The other thing I was doing outside last Sunday was cleaning the last of Edible Alley.

The last two acorn squash were harvested and I will probably be baking one of them tomorrow with a nice roast.

Overall, I’m thrilled with my first attempt at growing squash (and growing them vertically). I got them started late, and like the carrots, the hot, dry early start to summer was really hard on the seedlings. I only got two vines to grow, but they gave me four squash which I think was a pretty good harvest for a first timer.

Knowing when to pick them was a little tricky – everything I read said to pick them when the yellow spot turned orange. But mine are solid green – I think that’s because of growing them up the ladder – they didn’t get light spot like the would had they sat on the ground. I had to resort to trying to determine if the skin was thick enough by pressing my nail against it. The first two I picked probably could have stayed on the vine a little longer (they were still tasty), but I’m hoping I timed it right with these two.

With them harvested, I cleaned out all the vines and dead leaves from the box, leaving no place for the dreaded squash beetle to overwinter.

The last thing to do was trim down the wild, fluffy, ferny asparagus.

While I didn’t get to harvest any (and won’t be able to until at least 2025), I’m blown away by how well the asparagus did. Everything I’ve read says it’s a very fussy one to get started. I think the raised beds helped, as there wasn’t much competition for nutrients from weeds.

I did put the tomatoes in the same box and I don’t think I’ll do that next year – they got so big and crazy, they grew over the asparagus in a lot of spots. I’m not sure what I’ll put in there next year, because apparently they are are fussy about companions – maybe I should just get more asparagus!

You may think of raspberries as a summer fruit, but many varieties give berries in fall. The colder weather has not bothered the raspberries at all. I get a bowl like this every other day. The red ones fruit in both summer and fall, and the yellow ones seem to be just fall. Either way, the only thing that’s going to stop them is a very hard frost – you can see – we’ve got new flowers coming!

And looking back at everything else, it’s been a wonderful first year growing fruit and veg.

• Sugar snap peas – these did amazingly well for the start of the season. It even had me eating fresh peas, which is something I’ve never really had a taste for. I will definitely plant more next year.
• Cucumbers – These did really well to start, but the dreaded cucumber beetle did take its toll eventually. The season probably could have been longer but the plants started dying off. Still, we got more than enough cucumbers for a couple months. I don’t remember the exact variety, but next year I’m going to try an English cucumber instead
• Beans – I planted two types: A tender bush bean, and a Chinese long bean. Next year, I will stick with just the bush bean. The Chinese beans grew REALLY well (read: They took over!), but they aren’t as good as the bush beans. At least, I didn’t like them at all. Dave said he didn’t mind them, though he definitely preferred the bush bean. He likes to eat the beans raw, while I prefer them lightly steam with butter.
• Garlic – My garlic was an absolute flop. I have since learned why. Most garlic needs a cold period to split the bulb into cloves. So a) you need to get it in the ground as soon as you can if its to get any cold in spring, and b) you need to get softneck garlic, which doesn’t need as much cold. I don’t know if the garlic I bought was softneck, but it certainly didn’t get ANY cold as I planted it at the end of May. But – I’m on track now – I planted some hardneck garlic last week and it will have all winter to be nice and chilly!
• Carrots – As you saw the other week, the carrots really exceeded my expectations. (Dave has since eaten them all and is complaining about store bought carrots again.) I did plant too late and too thick, but I still got a nice little harvest. Now that I know what I’m doing, next year will be MUCH better. (And I think the real success is because of the raised beds – the carrots don’t have to fight hard ground to grow)
• Strawberries – The bare root strawberries I bought didn’t grow, so I got a big bucket of grown plants at Home Depot and they’ve been amazing. Not enough to make jam – but enough to snack on whenever I’m out in the garden (all summer long because they are ever-bearing). I noticed a few runners, so It looks like they are happy too!

I look forward to making some tweaks and changes and reaping the harvest rewards next year!