There were a few photos from the North Garden that I missed in my earlier post.
First, Jody was asking if my Brussels had sprouted, and I said no. Then I looked again, and there are some tiny nubbins showing on one of the three plants (you have to look very close). Hope springs eternal!
The zucchini (left) and yellow crookneck squash are getting huge. They now fill this 12'x12' area behind the garden shed, barely leaving me room to walk out the back door. Those are 6" wide boards on the fence behind the plants.
Cantaloupe plants are finally beginning to grow and climb up their cage. It's hard to see them with the neighbor's weeds in the background.
Spacemaster cucumbers in the pot are also climbing, and have given me three nice cucumbers already.
I moved the garden ladder so I could use it as a trellis for this hill of cantaloupe. I'm hoping I can train the plants up the garden twine that I strung up the steps.
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The east Garden is entering its ugly phase, as most of the onions are flopped or pulled out and the potatoes are also flopping and dying. I'll be happy when everything is harvested from this garden, so I can begin planting it for fall.
The neighbor's weeds are getting taller and taller. I reach over the fence and cut back what I can reach, but many of the milkweeds are beyond my reach and tower way over my head.
That's not to say I don't have weeds! No, not in the main garden, but here at the west fence I have crabgrass and oxalis sprouting everywhere. At least it's not 6' high!
And now....on to the tomatoes!
Tomato Alley: (1) Victor, (2) Bloody Butcher, (3) Coastal Pride Orange (4) Homestead
Tomato Alley: (5) Bush Celebrity, (6) Rio Fuego, (7) Mountain Princess
Bloody Butcher, in Tomato Alley, will win the "first to ripen" for the second year in a row.
Victor will probably win the award for "most tomatoes on a plant".
West fence: (8) Fabulous, (9) Marglobe Supreme, (10) Homestead
West fence: (11) Bush Celebrity, (12) Marion, (13) Bloody Butcher
Patio corner: Wild Cherry
Garden shed: (15) Black Cherry. This is my tallest plant at 5' 5".
Garden shed: (16) Una Heartsock, (17) Marglobe Supreme
Garden shed: (18) Una Heartsock, (19) Isis Candy
Kennel garden: (20) Isis Candy
Pot: (21) Pixie
And then there were the volunteers....
Volunteer (22) Unknown. I didn't have any tomatoes planted here last year, so this must be from a seed dropped in 2010. There was an unknown cherry tomato in this corner that year.
Volunteer (23) Probably a Cherokee Purple. It's been hidden behind the peas, so just recently began enjoying the sunshine.
Volunteer (24) Unknown and probably will have to be removed, as it's in the pathway at the west side of the house. If I can control it, I'll let it stay and hope it's from the Heatwave that grew nearby last year.
Not shown: (25 (26) (27) Three of the four Minigold tomatoes that were grown in the house from January to late April. One is on the patio and growing and producing well in the shade, two are in the garden and also producing fruits daily. The fourth was thrown away because nobody need four Minigold plants. Two more will probably follow once the regular tomatoes start bearing ripe fruits.
*Blogger is messing up my picture and text spacing today. I wish they'd leave things alone!!!
*Blogger is messing up my picture and text spacing today. I wish they'd leave things alone!!!
Boy, those two squash are huge! I don't think I'll have a ripe tomato on July 1st like I did last year. The tomatoes at the plots are loaded and huge....but, it's too darn hot out to go look. Maybe I'll get over there tonight when it cools off a bit.
ReplyDeleteMy first ripe bloody Butcher came on June 21 last year, so this one will be nearly two week s later. My plants are big, but there aren't a lot of tomatoes. They suffered quite a bit of blossom drop during our long cold spell. Lots of blossoms now though.
DeleteI'm sensing a "problem" with the neighbors weeds? LOL!
ReplyDeleteOh, for the good old neighbor to be back!
Sue, how did you guess? Now she has a bunch of creeping bellflower. That's really bad stuff, and it's coming through into my garden now. Old neighbor Pat isn't well. She's on oxygen and using a walker now. Sad.
DeleteYour tallest tomato plant is taller than me! By a few inches! What do you use for soil in the containers you plant them in? I tried a few container tomatoes and one looks very healthy, but the other three are anemic and barely hanging in there.
ReplyDeleteNutmeg, the tallest tomato is planted directly in-ground. All of the cherry tomatoes are. The others have a mixture of different brands of potting mix, potting soil, some leftover peat moss, a little vermiculite, ground up egg shells and old calcium tablets....you name it, if I had it I mixed it in! The best ones have mostly Miracle Gro Potting Mix, blended with another slightly less expensive one from Home Depot, can't remember the brand. In past years I've used straight Ace Potting Mix with Fertilizer, but couldn't find that in three Ace Hardware stores I went to this spring. Even though their computer said they had 85 bags of it, not one store could find any! Another thing, all of those containers are bottomless, so the roots extend down into my native soil that's been enriched with composted cow poo. Except for tomato alley, where they are sitting on rocks and hard packed soil.
DeleteOops, MOST of the cherry tomatoes are in ground, both Una Heartsocks are in bottomless black pots.
DeleteUmmmm...waitaminnit...
Deletewhen you said 'old calcium tablets' do you mean vitamins? human vitamins?
That would a totally new idea for me. Next you'll be telling me to water w/ old sour milk!!! LOL
(Thanks for replying to all our silly questions. I really am this new @ gardening.)
Barbee, yep....old, expired date calcium tablets for people. I had a huge bottle from Costco that got lost way back in a cupboard, so I decided to grind them up with the egg shells. Why not? It's all calcium! Heck, I ground up old vitamins and tossed them in with my 2010 tomatoes, and they grew great! Aspirin, one or two tablets per plant, are another thing many people add. I didn't have any spares this year, so I didn't use them.
DeleteLOL, some people do water with old sour milk, to get rid of powdery mildew. well, with milk...not sure if they'd use soured milk :-)
I've got weeds too even though I weed every time I go out. They really have grown huge in the heat. And 27 tomatoes? Didn't you say just a dozen at the beginning of the year?
ReplyDeleteDaphne, what can I say? I have no self control. :-D
DeleteI'm truly inspired by your clever bottomless tomato pots.
ReplyDeleteDo you need to water more frequently than 'regular' in-ground and...how frequent is that?
Sorry if you already said elsewhere, just got here and spending all my time drooling over pretty pictures.
Barbee, welcome to my blog!
DeleteI have been watering them every time the tops of one particular plant (Mountain Princess) begins drooping. It's been cool, so that has been about every four days. Now that it's getting hot, I've increased it to every other day, which is how often the garden (with "regular" and some pots in the shed garden) gets watered on timers.
Hooray for Bloody Butcher! It is so exciting to see the first blush. Everything is growing so very well.
ReplyDeleteRachel, yes! Growing and producing already. I brought in over 20 pounds today before my back gave out, LOL!
DeleteHi Annie, Very nice pictures of your gardens! Disgusting that your neighbors don't cut their weeds. They would be able to see your lovely gardens if they did!! Nancy
ReplyDeleteNancy, she talks to me over the weeds, so she knows they are between her and my garden. I guess it doesn't bother her like it does me :-(
DeleteWell if it is milkweed you at least can be feeding the butterflys. :D
ReplyDeleteThose tomatoes are looking great! I have a Silver Fir Tree tomato ripening that I am determined to have some self control and leave it on the vine to really ripe state. There are Stupice tomatoes coming right behind it but the other tomatoes have not really been setting much fruit yet. I think it's just been too gloomy and cool. I really wish summer would get here and stay.
Kitsap, I have never seen a butterfly near them! In fact, I got all excited last week when I saw a butterfly on the Sweet Williams. They have been noticeably absent from this area for several years. I keep letting my herbs go to flower, hoping to attract bees and butterflies. Bees have been a bit more evident recently, but certainly not in the numbers that used to be in the garden. I was just thinking, it's been 13 years since I've seen a bumble bee! We were camping on the Snake river by Clarkston, and I was wearing a straw hat with fake sweet peas, and the bumble bee kept landing on my hat! Alicia was with us, and only five years old....now she's 18!
ReplyDeleteI like how you have everything planned out, especially the east garden so that you can replant it all for fall. In my tiny garden I worry about rotating crop families for pest control which means that I right now have two empty spots from the peas and garlic but they are in seperate areas of the garden, so no matter the season it feels like there is always an empty spot. Right now I am trying to determine the fall garden so I know if I can replant these areas or if they have to stay bare until fall plantings.
ReplyDeleteWell, Vanessa, I've never planted a fall garden before. In past years, I had to plan on leaving my garden mid-October and heading for AZ, so I didn't bother with succession planting. I have no idea how well it will do, but I'm going to try!
DeleteI am working on planning my fall garden but it is new to me. I just hope I can get more broccoli and cabbage planted. I am loving them! I think I may plant my tomatoes in bottomless buckets like yours next year. Yours look so happy and healthy. I don't know what is killing mine this year. I will be happy to get one tomato this year! :)
ReplyDeleteChristy, I planted a few cabbage seeds a couple of weeks ago, and have seedlings up now. I transplanted two of the thinnings today, but I don't know if they'll survive if it suddenly turns hot. I'll try to find room for about three more in a cooler area of the garden. I thought about broccoli, and if I knew the variety of the latest one I harvested I would. It gave me a full one pound head, much larger than any of the others from the packet of mixed (and not named) varieties. I think I might try fall peas and snap peas, and maybe I'll cover my large protective cage with netting and do a nice planting of spinach. Of course, lettuce grows well in the fall, too.
DeleteGarden looks gorgeous as always! I wish I had all labels on my tomatoes because it's going to be a guessing game come harvest time. Love your zuccini plants!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jenny. I'll be playing the guessing game with some of my peppers.
DeleteIt looks beautiful, and I was particularly glad to see one or two teeny grass sprigs -- I'd thought you were miraculous before, judging from the last set of pictures. Your garden is so beautifully clean and even the soil looks like it has been filtered, a handful at a time. You'd pass out if you saw the rocky red clay here and then the crab grass that springs eternal. 106 degrees here today!
ReplyDeleteDianefaith, I'm very particular about my vegetable garden. I do not allow weeds! Now....the rest of the yard, we won't talk about ;-)
DeleteThe crab grass is just now beginning to show here, too. At least we have sandy soil, so it's very easy to pull.
My black cherry is the tallest tomato plant in our garden as well, topping 5 feet. I think I need gardening lessons from AG! Beautiful garden :)
ReplyDeleteNartaya, I didn't plant one last year, but in 2010 my Black Cherry grew way up over the roof, and I had to use a ladder to pick the tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteLove the little ladder! So lush! The garden, not the gardener. ;)
ReplyDeleteDavid, did you just call me a lush? LOL! I love my little ladder in the garden. It got replaced by an aluminum ladder for climbing, so it's been holding the birdhouse for a few years. I decided it was time it earned its keep in the garden, and the vines are doing a pretty good job climbing so far.
Delete*sigh* I dream of tomatoes that healthy. It's 60 degrees and pouring rain today and won't get over 75 until Thursday. The bonus is that I'll have some great cauliflower by Thursday... but I have the saddest tomatoes ever. Your tallest is 5'5", my tallest is about 10". lol, this is just the worst year ever for summer weather!
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks fabulous this week, I love when then the squashes start to get so big you question your sanity in planting them. :D I end up doing it every year. "Oh yeah, I forgot how big these get... what was I thinking putting them there?!"
Anywhere, it was cool and rainy here yesterday. Nice day for blanching and freezing green beans!
DeleteThe squash were given large areas to grow, and they'd darned well better stay within their bounds. Or else!!! Actually, I'm more concerned about all the cantaloupe vines. I planned on one hill of cantaloupe, but the cold weather kept it from growing so I just kept planting more...and more. Now I have probably a dozen plants that have decided to perk up, survive and grow like crazy. It will truly be a jungle out there soon.
Your plants look really good. Very healthy. You have a great harvest coming.
ReplyDeleteAngela, I'm hoping for a great harvest, as last year's wasn't so good. So far, the garden is producing very well.
ReplyDelete