My first tomatoes reached a delicious deep red this week. None have made it into the kitchen as yet because I can't resist eating the warm fruit directly off the vine. My pumpkins are also looking quite spectacular, some photos of which I've included below. I also have some images of my newly flowering artichokes, which are fantastic.
But first, I'll share with you my latest excuse for not mowing the lawns:
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| grass, bok choi and rocket: a reseeding dream |
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| some kind of brassica. I think broccoli based on how much broccoli I grow and eat |
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| more bok choi |
This is the turkish pumpkin (I forget its official name). Now, I was advised not to pick pumpkins until the leaves wither and die, but is that true? These pumpkins look pretty ready to eat.
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| nestled up against the fence |
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| Is it just me or do these pumpkins look kind of rude? |
My butternuts are not quite so orange, but I've got a few working hard at the moment. I grew the pumpkins around the young apricot tree, which has worked out well. There's no point sacrificing my good garden beds to such a space-hogging vegetable, and the apricot seems to like the company.
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| this is the most mature of the butternuts |
The green artichoke has burst into flower:
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| totally worth letting the artichoke go to flower for |
My purple artichoke is still considering its position, but the largest bud is looking massive. I'll be interested to see if the purple artichoke produces purple flowers too.
Lastly, thank you to the person who practices the recorder diagonally over the back fence somewhere. I used to be rather anti-recorder following the compulsory primary school lessons, but for some reason I quite like gardening to the mostly harmonic minor keyed songs.
If you want to pick the pumpkin for eating now, you can. If you want to pick the pumpkins and keep them, you need to make sure that you leave a good six to eight inches of stalk attached to the pumpkin. that way they keep better.
ReplyDeleteThe reason that some people say wait until the leaves have withered is because pumpkin plants are frost tender and the first Autumn frosts will burn off the leaves making it easier to harvest. Some old timers reckon that pumpkins are sweeter after a frost as well.
I used to just pick my pumpkins as I needed them for eating and then harvest the rest once the frosts had burnt off the leaves. Make sure that your pumpkins are sitting on some mulch and not on the ground either as you dont want them to rot before you pick them.
Awesome! I would love to have a raised bed but, every Spring, a family of rabbits moves in under our shed; them, along with a black cat named Smokey, and twelve thousand squirrels have crushed my dreams of growing pumpkins and squashes. Did I mention the occasional possum, fox, and raccoons?
ReplyDeleteEverything looks so amazing. Jealous. :)
Thanks Frogs Ponds Rock. This blog is so good for my gardening anxieties thanks to seasoned gardeners such as you.
ReplyDeleteLisa, you could do what my mum does with her passionfruit and cucumbers, which are otherwise eaten by giant possums. Do oranges and onions come in 1kg mesh bags in the US? She takes the mesh bags and wraps each passionfruit in it, which protects them from the possum beasts.