(Yeah, but if I’d posted this any sooner, I was afraid of being found strangled with an ipod cord.)
Since nobody sent any pics this week, you’re stuck with mine. Roughly top-to-bottom, left-to-right: Persimmon, Stupice, Great White, Ramapo, Black Plum, Black Prince, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Tomatoberry, Japanese Black Trifele, Sara Black, Golden Sweet Plum, Rose, Sweet Treat, Black Pearl, Carbon, and Juliet.
What’s going on in your garden, this week?
Or just in your neighborhood?
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
We got our $200 water bill yesterday.
harlana
Lovely maters there. Don’t eat ’em myself but that is an impressive variety!
harlana
Great, I got an ad popup to “view gay men” in my hometown. Do the intertrons think I’m a gay guy?
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Are you hot? Here’s a garden shot to cool you off!
TheMightyTrowel
Caterpillars have been vanquished and all the tomatoes and chilis are rejoicing. However, it’s been raining too hard to weed and the herb garden is underseige from the evil bindweed armies. Yet, the sun shines again and I’m bunking off work early today to take charge of the reinforcements! Cry Sorrel and let slip the trowels of war!
opie jeanne
Anne Laurie, I’m jealous. Ours are green, to match my jealous eyes. Those are some beautiful tomatoes, there.
No one sent you photos? I shall remedy that tomorrow morning. There are still some purty things in my garden since the weather never got really hot here, although we are having to water things. I think the peas are finally finished, for supper we ate what we think will be the final crop. The rabbit who visits the garden seems to have taken a powder, we no longer see her sitting on the front lawn in the morning, or the back driveway in the evening. Although, something has been eating the liatris again so she must still be hiding in the hedges. Her babies have left the nest in our flower bed in the front lawn, and seem to have disappeared. Nothing has bothered my vegetable gardens other than a few slugs. I mean, rabbits, living right in the garden, would rather eat the clover in the back driveway and the liatris under the apple trees than my lettuce. Seems like a good deal.
opie jeanne
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Ha! Looks like our first winter here in Washington. Still a novelty to us, being natives of a warmer clime.
opie jeanne
@TheMightyTrowel: You made me laugh with that last sentence.
My tomatillos would like to meet your tomatoes and chilis.
harlana
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
Why yes, yes I am. At least, that’s what they tell me.
(sorry, couldn’t resist that)
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@opie jeanne: That was a bit of a novelty for Georgia.
A Mom Anon
I’m jealous. I was hoping to at least get a tomato or two for the seeds if nothing else. My smart ass son walked through the garden last night humming a funeral march,that’s how sad things are,lol.
On the upside,I get a new car to replace the smashed one tommorrow. Yay! But the other driver’s insurance company is still dicking around with the other half of the settlement money. I should have it by Monday. Boooo! The bastards. I’ll put the money I don’t have for the down payment on the credit card I guess. What a cluster fuck. By Sat afternoon I should be theproud owner of either a new 2011 Honda Fit or a Mazda 2. Yay Again!
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
A legitimate concern. Fucking BIRDS got our tomatoes. I’ve been looking forward to the S.O.’s home-made salsa all year, but the fucking birds decided it was not to be.
JGabriel
St Louis Today:
I wonder what it was in the first 9 visits that failed to clue him in.
.
JPL
@JGabriel: God works in mysterious ways..
currants
G-D SQUIRRELS have been picking, stealing and eating tomatoes from my garden.
Anne Laurie–you must have a HUGE garden for that many tomatoes!
Southern Beale
Morning folks!
Reposting from last night … we’re trying to organize a Seattle-are Balloon Juice meet up for this weekend, for anyone interested. There’s a thread over at my place to discuss possible times/places. Look forward to meeting some people!
JGabriel
Experimental Medical Subject Seeks GOP Presidential Nomination:
.
Linda Featheringill
@JGabriel:
Perry’s bad back:
Great. If that doesn’t work, we can throw painkillers into the mix. Wonderful.
BruceFromOhio
@TheMightyTrowel:
LOL – Consider this stolen!
The japanese beetle trap has yielded an impressive body count, though traffic has dwindled. The rains have arrived with precision, and the bounty is alarming: the daily picking has gone from nothing to “how the hell are we going to eat/freeze/can all this stuff”, mainly herbs, tomatoes, squash, peppers. By hook or crook, the annual pepper chase has yielded an impressive set of exquisite chilis and poblanos.
We’ve decided, however, that you can never have too much basil.
There’s a twinge of guilty pleasure to it, though: my contacts in Dallas report misery beyond description. I look around my neighborhood and see green lawns, bursting gardens and fat deer, and wonder how different it could be. Gaia has blessed our lands, and for this I am thankful.
BruceFromOhio
@A Mom Anon:
I bought a 2011 Fit with the “sport” package (5-speed, larger wheels) and its a FRICKING BLAST TO DRIVE! It replaced my 11-yr-old Civic that had been rock solid for 170,000 miles, and was bummed to let go …. until I slid down into the snug bucket seat of the Fit and went for a ride. My mechanic calls it a “pocket rocket,” though I’m not sure about the comparison.
Gets 36mpg in the city, about the same on the freeway (could be the drivers’, ahem, “driving habits”)
Good luck and have fun!
bemused
The hummingbirds here have been power fueling up for a couple of weeks now before they head south. We have refill the quart feeder every day.
I did the Smitten Kitchen roasted tomato recipe yesterday. Yum.
We adopted two 7 week old kittens from the local shelter earlier this week. What fun. They are adorable and have already commandeered one of the dog’s beds for their naps.
Alwhite
Perhaps the best editorial of all times:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/somebodys-got-to-save-this-country-from-certain-do,21135/
Somebody’s Got to Save This Country From Certain Doom, And Let’s Face It, That Person Is Me
By Michele Bachmann
Bruce S
Jon Stewart killed on “class warfare” last night…
http://titanicsailsatdawn.blogspot.com/2011/08/jon-stewarts-world-of-class-warfare.html
gelfling545
I dined Thurs. pm at my daughter’s sig. other’s place on grilled stuffed(with pineapple,mango, coconut & corn) pork loin and a bounty of vegetables from their first ever (for both of them) vegetable garden – curried purple cauliflower, beans & grape tomatoes along with a salad of sliced mixed heirloom tomatoes & cucumber with basil. Her daughter, age 13, has gone vegetarian as of last week so the timing is good here to teach her that eating vegetarian doesn’t mean living on potato chips.
buckyblue
Ah, food porn. Now I’ve got tomato juice all over my keyboard.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@BruceFromOhio: I hear it’s hard to get to the oil drain plug?
pbriggsiam
We have small rats visiting our tomato plants nightly. The cats are interested . . .watching out the windows overlooking the garden.
Any suggestions on how to keep the rats away?
So much effort to grow 12 plants and it’s been for naught :(
Cat Lady
Nice orbs.
JCT
Those are gorgeous and I am bereft, I am about to move to Tucson and my tomato days are likely over. Unless anyone has any suggestions?
And you will enjoy either of those cars A Mom Anon, we bought a Fiesta SES last year so my son could have a non-manual transmission car to drive and it’s been great.
A Mom Anon
@BruceFromOhio: I had an 08 Fit Sport,which I loved. From my research,Honda has changed a few things(moved the gas tank,rearranged the dash and steering wheel controls and a couple other things)but it’s still a fun to drive car that handles well. When I first got mine I caught myself grinning ear to ear when I was buzzing around town. If Honda will deal with us,I will probably end up with another Fit Sport. I do like how the Mazda 2 looks,but it’s not as roomy and doesn’t have quite the safety ratings.
jibeaux
Good grief, that is one fantastic tomato haul. Here in zone 7b, the summer season is pretty much donefer. Time to pin my hopes on fall! I’ve got a ton of those cheap cloth grocery store bags, the meshy ones (I have a ton of other cloth bags, I’ll still take them to the stores), and I got the idea from a post on this blog to use them as planting bags. So thanks, BJ. We’ll see!
Marc
The Dream Act through the back door, by the way:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/us/19immig.htm
Front page of the physical paper, if not the online version. Will Obama get any credit from the usual suspects?
Violet
I will try to take a photo or two to send for next week. It’s dry as a bone here, but I’ve now set up the grey water system, so I’m able to keep a few things alive. The banana trees are happy to have the extra water, that’s for sure.
RedKitten
No garden this year, and in retrospect, that’s a good thing. This summer has been so gloomy and rainy, and we’ve only had a handful of nice, sunny days. And even those days weren’t hot — just warm.
At least my Chanterelles appear to be sprouting rather nicely, although I’m starting to feel rather like a mushroom myself, from all this rain.
Legalize
Most of my tomatoes are still greenish / in the process of turning orange. I guess container tomatoes turn slower. I have canned about 5 pints worth thus far, though. In 10 days I’ll be up to my eyeballs.
Plenty of jalapenos, banana peppers, bell peppers, oregano, and basil. I guess I’ll have to dry the oregano.
The cucumbers have turned south. They look normal on the outside, but when I eat a slice, they taste gawd awful.
jibeaux
@Marc:
It’s great news, but it ain’t the Dream Act. This would let the government stop prosecuting deportation against kids who would fall under Dream Act if it were enacted, which is great, but it doesn’t give them anything additional to legally *do* here. They’re still in limbo until there’s actual legislation. I’m not trying to downplay it, because to someone facing deportation it’s going to be huge, but there’s not much way to back door comprehensive immigration reform.
JR
My neighbors on one side keep a stepladder out in the garden to pick the beans from. The neighbors on the other side told me yesterday told me not to buy tomatoes any more, as they are covered up.
“Just two things money cain’t buy,true love and home grown tomaties!” Don’t remember where that came from, ancient truth of gardens maybe?
Around here you have to build a 12 foot fence to keep the deer out in order to garden anything, but once that’s done things work out pretty well.
Blue Neponset
Really poor tomato yield this year. We planted a little later this year and for logistical reasons we bought our plants from a heartless big box superstore. I am wondering if either of those things had anything to do with it.
Michael Demmons
I have six 6′ high tomato plans outside. So far, I have ONE FUCKING TOMATO!
Cliff in NH
I’ve got lots of green tomatoes – 17 just on one plant…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64725711@N07/6058729955/in/photostream/lightbox/
I just hope they ripen in time.
MTiffany
Stumbling on this kind of food porn right before I go grocery shopping is just downright unfair. Gorgeous stuff. Nothing at the big box ‘food’-itorium will look or taste as good, I bet. Row after row of identically bland, identical Christmas-tree ornaments masquerading as tomatoes.
kc
Those are spectacular. I’m jealous.
kc
@Bruce S:
Bruce, I saw that; it was perfect.
cleek
our peach tree is covering the ground with hard little peaches. our neighbor ate one, said it was OK; we’ve been afraid to try. but the neighborhood critters love them.
NCSteve
What’s in my garden this week? A great big crop of “I hate you I hate you I hate you and I hate goddamned tomato ravaging deer too!” and a plan to go to the regional farmer’s market tomorrow.
cleek
@TheMightyTrowel:
my sorrel is rocking. i’ve agreed to let it live in the devil strip, where lawn grass won’t grow, as long as it keeps out the spurge. so far, it’s living up to its end of the deal.
Gozer
I’m in lovely Nashua, NH this week after a few days in Burlington, VT. Dr. Mrs. Gozer and I are eating our way through Northern New England.
Last summer hurrah before the semester starts and Dr. Mrs. has to deal with hundreds of undergrads and grad advisees.
janefromhell
surely you don’t mean euphorbia, cleek? and I second that my yard is screaming ‘fuck you’.
Kristine
The Siberian tomatoes are finally starting to ripen. The plant is short–only about 3 feet tall–but loaded. 30-40 tomatoes, at least. If they all come in, I may be able to make at least one pot of freezer marinara. The Mountain Fresh are huge, but still green, as are the Aunt Ginny’s Purples. 80’s are expected for the next week, so maybe that will give them a boost.
The Aunt Ginny is the only heirloom this year, and the heat hammered it. Blossom drop like whoa, with only 2-3 Frankenfruit near the bottom of the plant, which is about 5.5 feet tall. A few tiny greenies have popped out near the top, as well as a load of blossoms, but I fear we may run out of summer before they go anywhere.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Those pictures just depress me. The pepper harvest has been great. As for tomatoes, they bloom, but no fruit. The exception is the Roma tomatoes. A few of those pop up here and there, only to be devoured by the squirrels before they even ripen.