The Tomatoes Are In

On deck supply, July 29, 2012

      The success of my gardening year is totally dependent on the quality of the tomato harvest.  As long as it is a good tomato season, everything is okay.  If I could plant only one crop in my garden, it would be tomatoes.  If I could plant only two, it would be tomatoes and more tomatoes.  I know the tomato season is in when there are more tomatoes on the porch than we can currently eat.  Or when I can give away some tomatoes because there are more in line.  There are enough now to start freezing some.  So although I am complaining about the heat, I should actually be thankful for the tomatoes.

      When you want a lot of tomatoes, you have to plant a lot of plants.  This is the tomato section in the back garden with two rows of 17 plants in each row.  I have learned my lesson to stake and desucker tomato plants in order to get tomatoes that you can find.  A plant on the ground with lots of slug eaten tomatoes is not a thing of beauty.

        Same two rows of plants, but from a different angle.  The two tomatoes in front are Cherokee Purples, one of my favorites.  But so are the Brandywines, Black Krims, Chocolate Cherries, Yellow Jubilees, Marglobes, and many others in the garden.  Note the row of peppers growing in front of the tomato plants to take advantage of the sun at the base of the plants.

Closer shot of the Cherokee Purple

      We actually had rain the other night.  One point one inches in fact!  What a blessing.  These are some clumps of unripe Chocolate Cherries the morning after.

And a volunteer cherry tomato plant

      And these are the Glacier Tomatoes, an extra early tomato that is supposed to ripen in 55 to 60 days, and does.  And has a pretty good tomato flavor to boot.  They are rather prolific, and got the season off to a good early start.  Yet they are still producing heavily now, and make a very good salad tomato.  I will be saving some seed for next year.

      This tomato jungle is what results when you let the plants grow on their own.  Lots and lots of branches, and tomatoes on the ground that are hard to find.  I usually end up cutting off the first six or eight branches at the bottom of the plant, keeping only the central leader.  This is what the same plants look like just minutes after a good trim:

      The critters have done a lot of damage this year to the fruit on the vines.  In this dry summer, even hard green tomatoes are being eaten for their moisture.  And not just bird pecks.  Big chunks of tomatoes gone in short periods of time.

A now worthless Dr. Wyche tomato

Two Brandywines, lost before their prime

      So this summer I have been picking tomatoes just as they start to ripen, as they get that first tell tale color change.  I would rather have vine ripened tomatoes, but you see the results above of waiting too long to pull the tomatoes from the vine.  The very first picture shows the tomatoes ripening on the porch, and they taste just fine.  I will let the tomatoes ripen on the vine at my park plot, as there are thousands of tomatoes there to satisfy lots of critters.  I expect to get at least some vine ripened fruit there.
      But so far, so good.  The tomatoes are in!!

Park Garden, 1/1/2012

      Now over to the park for the first of the year update.  Cold hardy greens such as kale and collards are doing well in many gardens.  On to my garden:

My collards, ready for a picking

Open space from harvest of savoy cabbage yesterday

Cardoon, 1/1/2012

      This cold frame, with the regrowing stumps of cardoon, has received a thin layer of mushroom soil to cover the garlic bulblets from an earlier post.  I saw three little shoots of garlic, including the one in the left corner of the following photo:

Garlic shoot, midway between post and cardoon plant

      This bed has seen better days.  The deer and voles have cleaned out all of the beets that were in the middle.  The voles and George have decimated the radishes.  I will sorely miss that crop.  The Beedy's Camden kale over near the right side is doing well, having been harvested heavily yesterday.  Finally, the thick stem chinese mustard on the far right is doing really well, and needs a heavy picking.

Artichokes, 1/1/12

      These two artichoke plants are doing great, having survived a couple of 23 degree mornings so far.  I might cover them somehow tomorrow if i get really motivated.  Or maybe dig them up to over winter on the relatively cozy porch.

      Many of the egyptian walking onions above are yellowing a bit.  I suppose that has to do with the cooler temperatures, though they should do fine if left alone.  They will recover quickly in the spring.

      This arugula plant is still growing nicely in this cold weather, allowing for some limited harvesting.  The garlic plants on both sides are also growing slowly.  Right now you want root growth in garlic rather than stem growth.  I hope to mulch this bed soon with a couple of inches of leaf mold.

Veggies in unprotected bed, 1/1/2012

Ah, arugula - 1/1/2012

Cold frame packed tight, 1/1/2012

Leeks on left, Rainbow Lacinto kale, and blue curly scotch kale

Pretty Harvest

      What a difference a few hours can make!  It is so nice out this afternoon, a big change from being caught in a rain squaw in the garden this morning.  Both the temperature and humidity have dropped.  We will be complaining about the forecast high of only 59 degrees for Saturday, but it will feel nice.  And make for some no sweat gardening weather.
      And now we have a tale of two gardens.  The fall crops are doing fine at the Bellevue Park garden, but the tomatoes are suffering and there was not a single pepper picked all summer long for me.  Yet at home I am still getting tomatoes and peppers, but the harlequin beetles are trashing the newly planted cole crops.  I don't really have an explanation.  But I still have tomatoes!

Back yard pickings, 9/29/11

      The pepper on the left was a nice surprise discovered on the ground, but in flawless condition.  The yellow tomato in the middle is Dr. Wyche, and the purply one on the right is a Black Krim.  Dinner is going to be yummy.
      A few days ago I gave Bob King a small bag of Egyptian Walking Onion bulbs.  Today he returned the favor with a nice little supply of yellow onion sets.  They were planted at the park, in the west end of bed #2, on the north side behind my planting of the walking onions.

Yellow onion sets planted 9/29/11