Early girl tomato

This tomato was delicious! I put the dates of the pictures in the lower right corner. (Click on the picture to enlarge it.) The flower bloomed on June 22. About 40 days from flower to ripe tomato.

Solanum lycopersicum

All-in-a-row: Cherry tomatoes

I'll pick my first ripe tomatoes tonight. The one in the picture plus a couple of Early Girls. These are Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes.

cucumber salad

I was surprised yesterday by finding a hiding cucumber. It was in between the lattice of my trellis and I hadn't noticed it before. So we got a spur-
of-the-moment cuke salad. I found a recipe in The Victory Garden Cookbook, Marion Morash (one of my favorite's) and modified it to use things I had in my 'fridge:
1/4 cup plain yogurt,
some chopped dill and mint (both fresh from my garden)
several cloves of garlic
a little gray salt
some lime juice
Mix together, then add sliced cucumber. Serve on top of lettuce. Yum. It was good.
Skippy's vegetable recipes

Green, green, green

I just took this picture of my garden from the second floor window. So much green!

aerial view

Another community garden

This one is on Walden St, Cambridge, MA. Seems like fairly large plots. An enormous green-eyes Rudbeckia (8 ft!) in the northeast corner. Many flowers: especially black-eyed Susan, zinnias, cosmos, nasturtiums, daylilies. A stick sculpture in the center is an interesting focal point. Several chairs and benches are nice additions. Very happy plants. Sooo hot and humid today you can see the air in some pictures.

communitygardening

Tomatoes, eggplants and garden chores

Today I caught up on alot of gardening work: Finally planted those colorful annuals I bought on Tuesday, trimmed off alot of seed pods and dead growth from the spring flowering plants, especially the lady's mantle. I fertilized all the vegetables well with Garden-Tone (4-6-6), adding super phosphate (0-20-0) to the fruiting and flowering plants. A special tomato formula for the tomatoes (4-7-10), plus I added extra phosphate hoping to encourage extra blooming and fruiting. The roses got a special formula too (Rose-tone, 6-6-4). Also I put Sevin on the squash and cuke stems (lowest 5 inches)(I know, not good ....). I checked the eggplants for stem-sucking bugs - one little one that I squished. By then the day was pretty hot (90 today in Boston) so I took a break.

topic: eggplant, Solanum lycopersicum

Cambridge community gardens

I went by this community garden yesterday and couldn't resist stopping for a few pictures. Someone has an impressive crop of lettuce and peppers. Some nice sunflowers. Red bee balm. Squash vines are popular on the fence and have grown well out of the official garden area. (I should have checked for female squash flowers!) Something about community gardens is very pretty. And interesting. Different styles all together. Some plots weedy, some tended. Some in rows, others scattered. A patchwork.

communitygardening

Cucurbita pepo (yellow summer squash) problem

Well, I'm starting to be concerned about my squash. They are very pretty, but no squash. They started blooming July 2. That's 3 1/2 weeks ago! It seems like along time to wait with no sign of fruits. I did Google the delay and it seems unusual. The female flowers should show up 3-7 days after the males. A delay means the plants are stressed. Oh well. I'm not sure why. One site said low fruiting could be due to nutrient wash-out from excessive rain. We certainly have had excessive rain. I suppose I'll add some more fertilizer. And some extra phoshate. Can't hurt. Bother.

topic: yellow squash
Cucurbita pepo (summer squash)

cucumber biology

My cukes have lots of both male and female flowers. Unlike my squash, I think both came out at the same time. In this set of pictures, the females are on the left and the males on the right. There is even a difference between the two from the top of the flower. Center stuctures are different and petals look different. At the bottom, there is a little bee in a male flower. I hope he goes to the female one soon.

garden bees

Lettuce

I think lettuce is my most useful crop. We've been eating it nearly every dinner for a month now. It tends to bolt, so I plant it thick and just harvest the tallest plants to make room for the smaller ones. I think this variety is called Buttercrunch Bibb. I keep planting more lettuce seeds every few weeks, when I see some spaces where it might fit. I have two nice mixes with endive that I am planting now. I have read that I can keep planting lettuce through August.

Lactuca sativa

Treehoppers

The treehopper nymphs that were on my eggplants seem to have morphed. Well, not the same ones I squished, but I found this guy hanging around the same plants. This bug is brown and triangular with short horns. He hopped very well when the camera got too close. The eggplants are doing fine. Good riddance to the nymphs.

topic: eggplant

Skip

Ahhhhh ... Relaxing by the garden.

Squash flowers

My squash (crookneck yellow summer squash) are flowering well, but still only male flowers. No sign of the females.

topic: yellow squash
Cucurbita pepo (summer squash)

Pea harvest

Well, this is my pea harvest for the year. Three packages of pea seeds. A mix of snap and snow peas. My peas just didn't sprout well and they grew slowly. Same as in previous years. It was suggested I add innoculum, which I will try next year if I don't give up on peas. The lettuce is a much better use of space for us. By the way, I steamed the peas (5 min) and served them with fancy French sea salt. Very tasty.

Pisum sativum

Northshore garden

This is the most fantastic home garden I have seen. It is in Essex County, north of Boston (zone 5b). Tucked away in a backyard. Impecably tended. Enormous plants. Incredibly rich soil. From the right end of the garden: blueberries, red raspberries, potatoes, garlic, chard, basil, tomatoes (Big Girl, San Marzano, Brandywine), peppers, squashes, corn, tomatillos and horseradish. The blue tarp covers a pile of salt marsh hay, which has been used to mulch the garden. The tomato plants are 6 ft tall now and heavy with tomatoes - maybe 15-20 per plant. The gardener said that he expects the first ripe tomatoes in about two weeks. This week he is planting a long double row of endive.

Solanum lycopersicum