Tomato spots

Does anyone know what happened here? A few of my tomatoes are mottled with chocolate brown spots. I've never seen this before. I'm guessing a mold or virus of some kind. Maybe from too much water. I've been lucky this year with no end rot, minimal cracking and nicely shaped tomatoes. This at the cost of a water bill twice my normal (aarrgh!). My guess is the brown is from too much water. Any ideas?

Solanum lycopersicum

What to do with all those cukes ....

Straight-up and very dry. The best use I've found.


Cucumis sativus

Tomato bowl

My counter top bowl is staying full of tomatoes. That's a yellow Brandywine on top. Something new I found and am looking forward to trying. We eat tomatoes for lunch and dinner now, and I will have to start putting some away. I'm trying to remember what I like to do with them. One easy thing is to just slice and freeze in baggies. They are great on homemade pizzas.

Solanum lycopersicum

Skippy's vegetable garden

aerial view












From the upstairs window.

Skippy in the garden

more pictures of skip


















Woof.

Eggplants

I haven't picked any eggplants yet, but I will soon. These were supposed to be Classic, an oval Italian type, but they look more like a longer oriental variety.

This year, instead of using the little fences to edge my garden, I have used them next to plants as supports. They are holding up my veronica, my snapdragons and my eggplants. They work well at keeping the fruit off the ground.

topic: eggplant

September garden

A little brown on the edges now, but pretty good on the production.

Squash profusion

I'm not sure what's going on here. This is the growing tip of one of my yellow squash vines.
Looks like about 50 thousand little female squash buds all squished together. Kind of overboard it seems.

topic: yellow squash

Voicing thanks

I do have to admit it is very exciting to open Garden Voices and see one of my photos on top. I just did this and, well, everyone in the house (including Skippy) came running fast to see what was wrong. I guess I made some sort of loud noise. Well, it is exciting. Voices is a great collection. I don't know how they keep up with all the blogs they are now listing. Thanks for the publication and thanks for looking at my blog!

Tomatoes with mozarella

Ocimum basilicum








This is my favorite way to eat tomatoes. Only fresh garden tomatoes. Ingredient list: tomatoes, garlic, basil, fresh mozarella cheese, olive oil and salt.

Solanum lycopersicum

Vegetable harvest

I'm trying to keep a record of most of my vegetable harvests. Here's another bowlful. Several tomatoes (I'm picking 2-3 a day now - Early Girl and Supersonics), my second yellow squash, a couple of cukes (I get about 1 cuke a day) and several jalepeno peppers (which look more like thin-skinned sweet Italian pepper to me, though they are HOT). Also, planty of basil and parsley. The lettuce is not producing now and young seedlings are not growing well. Too hot I guess.

Cucumis sativus

Supersonic tomatoes

Supersonics are ripening.

Grilled summer squash

Finally a yellow summer squash!! Sunday evening I picked my first one. I sliced it in 3/4 inch slabs, brushed with herbs in olive oil(rosemary, parsley and garlic), let it sit awhile, then grilled and ate it.

topic: yellow squash
Cucurbita pepo (summer squash)

Flowers in the tomato family

The tomato family (solanaceae) includes several wildflowers most of which are posoinous, potatoes, eggplants, chile peppers, tobacco, nicociana, petunias and ,of course, tomatoes. These flowers are (from upper left): Brandywine tomato, eggplant, horsenettle, jalepeno pepper and a yellow wildflower that looks like it is a solanacea, but I haven't identified it yet.

9/6/06: I finally figured out the yellow "wildflower" at the bottom. Its a tomatillo that is growing on my parents compost pile. I found a flower just like it at http://www.yougrowgirl.com/journals/gayla/000053.php. Maybe my mom will save me some tomatillos!

topic: eggplant, Solanum lycopersicum

Flower of Lactuca sativa

A flower not often seen in gardens. Lactuca sativa. Garden lettuce. A member of the sunflower family, Asteraceae!! In my parents' garden, it is blooming by the wire edging fence with its stems winding through the trellis. I suppose some would say their lettuce has gotten away from them. But to a lovely effect.

Lactuca sativa