stage, which is good, because the indoor lettuce has gotten old and tough and bitter.

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 230605

Warm all week: upper 70’s to start, ending in mid-80’s.  Coming week is mid-80’s ending around 90F, with showers in the middle.

Continuing to fight the irrigation system.  The soft soaker is too, too soft and the method of attachment to the coupler is weak…as in disassembles itself if dragged across the lawn.

The U/I squash in the NW corner has put out its first fruit. It’s a 180g Cocozelle, a kind of Zucchini. Very good grilled with lime and basil. Also harvested a 380g Delicata. I guess I was supposed to leave it until Fall, but it was very good.

I didn’t prep for corn this year because Spring was so cold and wet. Now, Summer looks to be hot and dry, so I dense-planted a row of corn in between the two rows of potatoes in Section 4.  It’s old corn, and if nothing comes of it, well, nothing of value is lost.

Garden, with Rhubarb

Cocozelle

Potato Patch

Grow Bags

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 22/08/01

Looks like we’ve survived the heatwave. Didn’t hit 100F here, but Spokane was 102F and we peaked at 99.7F, so close enough. The coming week will be breezy, with highs around 90F.

Section 1:

All are doing fine. Small tomatoes already showing.

Row 1: [ Sunsugar Yellow | S100 | EarlyGirl ]

Row 2: [Brandywine | Superfantastic | Big Beef ]

Row 3: [ Champion | Red Beef | Bonnie ]

Section 2 :

Growth continues uneven. Some are doing very well but others are just hanging on. The Zucchini keeps throwing off fruit that grows to <10cm long, then dies.

Row 1: [ Acorn | Summer | Zucchini ]

Row 2: [ Acorn | Spaghetti | Pumpkin ]

…………………….[Delicata]

Row 3: [Butternut | Butternut | Straightneck ]

Section 3 The only thing left here is the row of beets.

Section 4  The sweet potatoes and of regular potatoes continue doing OK.

House Container Bags:
Potato | Potato | Sweet Potato | Sweet Potato | possible Cocozelle | Bonnie Tomato / Basil | Cucumbers | Early Girl / Oregano |

Potatoes are going wild. Sweets are hanging on. Tomatoes and herbs are doing OK. The remaining cucumber is doing … OK. The year-old Cocozelle seeds have produced two seedlings.

The irrigation system is now working pretty well. Have not switched to soaker because I realized I’d put the beets in too far from either arm.

Indoor Container:
The big container has some very strong growing seedlings (indeterminate), and the four planter cups have two seedlings (determinate). I’m not sure either one will produce anything by the next frost. One planter cup suddenly produced a fast-growing Cocozelle, I’m waiting for the weather to improve before I plant it out.

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 22/07/25

I didn’t realize that it’s been a month since my last weekly report. That’s because not a lot has been going on. The days of rain and coldness are far behind. The day’s of 100F are scheduled for the coming week.

I recently watched a YouTube that talked about late-planting of tomatoes — how you should put in a set of determinates that will ripen just before first frost. With my usual timing I went down to the hardware store…the day after they sent all their seeds back.

Neither the Bi-Mart Cocozele nor the Bi-Mart Acorn squash have sprouted. I think I shan’t get seeds there any more.

Golden photobomb

Main garden

Section 1:

All are doing fine. Small tomatoes already showing.

Row 1: [ Sunsugar Yellow | S100 | EarlyGirl ]

Row 2: [Brandywine | Superfantastic | Big Beef ]

Row 3: [ Champion | Red Beef | Bonnie ]

No sign of the 2m of carrots-on-tape I planted between columns 1 and 2.

Section 2 :

Growth is very uneven. Some are doing very well (the Zucchini already has fruit), but others are just hanging on.

Row 1: [ Acorn | Summer | Zucchini ]

Row 2: [ Acorn | Spaghetti | Pumpkin ]

…………………….[Delicata]

Row 3: [Butternut | Butternut | Straightneck ]

Section 3 Replanted the one row of lettuce-on-tape and one row of beets-on-tape. In this case, ‘one row’ means a stretch along one side of the soaker hose. Some beet sprouts showing already. The cluster of spaghetti squash is down to one spindly plant. The acorn squash hasn’t come up yet.

Section 4  (two rows of sweet potatoes and two half-rows of regular potatoes) is doing OK.

House Container Bags:
Potato | Potato | Sweet Potato | Sweet Potato | possible Cocozelle | Bonnie Tomato / Basil | Cucumbers | Early Girl / Oregano |

Potatoes are going wild. Sweets are hanging on. Tomatoes and herbs are doing OK. The remaining cucumber is doing OK. The bucket potato didn’t produce, so I put in a larger container and planted the Bi-Mart Cocozele. As I said up top, that didn’t produce anything either. Since the container was sitting empty, I decided to try an older packet of Cocozelle seeds, one I knew had sprouted before. If it works — big if — I should be getting some at the end of September. If it doesn’t work, well, I’m no worse off.

The irrigation system is now working pretty well. Since we’re headed into some really hot weather I’m going to switch to soaker hose.

Indoor Container:
Since I couldn’t buy any new seeds I’m trying out planting some old tomato seeds — indeterminate, but needs must — indoors for planting out in early August.

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 190819

We were gone all week, on our second cruise to Alaska (coming soon to a sidebar near you). That soaker hose I rigged across all the containers seemed to work OK.

The containers along the east side of the house continue to produce. The Early Girl House Bag generated 20 tomatoes, and the two EG Containers generated 18. Also got 10 Champion VFNT (900g). The hanging tomato survived the trip from deck to planter, but might not have survived the trip back. In any event, all of its tomatoes are still greenies.

There were lots of tomatoes from the garden as well.  Garden EG produced only 17 tomatoes, but with a total weight of 1.6kg. Rutgers gave up 10 (1280g), and Big Beef had a kilogramsworth of meat in 4 tomatoes (finally, a tomato worthy of the name — we cooked hamburger tonight just to celebrate), and one lonely Bush Beefsteak at 140g.

All in all, we got something over 80 tomatoes at something over 7kg — this week. Too bad the lettuce has petered out.

Lots of salad in our future

Squash stayed reasonably sane. Two summer squash, one Cocozelle Zucchini, and two Genovese Zucchini, one of which was a two pound monster. I suspect it hid behind a leaf when I did my pre-trip purge. In any event, it was given to a friend before I could photograph it.

 

Here’s the scoreboard.

Week Ending 08/19	Vegetable (bold = final)	Count	Total Weight g	Unit Weight g	Grand Total	Total Weight kg
	EG Garden	17	1580	93	26	2.51
	EG Container (2)	18	1380	77	40	3.72
	EG Bag	20	1180	59	39	2.25
	EG Deck	–	–	–	30	1.77
	Other tomato	25	3325	–	30	3.96
	Summer Squash	2	490	245	11	2.29
	Zucchini	3	2330	1870	19	5.8
	Spaghetti squash
	Winter Squash
	Cucumber
	Kohlrabi				2	0.90
Grand Total						23.2

This puts us in the top three years for midsommer yields, and the others had things like pumpkins to plump them up.

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 190722

The weather was surprisingly pleasant, with highs in the upper 70’s, not warming to the 80’s until the weekend. The whole NW is having an unseasonable extension of June Gloom, becoming subject to JAWS — July Abnormally Wet Systems. On Monday, Spokane had the second highest rainfall for that date since record keeping started in 1881.  True, it was only 0.29in, but still. In the past 138 years, it’s rained on the 16th only 21 times. Forecast for next week is more normal — upper 80s/low 90s, no rain except in occasional T-storms. This forecast expected to hold through … August.

Not really seeing much production yet, other than the squash (one Summer, one Genovese, one Cocozelle). Some remaining lettuce. A couple of tomatoes are turning red, but nothing harvestable. Meanwhile, the Bok Choy all bolted.

Here’s the scoreboard. This week’s take includes harvests from previous weeks.

Week Ending 07/22	Vegetable	Count	Total Weight g	Unit Weight g	Grand Total	Total Weight kg
	EG Garden
	EG Container
	EG Bag
	EG Deck
	Other tomato
	Summer Squash	4	1210	302	4	1.2
	Zucchini	6	1948	325	6	1.9
	Spaghetti squash
	Winter Squash
	Cucumber
	Kohlrabi	1	580	580	1	0.6
Grand Total						3.7

I tried using a no-till approach to the garden this year, but it’s not working. Sometimes I have trouble finding the garden plants.

Peas and Carrots and Weeds, Oh My.

There’s actually some radishes in there, also.

We’re ahead of where we were this time last year, except that last year we were already getting big red tomatoes.

Green Thumb Up My Nose

Garden Report for 190701

Cool and rainy at the start, then steadily increasing temperatures, topping out at 81F on Sunday, with warmer in the forecast.

Harvested the first summer squash on Thursday, and of course I didn’t weigh it or photo it. That’s because it went from happy garden plant to dinner salad in about fifteen minutes. Main body was softball sized, so probably half a kilo or so.

The plants are so dense in Section 1 that it was hard to see if there’s any more of them, so it took me another day to find our second harvest, a 477g Cocozelle squash. A what? Italian striped Zucchini.

Fancy Italian Zucchini

Tomatoes are coming along. Lots of small greenies visible. Nothing large or ripe yet.

Harvested all the lettuce in the hanging container. That should give the tomato a chance to grow. Right now it has zero fruit or flowers. Also harvested most of the main garden lettuce a week or ten days earlier than my prediction, because it was really big, and when it gets really hot, it might really bolt. I figure it’s a tossup: we lose it to heat or it rots in the fridge.

Squirrels dug over the Section 3 area I’d just planted peas in. They’ve ignored the garden so far, but I guess the fresh soil was too much for them. Put one of the wire shelf racks over that spot, and planted Amaranth in the freshly exposed soil in Section 4. Should be harvestable in mid-August, assuming the squirrels don’t trash them all.