You know it's summer when tomatoes start popping up on windowsills!
As usual, I had completely forgotten how large tomato plants can get, and neglected to get any of them (a total of three plants) staked properly. These two tomatoes are from a whole branch of a plant that I found barely still hanging onto it's mother plant, and on the ground. The branch looked fine, as if the tomatoes might ripen even if I left them right there, but I took these two off to let them ripen inside. Black Brandywine, the only eating tomato that I grow. Although that might have to change. The plant of this variety gets far too large for my tiny yard, and starts blocking sun on everything to the north of it. If you've got a fabulous fresh eating variety that grows on a diminuitive plant, please let me know.
I am having the same, even worse, problem with Amish Pastes, see the photo below, which has been cropped to the edges of the plant. You can see my repeated and clap-trap attempts to keep it aloft by installing somewhat concentric circles of small trellises around it. It's a good thing I have a lot of those trellises!
I will, however, have lots and lots of tomatoes, despite these problems.
On other garden news fronts, I will finally have some peppers this year; the lemon jalapenos are already turning yellow and I just had one in an omelet. One of my three eggplant varieties - I think it is Little Fingers - has lots of blossoms, but the other two varieties have none. Heavy Hitter Okra is producing half a dozen pods a week at this point, which is plenty for me really, but I'm hoping for more robust yields soon.
My bonanza this year has been in Bush beans! I got lots of those frozen. I also have had far more raspberries and blueberries than I can eat, so lots of those are frozen too, waiting for cooler weather to can them in.
I got a little cray cray with strawberries this year, and planted an 8 by 2 foot container with a day-neutral variety so as to put my asphalt area to food production use. These have just started producing and, if they are happy, should be giving me gobs and gobs of berries for freezing and jams. If you look closely, you can see I have arched deer fencing over the container to ward off squirrels. So far, no damage to any of these berries! I'll take it!
They are perfect strawberries too! Sweet, large and juicy!
My yard sure is getting shaggy though. Unruly even. But full of lovely surprises, such as gourds I didn't plant, and carrots coming up everywhere because I let one go to spectacular seed. Lettuces, too.
I haven't said a word about all the herbs I've managed to dehydrate or freeze, the first batch of potatoes that are curing in the garage, the spotty harvest of garlic, the calendula and ointment, the failed batch of sauerkraut, the winter squash and watermelons that are starting to plump up, or the peaches that are not developing even though I can't find anything wrong with them.
But here are two final shots of the whole shebang, photos taken one month apart.
I love it out there. It's my playground.
This is my entry to Hive Garden Community's monthly garden challenge for August, 2024. Thank you so much for stopping by!
It sure looks like you could feed the five thousand with all that. Isn't nature amazing. I'm stealing your idea and planting my strawberries in raised beds next year. . We did get tons but so many were nibbled.
I like the look of those garden boxes!
The elevated one? I love that I can garden standing perfectly upright in it. It took a full yard of soil to fill, though. I'm already wondering what to plant in it next year. Maybe bush beans, which are back-breaking to harvest. But then, so are strawberries.
If you mean the raised beds in the main part of the garden, those are quite nice, too. Gives my garden some bones, structure, and tames it somewhat. Once I plant outside of clear boundaries, everything becomes a mess. Which I like, too. Wild! Suprising!
Wow! That looks like it will keep you very busy. 😊
Very. I also think in Haiku out there. I used to try to remember the poems so that I could post them. Now I just have the thoughts, and let them go. It's very pleasant. I feel very much like I am playing out there, the garden grows as it tells me it wants to grow. I'm just a facilitator.
That sounds wonderful. And I imagine that it must be very rewarding taking bites out of the fresh vegetables that you’ve grown.
I love tasting vegetables fresh off the vine when they’re still warm from the sun and then trying them later after they’ve been thoroughly chilled.
My family and I have been enjoying my neighbors cucumbers recently. They’re great!
Wow! Looks like an amazing year. There's that stretch of time in the season where things are producing but it looks like chaos. It's good chaos, if you're well fed.
https://www.homefortheharvest.com/mortgage-lifter-tomato/
I like these one - I save the seeds every year.
Exactly! Chaos that makes me very happy as well as fed.
I've always wanted to try that variety, but the description says the plants are "massive!" That won't work here. I found blight out there yesterday. I think I will buy a lot of tomatoes to can this year, and not even plant tomatoes next year, except for one plant (brandywine) in a bag up on the asphalt where scourges don't seem to take hold.
Do you pinch out the shoots as they grow? I always try to but next minute I have a jungle!
Yeah sometimes it seems better to buy a few boxes cheap from the market rather than go to the effort! But homegrown fresh tomatoes on sourdough with some basil and balsamic glaze - oooh mama!
I do nothing!!! I still manage to have too many tomatoes. I can and dehydrate and eat and cook with tomatoes as long as I can. That season is over too soon for my taste, considering I cannot stomach tomatoes from supermarkets, so I only eat them a couple of months out of the year.
Lovely surprises! I always envy with people who have strawberries ehehe. :)
Oh my gosh I love strawberries best of all the berries. Although I recently read that strawberries are not really berries at all. Thanks for stopping by!
I can see why you love this playground, those raised wooden beds are so nice. No need to go down on hands and knees or having to bend! Speaking for myself, I get full of aches and pains; knees, lower back, shoulders, hips...ummm every joint in my body aches after planting;)
What a feast your garden produces!
I would love to grow my vegetables, but the pesky monkeys even pull out root crops! I only have herbs, but must plant some spinach and lettuce, they're not interested in those.
Happy gardening @owasco <3
Oh I have it so good here, regarding pests. My friends' gardens are ruined by deer, and bears, and raccoons and skunks and rabbits and ground hogs. I have none of those to contend with. Squirrels, yes, and lovely birds. A few snails and slugs, but lots of toad to eat those. There are advantages to living in town, with a good fence. I'm having an excellent year in my garden. How did I ever live without one? Monkeys! Unimaginable here in New York.
Wow, they look great, despite the problems that may have arisen, you are doing a good job and getting an excellent crop 👌
Your garden looks great 😍 I wanted to plant tomatoes and strawberries, I hope someday to be able to do it hehe
I have been very lucky here. Many gifts have been given to me. Thanks for stopping by!
What a wonderful garden you have! There's not much better than a perfectly ripe homegrown tomato on a BLT or just by itself. I used to like to do the raised bed gardening. It seemed a lot easier to manage. I really miss growing things. Hopefully we'll be able to get this condo sold soon and have a yard again.
I cannot wait to have a tomato sandwich, just thinly sliced tomato fresh from the garden, fresh basil, mayo and salt on really good toasted sourdough.
So you are actively selling your condo? May you do so easily, at great financial gain, and find the home of your dreams.
Even when I lived in Brooklyn NY, I always had a yard and flower garden. I can't imagine living without!
Okay, that sounds delicious! A tomato pesto salad would be good too. I just learned some chefs' secret for grilled cheese sandwiches...spread mayo on the bread before you toast it instead of butter.
It's not on the market yet but we plan on listing it once we find a place we want to buy. It's not a great time to be doing this, the housing market is red hot and the condo market is cold but we're ready to have more space and a yard. I can't wait to be able to charge my EV at home.
You were lucky to have room to grow things in Brooklyn! What part did you live in? We spent a ton of time in Brooklyn in various Airbnbs when we were working on that streaming series (2016-2018). I was staying mostly in Williamsburg. It was still very nice back then. It seems like a lot changed there for the worse after Covid.
I was long gone before you were there, moved out of Sunset Park in 2001, just before the false flag in September. My businesses were in Park Slope, where I still own a brownstone with 6 apartments and a store. There's a huge backyard there, 22 feet by 60, which we never did anything with because it was behind our take out catering facility. It was in deep shade because of a mulberry in the next yard so little would grow.
Our home was a gorgeous brownstone in Sunset Park, with the perfect size yard for a young mother who like to grow flowers. I had a tiny yard, just big enough for a kiddie pool and few kids splashing around in it. I loved that house. One of my biggest regrets is selling it, but the parking was too difficult for that same mother of three. I hated it then, but I could sure live there now, or at least have an apartment to use for visits. Oh well.
Good luck! Things seem to fall into place for me when it's the right time. I'm sure they will for you, too.
One of the guys in our writing room lived near Park Slope. How awesome that you still own a building! The brownstone sounds ideal. Before the city changed that was my dream, to live in one of those brownstones. I think it'll come back around but I'm not sure how long it'll take.
Thank you! I feel the same way, when it's meant to be, it will be. Maybe I'll have a garden by next summer. : )
It is amazing how quickly the tomatoes get out of control. lol. Your garden has really filled in and I am sure you are doing your best to keep up with the produce. 🤪
Nah. I'm lazy. Hey, my sauerkraut never started fermenting after four days in the fridge, and into the compost it went. Live and learn! I finally used my pressure canner, for two pints of chicken. One didn't seal, and into my stomach it went! Today I'm trying my hand at pressure canned carrots.
I found blight on the tomatoes yesterday, so I'm going to buy a case of tomatoes to can, and only plant one brandywine in a bag next year. Of course I didn't trim any lower branches, or mulch, or water carefully. Another few lessons learned. I won't miss having to tend tomatoes, and the sun I will get on my wildflower bed will be fabulous. Onward!
Home grown veggies and the such are definitely the best.
Gardens take a lot of work. I bet that keeps you pretty busy, but I know the "fruits" of your labor will be worth it.
I'm sure those tomatoes will be awesome once they ripen.
oh my these black brandywines are fabulous! I've decided to buy a box of lovely cooking tomatoes, and to can those along with mine, so that I only plant the brandywines next year. I pickled a ton of cukes last year, so many I didn't have to plant cukes this year. Maybe I will alternate years between those two crops, to save space out there. Just thinking out loud here. Thanks for stopping by both of my recent posts! You rock!
It seems that one good vine of cucumbers will supply a person easily for just some fresh summer eating. It is so easy to end up with too many, but other people usually don't mind if you share them around.
I've never had a black brandywine. I will make sure to try one if I ever see one.
Brandywine is more common, also very very good. I happen to have black brandywine seeds so I plant those, I have no idea where I got them. I have a lot of seeds!
Greetings @owasco ,
Lovely post and writing with regard to your garden...thank you for sharing the experience in such way...the reader experiences it with you.
Appreciate your stopping by Bleujay's post....very kind of you.
Cheers, Bleujay
NB Beautiful Writing, Moving Poetry..Reference to the one you posted in April about Mothers...Lovely!
Hey thank you! I haven't been writing a lot of poetry lately, because they come to me when I'm out in the garden, and I let them go into the ether around me. I love doing that. Nourish my earth with my thoughts. I wonder if plants do the same. I think so, and that's why I feel so happy when I am gardening.
Oh no, failed sauerkraut! But the garden looks great, even if shaggy!
The first picture reminded me of the houses where I am in North Carolina - but I see you're actually upstate! My family is spread out from Arcade to Rochester mostly - but we're all a bunch of old Bills lovin' upstaters. My grandma was probably the biggest violator of the NFL's copyright infringement stuff, with knitted and crocheted Bills lawn chairs, can koozies, golf club covers...lol you name it. I'm not a big football guy, although I do watch from time to time. ...You know what else I do a lot?
Get off topic.
Nice toe-maters!!!