Nice haul!

 Some very nice tomatoes coming in. The first Cherokee Purple was just about ready. In a perfect world I would have let it sit another day or two, but in the chipmunk infested hellscape that I live in, better safe than sorry.

Weighing in at 354g (12.5 oz)

I was shocked by how many Black Cherry tomatoes were ripe. I picked 330g (11.6 oz) of them today.

Black cherry, yum

Picked a few that on my map are labelled A Grappoli D'Invierno, but those are oblong and small, so they are most likely mislabelled. I think they are probably Rutgers.

Rutgers

Also pulled some more actual A Grappoli D'Invierno. A few Roma are close to ready, as are a Beefsteak or two. Some of the prettier green ones:

A Grappoli D'Invierno

Allegedly Hungarian, but can't be.

Roma

Black Cherry on the vine

Gezahntne - neat shape

As usual, there are also some problems. Starting to see a bit more powdery mildew on the zucchini. this is usually not such a problem for me, but usually the vine borers have finished me off by now. I have not been as attentive in pruning dead/yellowing leaves lately, perhaps that contributes to the problem.

Powdery Mildew

Something likes cucumbers. Mice? Chipmunks? I don't think it's one big deer bite.

Cucumber got eaten

New batch of cukes to the rescue! Most came up, if I can get them vining up a trellis or wire or something, I think they will be in better shape than the ones out front.

Herbs are a mixed bag. The Genovese Basil is doing great. The Lettuce Leaf Basil seems to be doing well, but not too many plants. Basil is ok, but some of it looks like it withered, maybe not watering in time, or maybe watering with the hose made them unhappy. It is pretty intense, they probably don't like that. Oregano I have no idea. I think some of the little teensy plants in there are Oregano. But unclear.

Genovese Basil

Lettuce Leaf Basil

I placed a small plastic tray of water down by the stems of the Rampicante, and since then no more rodent damage. Maybe it worked? *shrug* Some actual zucchini coming along, fun shapes.

Zucchino rampicante

Still getting zucchini! Thank you bt! The official tally is 27.7 lbs, but I know for sure I missed weighing some, probably more like 30 lbs.

Turning Point?

It has been so hot. Plants need to be watered a couple times a day. The Spoon Tomatoes, the zucchini, the zucchino rampicante, the kale, the strawberries, and the various peppers have all suffered from wilting. Seems like I'm getting less from the zukes and the kale. And the beans. The tomatoes are looking good for sure, and they've only just begun.

So what to do? Well, I've started some new stuff - herbs and a bunch of cucumbers. Next day or two I will plant some more zucchini. The bt seems to have saved most of them, but two really didn't make it. The rampicante is flourishing, though wilty at times. I think it would benefit from some mulch, though the leaves are huuuuuge so they shade the soil pretty well.

Vine Borer seconds before death by brick

The biggest change this weekend is Mal and I filled six 5 gallon pails with soil (from the compost heap, should be good). I planted cukes in them. Beit Alpha seemed to do best in the stone planter out front, despite the heat. I've gotten 4 or 5 cukes from that and like a couple of the other ones. I'm quite hopeful that the cukes will do better with some shade in the back. I also intend to trellis them, maybe some rope over the gutters, maybe something more serious. The setup...

The tomatoes are a bright spot, so lets end on a high note. 

Hungarian coloring up. Soon! Chipmunks stay away!

Cherokee Purple looks gorgeous.

Lotsa flowers!

By my count, 50 on one plant in this frame!

Some Interesting Growth

The beans out front are starting to flower. Very pretty, and hopefully beans soon.
The beans out back, not to be outdone, are climbing up the chicken wire trellis. The little twining tendril is about a foot and a half long. They spend most of their time trying to outgrow the kale in front of them, which is doing very well.
The Spoon Tomatoes out back seem very happy with their setup. I think they may not provide too much in the way of actual poundage of veg, but I do think they will be kind of fun.

The cuke patch does not look too happy. I suspect I didn't water quite enough for their liking. I did mulch with grass clippings which will help with water retention. And there is new growth that seems a bit happier.

The zucchino rampicante seems to be flourishing. 

OMG a cucumber! Ok, admittedly not quite salad/pickle sized. But it is there!

And another peek at the main tomato patches. Looking good! Maybe it would be wise to prune a bit more to free up the air flow around this jungle a bit. I don't think I will be that aggressive though.

Eating Flowers

One of the first things the garden provides that I can eat - zucchini flowers. Dipped in egg and flour and fried. Love em!

First taste of spring

The harvest of black raspberries this year was pretty solid - ended up with 1.75 lbs. You have to get to them quickly, they're around for a week or two then gone, sadly. Not sure if these are destined for pie or jam.

Yum, sweet and seedy black raspberries

Picked my first zucchini today. Lots more on the way. Kale is getting past it's prime, but still not eating it. Cucumbers are doing a fine job so far. Hope the ground hog stays away.

Cukes

Toodling right along

Every year I say I'll be so much more diligent. Every year. And yet every year I fall behind, plan poorly, do a fraction of what I wanted to. Ah well. I didn't plant all the tomato varieties I intended to, but I have a decent selection. Here's what the community garden looks like. My swanky new 20' x 25' plot.

The garden plot

8 varieties of paste tomatoes. I made a lot of spaghetti sauce last year. I was very happy with the Amish paste, they're a local heirloom and they do very well in the community garden. Everyone talks up San Marzanos as the pinnacle of sauce tomatoes, so those were well represented as well. Plus a Roma. My Roma seeds were old and didn't germinate well. I wanted to include them for comparison if nothing else.

The rest:

• Cherokee purple - delicious if not prolific
• Brandywine
• Rutgers
• 4th of July - Their main virtue is supposed to be that they produce early, but I got them in late. Still, they've always done well for me.
• Plum Regal
• Indigo Rose - Supposed to be dark purple!
• Speckled Roman

Poor Tigerella didn't make the cut this year - didn't have seeds. Too bad, they'll be back though.

At home I'm doing cherry tomatoes. Right now I have four kinds in the dirt.

• Black Cherry - love the look and taste
• Sungold - Delicious and VERY prolific
• Yellow Pear - Adds another color to the mix, supposed to be prolific.
• Red Cherry large fruited - they always do well for me

First Sungold, plant is thriving on the front patio.

Totally dropped the ball on peppers this year. Not even growing jalapenos! I do have three kinds.

• Capt Joe E. Parker - A New Mexico type
• Long Cayenne
• Capperino - A small round type suitable for stuffing

Yeah, definitely dropped the ball. Ah well. 

Eggplants were even worse, only ONE came up of the 16 or so I planted. Husk cherries were a total zero. Not one sprouted. Too bad, those were sweet and tasty, would have loved to make some jam or a pie or something. Maybe try harder on those next year.

My cucumber setup from the last post has not kept the weeds out. Top of the chore list is weeding that patch. Only a few came up.

Also planted green beans. Not many sprouted, and some critter has been at them. Initially thought it was a groundhog but now I'm thinking it might have been deer. Leaving the back light on, maybe they'll be afraid to come in that close to the house.

One nice surprise, last year's dill seeded itself. I found 3 nice plants in some two gallon buckets I had it in last year. Those are huge, but a bit spindly. Further investigation turned up about 10 tiny volunteers springing up amongst the cherry tomato plants in the fenced in garden in the back yard. Which gets me excited for pickling. Set up some more cuke seeds on wet paper towels, I need more of them if I want to be awash in cukes for pickling. Although a smidge late to start.

Peas tapering off

The peas are tapering off. We picked 11 oz today and popped them in the freezer. The Sugar Snap Sprint peas look like they may have a few more flowers on them, the regular Sugar Snap are flowerless.

I should do a tomato count. I'm thinking at least 20 at the moment, and lots more on the way. [ed. - census of all 31 plants revealed 61 tomatoes, 124 flowers total on the regular varieties, 15 tomatoes, 27 flowers on the cherry varieties. Counted even pea-sized tomatoes and any flower where I could see yellow. Overwhelming leader was one fourth of july hybrid with 15 tomatoes and 18 flowers. This is a lower limit, I didn't move foliage to search - MC]

Peppers are starting to flower.

Cukes are looking good, seeing a few sub-inch cukes already.

Beans are up and growing like weeds. Corn is growing well, winter squash us up (Hubbard). A bunch of zucchini is on the grow - some planted a while back indoors, some seeded directly not long ago. The big corn patch is now covered with corn plants an inch or two high. Planted half of it at 6 inch spacing, half at 1 foot spacing. We may have a lot of corn. The upside down tomatoes are looking decent, but the rightside up ones are looking better.

Finally the barley is looking awful, but we've got some seed showing.

Update - Dug up a nice strip of earth just outside the north side of the fence and planted 11 Northern Pickling Cucumbers. Be nice if the deer leave them alone.