watching and waiting....

The great tomato anticipation.

The count down on my side bar says this weekend I should have a ripe tomato. I'm not sure exactly why I picked this timing .... It seemed good. But I guess it was wishful thinking.

Last year, my first ripe tomato was July 31 2007 (a tiny split cherry tom on July 26 didn't really count). The previous year, the exact same date: July 31 2006.

There's no red yet in my home garden. I haven't been out to my community plot in a couple of days. Tomorrow I'll check. Ah, the suspense..... They were all green last I looked. But maybe, just maybe.

While I'm at the community garden, I'll take a look and see if any of the gardens have red tomatoes. Its very exciting to know that such a delicacy is just around the corner!

Solanum lycopersicum

sowing for fall

I got some fall seeds planted this morning.

Lettuce, Red Summer Crisp, 1 6-pack
Escarole, Bionda A Cuore Pieno, 1 6-pack
Beets, Lutz, 1 6-pack
Broccoli, Green Goliath, 2 6-packs
Broccoli, Green Sprouting Calabrese, 1 6-pack
Dill, Dukat, 2 6-packs

a new crop of chile peppers

It really must be summer! Chile peppers are a heat-loving, full-sun crop. I have young fruits on the plants of my cayenne and Anaheim chile plants.

I planted 5 varieties of peppers in big pots next to my house this year. A beautiful cayenne plant was raised and given to me by Amelia (of Gradually Greener). I sowed seeds for Anaheim, Poblano, sweet Canary and chocolate bell peppers. Lots of flowers, but no fruits yet on the last three varieties.

The photo on the left is cayenne, on the right is Anaheim.
chile and bell peppers (Capsicum)

apples on the tree

I planted a nice little Fugi apple tree in my back yard about 3 or 4 years ago. It gets too much shade and I didn't think it was blooming at all. But today I noticed four small apples! I'd like these to ripen without bug or squirrel damage. Do they need a spray or net here in the NE US? Please leave me your advice!

Apples (Malus domestica)

rye seed heads

I am enjoying watching some plump seed heads mature in my garden. I think these are probably rye, which I plant as a winter annual cover crop. I'd love to be able to prepare edible seed from these. I know nothing about grains, but they are interesting to watch.

overabundance

Overabundance, excess, surplus, flood, overload, surfeit, glut, oversupply, extra, excessive, too much .......

I was able to keep up with my spring lettuce this year even though there was a lot of it. And there has been a lot of broccoli, but not too much. But the favas and the summer squash are another story. They just won't stop.

Vicia faba
Cucurbita pepo (squash)

cooking fava beans

My favas continue to produce lots of beans! A prolific crop. I am experimenting with recipes to see what I like best. Here is my favorite so far:

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Favas, spring onions and corn

Prepare favas by shelling larger beans and cutting smaller ones into 1 inch lengths. Sauté favas in butter and olive oil until they start to brown, about 2 minutes on high heat. Add fresh corn cut off the cob and chopped green onions. Sauté another minute or so.
Vicia faba
Fabaceae

my home garden

I pulled a lot of weeds and overgrown crops yesterday. This makes room for planting fall crops. I pulled patches of bolted arugula, lettuce and endive. These are now nice patches of bare dirt, ready to go.

My peas are falling over. Only the purple podded Capucijners soup peas are left now. They will mature soon and then I'll harvest the pods and pull the plants. For now, I'm letting the vines and trellis do as they please.

Note: I added mouse overs to this photo. If you click on the picture then mouse over, the crop labels show up.

fall planting schedule

I'm starting to think about planting fall crops. I'd like to try fall broccoli again (I planted too late last year.) Also lettuce, beets, spinach and radish.

I like this fall planting chart at Heirloom Seeds. It lists fall planting dates for vegetables according to your average last frost date.

For the past two years, my first frost has been mid November for my home garden. I'm sure the community plot will frost earlier. Probably mid October.

I'm thinking of the following schedule for fall planting:

Carrots and beets (community plot) sow by July 25
Lettuce (community plot) sow until Aug 20, (home garden) sow until Sept 20
Broccoli (community plot) sow July 15, (home garden) sow Aug 10
Radish (community plot) sow until Sept 10
Spinach (community plot) sow until Aug 15

The broccoli date is soon. Tomorrow!

I will only sow the carrots directly in the garden. The others will all go into seed trays and I will transplant into the garden when they are big enough.

summer flowers

The pure white flower of the birdhouse gourd surprised me. So bright and ruffled! The vine of this plant has grown to the top of my 5 foot fence. I am looking forward to the fruit.

Another summer beauty is the hemerocallis or day lilies. These grow semi-wild in our community gardens and I have left several along my garden edge. A nearby gardener has over 50 varieties planted in his garden and new ones open daily.

The small purple-blue flowers are anise hyssop that I grew from seed this year. It has licorice scented leaves and the flowers attract bees.

My nasturtiums and other summer annuals have just begun to bloom. This year I planted flowering annuals as companion plants for my vegetables. They are believed to attract beneficial insects and repel pests. Maybe so, but they also add a nice bit of color to the garden.

cheers! the cukes are here!

My first cucumbers are ready for harvest! This is a variety called Rocky. A very nice slicing cucumber. Also nice in a summer martini.

I hesitated to post this photo of my hand. It is too brown this year. And my nails are dirty and ragged. One of the consequences of gardening I suppose.

In any case, cheers! I hope you too are enjoying a good summer harvest.

Topic: martini!
harvests from my vegetable gardens

tomatoes

Lots of green tomatoes! No red ones yet, but it won't be long now. The Big Beef and Purple Calabrese varieties are doing especially well in my garden.

I have always used a tepee structure in the past for my tomato plants, but in my new sunnier garden, I think a more traditional support stucture would give the plants more room. The plants are bigger and fuller than usual in my new garden. So, my husband has started to move the poles and make a box-like structure for the plants. This will give them more space and light as they grow taller.

The lower leaves of my tomatoes plants (and my parents' tomato plants too) have been turning brown and shriveling up in the past couple weeks. I remove the leaves as they die. I assume the problem is over watering. June was very wet. We have torrential downpours and thunderstorms nearly every afternoon. Not much we could do about this. I am curious if other gardeners have noticed a problem with tomato leaves?

Solanum lycopersicum

harvest

This is a collection of photos of my harvests from the past two weeks.

We took a big bag of vegetables up to a cabin in New Hampshire and enjoyed these while on vacation. They are shown in the last photo above. I spread all the vegetables out on the chopping board. One of the consequences of sharing vegetables with a garden photographer is that you need to wait until the photos are taken to eat. My family was very nice to put up with this!

Upon returning home, many more vegetables were waiting in the garden.

I continue to have a great abundance of lettuce, which is a real garden treat. Every day we have a pile of fresh garden greens on our dinner plates.
harvests from my vegetable gardens

garden lock

Well, furry critters are one reason for the fence. There also seem to be snitches who can open my bar pull and use glass shards to cut off squashes. Oh well. These things are to be expected. Other gardeners here have lots of stories. I just thought I'd wait with the lock until I needed it. My sister noticed that two or three zucchinis disappeared yesterday, so I added a little pad lock to the gate. Just another aspect of community gardening.

gardens after vacation

I have enjoyed exploring my gardens after my absence. I was away about a week. Everything has grown. I had a list of tasks to catch up on: the tomatoes needed tying, potatoes and summer squashes needed fences, spring lettuce needed pulling, and fall lettuce needs planting. The pole beans needed stakes and a sun flower stem needed a support. Of course, the weeds needed pulling and the garden watering.

And then there were so many photos that needed taking, flowers to admire, squash and cukes to harvest, and just generally time to catch up on and enjoy in the garden.