Tomatomania

...and this is what happens when I leave the garden for a few days. I thought I would dig up the onions and potatoes this morning, but I have more than I can handle with the tomatoes. Want some?

Summer Time

Its full-on Summer in the garden now. This week we've had the tomatoes and corn ripening and the beans and raspberries look like they are on their last legs. The lettuce bolted a couple weeks ago (except for one stray head that I picked today) and I'm waiting for it to go to seed to collect them for fall planting. When the tomatoes get going full blast, then I'll start making tomato soup to freeze for winter. The past couple years we've had enough to last all year. I didn't get around to planting sunflowers this year, but the volunteers came through for me. (Squirrels who were sloppy when they ate last year's sunflowers and dropped seeds.)

This daisy-like flower is called Feverfew - its supposed to be a natural insect repellent.

HA shot of the corn patch.

A couple weeks ago I had to tie up the tomatoes again because the plants grew so big and I knocked off some green tomatoes. We fried them (what else do you do with them?)

But now they are starting to ripen up so I pick a few each day.

And this is what lunch looks like in the summer - tomato salad with fresh mozzarella, basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and cucumbers.

June Garden

Here are some more recent shots of my garden
Here I'm spraying a soap solution on the aphids that attacked my yard-long beans. It killed the aphids right away, but the beans were too damaged and shriveled away. I think they get a bacterial wilt from the damage produced by the aphids. So even though the aphids were dead, the plants were already infected.

This was my first major picking of the season.

This is about the whole extent of the blueberry crop. I have 4 little bushes and I need to figure out how to condition the soil for them. They're not happy.

The black raspberries, on the other hand, are doing great! They aren't as soft and juicy as the red ones, but I pick more than a pint of them each day.

This is my favorite variety of lettuce called tom thumb. It forms a nice little head of lettuce about the size of a grapefruit. It is better tolerant of the warm weather than other head lettuce and its crisper than loose leaf lettuce.

The little greens between the hoses are watercress. Kind of peppery when you put it in a salad.

Here's a shot through the onions looking toward the peppers and tomatoes. Still waiting for ripe tomatoes though.

I planted nasturtium to act as an insect repellent. It's supposed to discourage ants which should reduce the aphid problems. These are planted right by the tomatoes and I haven't seen many aphids this year, so maybe it's helping. I could also put the blossoms in salads, but I haven't felt that adventurous yet.

Here's one of the daylillies that Chris' mom gave me from her yard a few years ago. They cover the hill above the garden.

I have volunteer gladioli near the house. I'm glad for volunteers because I don't put much effort into ornamental plants.

I'm hoping to have tomatoes, peppers and corn in the next few weeks. Stay tuned my tiny little audience.

The Garden is Planted

The garden is now planted. The artichoke plant is from last year and I think I'll pick it tomorrow to steam with garlic. Here is a long view of the garden. If you have a magnifying lens you can see the labels. Basically I have a raspberry hedge in the far distance, then tomatoes with radishes and lettuce in between and nasturtiums along the edge. Then peppers and chiles, onions, garlic and shallots, and then red and russet potatoes. Where the soaker hoses get wavy I planted early and late corn with spinach in between. In the foreground is climbing and bush beans with marigold and chives interplanted, cucumbers, summer and winter squash, and a variety of herbs. I'm trying partner-planting with herbs to cut down on ants and aphids.

Here is the sun shining through the cages of peppers and tomatoes.

Nathaniel helped by planting potatoes, onions, and beans.

You can see the garlic already starting to come up.

I'll post more pictures as it grows, and as I begin to harvest.