Clarity at last

If you noticed from the vague nature of my posts, I have completely forgotten what variety of tomatoes I planted this year. So instead of going out to the garden and digging through to locate their labels, I chose to google their traits until I found them.

As it turns out, the mystery tomatoes are:

(1) Yellow Pear Tomatoes

(2) Purple Calabash Heirloom Tomatoes - I think. It could be a different black variety, the green stripes almost look like a Black Krim, but the shape is more Calabash like, whereas the Krim is smoother, rounder. I might have to actually dig to confirm this guy.


It's a bit strange though because I swear I planted a Mr. Stripey of some kind. But I'm getting the Big Boy or Better Boy tomatoes, and these two heirloom varities and the grape. The fifth plant died..I think. It's hard to tell with the way that they're all tangled. Oh, and my weed-tomato plants are producing fruit. It was the romas that survived, not the grape.

I went to the Garden Club meeting yesterday evening. We sampled Heirloom tomatoes of many varieties, learned about the importance and value of cultivating heirlooms (empowering the grower, passing down history, purpose-driven variety), and the proper way to start tomatoes from seedlings. Fun! Tasty! My favorite was the Purple Cherokee, amazing flavor.

I was also able to ask about the demise of my squash plants last year and now this year. The pumpkin is probably not salvageable. As it turns out, its mildew. Due to the excessive rains we've had. I'm going to try the baking soda spray that was recommended. I'm a little worried that they are beyond repair for the most part. I haven't seen fruit growing since the first two zucchini.

Tomatoes gone wild

So the tomatoes are really taking off now that they've started to ripen.

My greatest pride and joy is the heirloom plant I picked up this year. I can't recall offhand the type, but it purple and zebra something or other. Let's just move onto photos.

The first ripening heirloom..


The second ripening heirloom...






The rest of what I picked yesterday.



And the big boys or better boys, whichever one I chose in the end are starting to ripen as well.



The pepper photos that I promised. See how they're grow like a little bulb on top?

Holy crap, it's August - and there is stuff!!

Alright, I'm starting with my mandatory overview of the garden. It kind of took over. I keep having to pull the pumpkin plant out of the neighbor's yard. The stakes for the tomatoes have failed to hold them up several times. Even the straw flowers keep toppling over, and I've invested in stakes for them as well. But overall, its pretty lush for a flowerbed garden!



Close-up on the troublesome squash/pumpkin. I finally understand why they suggested planting them like 5' on either side. My plants like to snuggle.



Now I've had the green tomatoes for quite a while now, and haven't thought anything of it. But when I checked this weekend -- "oh shit, they're red!" I'm pretty sure those were my exact words. So the grape tomatoes have started to ripen.



As well as these yellows ones that I'm going to have to look up because apparently I never blogged my vegetable acquisition.



Another jalapeno was picked! I also had my first habenero, which is very cool, because it isn't like a fruit dangling, but instead this little bulb on the top of the stem. More photos will come of this. I have another ripening outside. It's uber-cute though.


And then shockingly enough, I came across, not just one, but two zucchinis! I didn't even know that they were out there. Let alone would flourish into this gi-normous vegetables.


Look, its bigger than my forearm! It's huge!!


No really, look at it next to the soda can.



So my vegetable bounty this weekend:



I love this shot. It makes me so proud. Like I'm shopping at Whole Foods, except I grew them! I'm not in the produce section!

Overview of the garden, everything is coming along nice and neat!

The tomato plants are growing like weeds and I really need to get out their with cages.

The squash is lush and expanding daily. You can see the pumpkin crawling towards the neighbor's yard as well.

Squash flowers! Hopefully they'll produce fruit this year!

My first jalapeño peppers! Aren't they adorable?

Cayenne pepper, still green!

My two frost-surviving pea plants. They've produced approximately 6 peapods already, which is impressive given their pathetic little lives there. Poor guys.

The left hand side of the garden...

The center of the garden... Peppers, plus two surviving pea plants in the center. The lush green plants in the front row are going to be straw flowers - another survivor from my seedlings.

The tomato end of the garden... Peppers are peeking up and the tomatoes are becoming entangled with each other!

Lush and purple crystal palace something..

My quickly expanding squash and pumpkin plants.

Squash blossom!

Tomato blossom

Blossoms on my tomato plants!

A pepper plant.

I transplanted several of the tomato-weeds into the spot where the beets were originally going to be.

The radishes confuse me. They're flowering, but there were only like 1-2 marble sized radishes in there. Nothing more. The rest were just normal skinny roots. So either I didn't thin them out enough, making it difficult for them to get enough nutrients, or they suck. I vote to blame the radishes, it couldn't possibly be me.

Happy little herbs, growing away. This year I'm going to be good about plucking off the flowers.

Mint-gone-wild!

My weeds are what?

Weekly garden overview...










Tomato blossoms

So what are these little weeds lining the fence...?

Tomato plants! What?!

At the end of last season, I tilled all of the extra tomatoes into the soil, not thinking that they would not only survive the winter, but grow on their own once the spring came...

They're everywhere, and some are growing crazy big already! I just can't bring myself to weed them out!

Peppers and peas.

Pepper blossom!

Pea blossom!



Radish nub!


Marigolds in bloom

Calendula