Dinner's On

I had the first tomatoes of the season today on July 28th. I had one medium sized Wayahead which kind of lived up to it's name. The stripped Tigerella tomatoes are also starting to ripen but are smaller than I expected. I'm getting a few tiny Yellow Currant tomatoes as well. All in all I'm just glad to get a few tomatoes before August. I have seen on other blogs that their tomatoes are late in ripening too.

I harvested 2 Japanese climbing cucumbers that I have climbing up a twine trellis as well as one small Bush cucumber. I'm really impressed with the bush beans which just keep on coming and have looked better than they ever have with no blemishes. I've been picking them daily and have frozen about 8 small bags already. The pattypan squash got a little big when I was out of town for 2 days but I sliced it up and threw it into pasta primervera.

It's been a busy couple of weeks in the garden. Most of the mulch has been spread onto the raised vegetable beds and flower beds. I did talk my husband into building 2 more raised beds. We saw a great one from Sunset Magazine that I had him copy. I like it so much that when the rest of the beds need to be remade in a few years we'll definitely follow Sunset's example. Here's a picture of how ours turned out.
I'm running out of full sun areas in the garden due to a neighbor's maple tree that started out as a weed seedling along the fence line and now has matured into a 30 foot behemoth. I squeezed this bed into a previously unused area behind my rhubarb plants. It gets about 6 hours of sun a day so hopefully the Coustralle tomatoes that I planted there will be able to grow and fruit.

I was able to get all the tomatoes planted just a day after we had a late frost(May17th). I ended up planting 14 tomato plants. Cuostralee is a large red French heirloom that supposedly grows 3 pound fruits. Manyel is a yellow heirloom that has a citrus flavor. Tigerella is an early English heirloom with orange and red stripes. Pineapple is a heirloom beefsteak tomato with yellow and oranges stripes on the inside and out. I'm also growing Yellow Currant tomatoes which are tiny and obviously yellow. I have some Ultimate Opener tomatoes that I still haven't decided whether to plant or just give away. The plants look a bit wimpy and yellow so they may just end up in the compost pile. Here's how it all looks.

Transplanting Tomatoes

I just transplanted my tomatoes into the large APS system and bigger pots. They'll be ready to go outside in the ground hopefully around May 20th. Tomatoes like to be transplanted at least once before they go in the garden. This helps them develop larger and stronger roots. So far, the tomatoes are looking great- much healthier than ones you buy.

I'm also hardening off the caladium, artichokes, pansies, broccoli, cabbage and pak choi on the front porch on the north side of the house. It's nice and shady there and protected from the spring winds that have been blowing. Next week I'll introduce them to the sun slowly. By May 8th I'll try and get them in the raised beds. I still need to buy some composted manure and add to the beds. I also need to get a batch of worm compost tea brewing as that helps the new transplants adapt to the outdoors.

Seedlings in Progress

My growing space is just about filled to capacity with seedlings. I really need some warmer weather so I can move some out to the unheated green house.

I planted my Tomato seeds on March 19 and I have my first few seedling sprouting on March 24. The tomatoes that I planted are Manyel, Pineapple, Coustrelle, Tigerella,Yellow Currant, Wayahead and Ultimate.

Here are some new photos of a few of my seedlings.

Broccoli, Cabage and Pak Choi


Artichokes
Strawberries