I skipped a gardening update last week because there wasn’t much to write about. We were at a place where things were still growing but not ready to harvest yet, and there just wasn’t much to include in an update. Thankfully, things are different this week. Let’s dive in!

Harvesting Corn & Potatoes

Yesterday afternoon, we spent an hour or so in the garden harvesting vegetables we’ve been waiting on, including corn and potatoes. Most of our corn has been growing very well. Two varieties are over 10 feet tall, two others are more than six feet tall, and the others are about four feet tall. All seem to be in line with expectations. The stalks have been in tassle for several weeks and have had ears growing for quite some time. But until yesterday, none of the ears were ready to be picked.

I believe we picked a half-dozen ears split between three or four varieties. There were two Painted Mountains, two Country Gentleman, and I think one each of the Luther Hill and Black Iroquois, Sweet Mexican varieties. The ears varied fairly widely in length, but they were pretty full ears. I think our favorite variety was the Country Gentleman, which is an heirloom from the late 18th century. It is sweet corn, but not nearly as sweet as our modern hybrids. It also doesn’t grow in rows like corn typically does. Instead, it is a shoepeg type, so the kernels grow in zig-zags. It’s beautiful.

We also really enjoyed the Painted Mountain corn. This is a flint, or dent, corn, so it typically isn’t eaten fresh like this. Instead, it’s usually left to dry on the stalk and then ground into cornmeal. We decided to eat it fresh because we’re unlikely to grow enough ears to mill, but we didn’t want it to go to waste. Plus, it can still be eaten fresh, and we learned it’s absolutely delicious. It’s one of the best-tasting corn varieties we’ve ever had. The downside is that its texture is a bit off. It’s starchier and chewier than sweet corn usually is, but if you can get past that, the flavor is excellent.

We also pulled our first batch of potatoes yesterday but likely did so a couple of weeks early. Growing potatoes in bags has gone very well, with all but one bag growing very well. All the others are full of two-foot-tall plants, and most have flowers on them. Plus, some have started to die back, indicating that they’re close to being ready. Unfortunately, I was misled by some Reddit threads, and we pulled a bag of Red Norland potatoes a bit too early. The potatoes we did harvest look amazing. We have roughly a dozen appropriately sized, beautiful red-skinned potatoes. They’re firm and are going to be delicious. But we could also see on the roots a lot of places where new potatoes were starting to grow, so we likely lost out on the opportunity to grow another dozen potatoes. With the rest of the bags, we’re going to wait until the plants have completely died off before harvesting.

Melons Are Growing Well

In what has been a very weird year for gardening, from the inconsistent temperatures and rain to the Canadian wildfire smoke, our melons have been doing exceptionally well. This is odd, because growing melons in cooler climates like ours is difficult. We’ve tried growing them in the past, but they always failed to grow to their fullest size or lacked flavor. This year, for whatever reason, they’re doing well.

We’re growing three varieties of melons: Pride of Wisconsin (muskmelon), Montreal Market (muskmelon), and Cream of Saskatchewan (watermelon). I’m confident that we have at least one of each variety growing, with multiple fruit being close to volleyball size. None of these tend to produce huge melons, but if we get something around five pounds, I would be thrilled. I think it’s difficult to tell when melons are ready to be harvested, but by early September, we should be close.

Try Little Bing Tomatoes

The Little Bing tomato is one of the most highly anticipated things we’re growing this year. Not only is the name funny, but it’s also described as being one of the best-tasting cherry tomatoes the seed company employees have tasted. I started them inside and transplanted them into a small rectangular planter we have. After transplanting, the plants took off, and we’ve had dozens of blossoms and fruit for weeks. Thankfully, the tomatoes have started to turn red, and we were able to harvest the first ones yesterday. The seed company was 100 percent correct on the flavor. This tomato is very sweet, but not syrupy sweet. It also has a great tomato flavor without any of the “tinniness” that can happen. They’re not too big, but they can still be sliced. They may be the perfect cherry tomato.

Elsewhere in the Garden

We’ve also continued to pick beans, even though I thought they would have stopped growing by now. We’re still eating Cherokee Wax and Blue Lake Bush beans and even gave a quart of them to our neighbors last evening. Our shelling beans are also doing well. They have large pods, and the plants continue to look healthy.

Our other tomato plants are holding on, and the bulk of the tomatoes are starting to ripen. Our peppers are in a similar state. We are also finally starting to see some eggplants growing on the plans. Last year, we harvested a ton of them, but this year, they’ve been much slower to grow and develop.

Finally, our sunflowers are looking great, and one of the Teddy sunflower plants has grown a flowerhead. It’s stunning. I wasn’t sure if we’d ever see this happen. That’s all for this week’s update. Happy Gardening!