Fall transplanting

After several days of rain, the sun finally came out Sunday afternoon. I used the dry weather as an opportunity to transplant many of our seedlings and to pull out some of the summer vegetables that were done for the year. It's never easy to pull out a plant that isn't totally dead, but by removing the watermelon and muskmelon vines, I created a big patch of fertile soil in full sun ready for new plants. Many of the transplants are vegetables new to our garden including rhubarb, cress and chickory. I also planted bunching onions, red dandelion greens, and succession crops of arugula, Italian dandelion and several asian greens. For herbs, I transplanted dill, anise, French sorrel, lavender, Giant Italian parsley and several varieties of basil including Dark Opal and Finissimo Verde a Palla.

I harvested the last of the "Contender" green beans, which made an excellent side dish last night, and the last of the edamame. I also harvested a big bowl of okra which David is going to experiment with tonight. I pulled out the bean plants, but the okra still has lots of baby fruit and flowers. The eggplant is still producing heavily, and the cucumber vines are loaded with flowers (although no mature fruit yet).

The asian greens trans planted in mid-July are growing rapidly. The Hybrid Misome, Tatsoi and Natsu Rakuten from Kitazawa are the stand-outs in terms of how quickly they've grown, but the Choho, Chin Chiang, Yu Choy and Hybrid Kojisan Komatsuna also look great. The Mizuna plants are green and healthy, but they are not growing as rapidly as the other greens. The Senposai which has been in the ground since the end of May has grown back again despite frequent harvesting all summer. I filled in the gaps with new seedlings, but the original plants should produce at least two more large harvests. Those original plants have developed pretty, thick purple stems, and I'm hoping that for our final harvest we can cook and eat them. I need to do a little research first.