From commentor Noreen in Buffalo:
I have enjoyed the garden photos you have been sharing in the garden blog so here are a couple of mine. The garden produce is starting to be harvested. This usually means I walk around & come back with a handful of mixed veg. Since my garden expresses itself in footage rather than acreage, the photos are correspondingly “micro” – taken by my daughter.
I’m making notes on tomato varieties to add to my “must have” list. Best discoveries for me this year are Stupice (extra-early), Kellogg’s Breakfast (huge & delicious), and the Golden Sweet Plum cherry that seems to have replaced the old Yellow Pear. Off my list: the Heirloom Great White (an impulse purchase from the local nursery) — it’s dramatic to look at but doesn’t have much flavor raw or roasted.
__
How are everyone’s summer gardens winding down / fall gardens taking shape?
R-Jud
Have just been kitten-proofing the house and while clumping out to the garage to see if we still had a second litter tray, I spotted big flowers on my squashes (finally). Also looks like I should get an autumn crop of raspberries if the weather stays reasonably warm. Stuff takes its time over here in Olde England.
We had pizza last night with sauce made partially with garden tomatoes and garden garlic. Always good stuff.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Ugh, 5 hrs sleep after that shellacking and now all we can hope is that the tropical storm hits and gives us some relief from this drought.
currants
Best tomato this year here was a Noire de Crimée (seeds from a friend in France). Second best was Brandywine, but I can’t seem to grow one of those that produces more than 2 tomatoes a season, so I’m not going to bother next year.
Best garden/meal discovery this summer: kale pizza. Planted seeds from Johnny’s, and ended up with kale coming out my ears–what to do with it all? It’s a little too much for omelets, gets boring after a while as a side, so one night we chopped it finely, sautéed with shallots, and put it on pizza with slices of fresh mozzarella (Garofalo(?) from Costco). Later iterations have included mushrooms sauteed and mixed with kale, and crushed garlic on top. Fa-bu-lous. Otherwise, huge eggPLANTS and no eggplants, lots of peppers, arugula, beets, carrots, beans, leeks, celeriac, cucumbers–and the garlic was great this year too.
debit
Next year I’m going to pass on all the heirlooms I tried this year. They weren’t bad, I just wasn’t terribly impressed. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the Lemon Boys, but my daughter loves them, so they’ll be back. I did not care for the Black Pearls; very dramatic looking, but an unimpressive, thin taste.
The only thing I really enjoyed this year was the red cherry (and I can’t for the life of me remember the name) that just took over the entire garden and is still producing. It’s a mutant; a sweet, delicious mutant.
currants
@debit: I had a similar thing happen with red cherries, delicious–like eating candy–they climbed like a vine all over the other tomatoes and out up the pole bean net and into the asparagus–and they are have huge clusters (like grapes, almost, but more widely spaced clusters) of fruit which I keep finding in unexpected crevices.
Mino
@debit: Was it one of the larger cherries? I had a row that produced like mad until I cut them off in late July. And that is in 99+ degree weather.
Today, actually, I’ll be putting peas and beans in to soak. Winter squash are blooming. Tomato sets are sulking. Eggplant sets are yelling, “Put me in the ground!” Red bell peppers from the spring are 4 feet tall and setting, again. These peppers like hot weather.
JPL
Yesterday I moved some plants and added a few shrubs to my yard in anticipation of rain. I feel for those in LA who are receiving a lot of rain and are in danger of flooding but GA has been so dry, that it will be welcome here.
Punchy
Speaking of burying things, in which part of the NCAA garden should they bury Notre Damn and their phony rep?
Sko Hayes
It’s fall, and time for migration. We have monarch butterflies coming through on their way to Mexico, and stopping for a snack on my zinnias. I got some beautiful pics:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v720/skohayes/Flowers/IMG_1760.jpg
Our resident flock of vultures has finally left for their winter home, wherever that may be. They start gathering together in the beginning of August, and on the first windy day in September, they simply fly off and never come back.
Here in town, their favorite perching spot is an old oil derrick over at the local tiny museum, which is about 5 stories tall and perfect for big heavy birds like the vultures to hang out. The museum staff loves having them hang out, but boy, they make a mess!
The petunias are looking very raggedy, but we have cooler weather arriving literally overnight, with daytime temperatures going from the low 100s to the mid 70s and the nighttime temperatures dropping into the 50s, so hopefully the petunias will perk back up, along with the other stuff suffering from the higher than normal temps and drought.
I am not a vegetable gardener, for some odd reason, I can get flowers to grow out of rocks, but can’t get a tomato to appear on a plant. Fortunately, I have lots of friends who do plant vegetables and are more than willing to share their bounty.
Happy harvest to those who toil among the veggies for us.
debit
@currants: Yes, that’s exactly what happened with mine. I’ll be poking around on the opposite side of the garden, and look! Cherry tomatoes.
@Mino: Average sized, and getting a little smaller now that summer is winding down. I’m going to have to find that link someone posted a few weeks ago for oven drying.
I envy your peppers. It was hot here, but also very wet and mine just didn’t produce well.
Mino
@debit: I can testify to the goodness of those oven dried/roasted tomatos. It even improves the flavor. I just used up the last of mine in a lamb stew.
A Mom Anon
My garden is sad,lol. The veggie garden has been taken over by a thick mat of something called spurge. According to the interwebs,it’s impossible to rid yourself of it without poison. I let things go after a car accident(no one hurt really,just a bit sore and banged up for a few weeks)and now I have a mess. It’s taken me about 10 hours to clear out about 2/3 of it,and with rain coming,I have a feeling more will sprout. ack. The veggies in pots are wrecked,no matter how much I water,the heat is just sapping their will to live. I am over this Summer,bring on the Fall.
Mino
@A Mom Anon: It really helps to foliar feed veggies in pots. And using a fish-based one on a regular schedule(once a week)will usually stiffen their resistance to the heat.
One more day of 100+. Next week low 90’s, thank the FSM.
JPL
@A Mom Anon: I just went on weather.com… I think they have a mistake because they are saying Wednesday the high is going to be 68. That’s for Roswell..
Linda Featheringill
Finished planting my potted fall garden, except for the spinach.
Had to replant the Brussels sprouts, this time with different [better] dirt. This time, they seem to be steaming right along so maybe that will work out okay.
Fall garden is small. It is an experiment. Folks in NE Ohio usually don’t bother with them. Also, it’s just harder to get stuff done in August than it was in May. :-)
Peas and beans didn’t do so well this year. I’m surprised because they are usually so tough that they can handle anything. I planted them in May. Maybe next year I’ll get them into the ground earlier.
Very nice photos, by the way. Sort of reminds me of the old seed catalogs with sketched depictions of plants instead of photos.
Scout211
I am still producing buckets of tomatoes and our weather is quite warm right now so that should continue. I planted mainly Ace this year.
I started my winter garden in small pots and they are ready to be planted in the garden but there is no room yet. Usually my summer garden is done by now but with the late start to summer and the very mild temps this summer, the growing season has been later and longer.
I did have room to plant an acorn squash in the garden last month and I already have some nice big acorns growing.
I still am harvesting zucchini, yellow crookneck, bell and banana peppers and eggplant.
It’s been a good year.
artem1s
@currants:
I love brandywine too. I also have had a sad year regarding tomatoes in general. too long to get warm too much rain at the wrong times without enough sun.
But I’m finally getting some produce off the vining plants.
I have a variety of giant plum (Amish plum I think) that is awesome. And I am enjoying the Black Krim and Zebra Greens. Still have a couple of varieties I’m not sure of as they are just not ripe yet. But overall I’m confident in my ability to raise tomatoes from seed, get them in the ground without killing them, and getting some produce out of them.
A Mom Anon
@JPL: We’re supposed to get a bunch of rain and a temp drop from the storm moving in from the Gulf. Yay,about time.
@Mino: I’ll try the fish emulsion thing on the leaves. Only problem is I feed my dog fish based food and when she smells the fish emulsion,she eats the dirt in the pots. LOL. And Eww. Hornworms have stripped most of the tomatoes so I cut them back,maybe once it cools they’ll grow back? This has been my worst gardening year in over a decade. This winter I’m going to re-think my whole plan and maybe even put up some sort of shade/cover thing for my veggie gardens. And something to protect my pear trees,I lost every single pear to squirrels or chipmunks.
R-Jud
The new kitten came out of hiding and daringly ambushed an unsuspecting pile of laundry waiting to be taken upstairs.
Garden-related: I’ve just knocked some bramley apples down from our tree and will make the season’s first pie. Yum.
Violet
I’m thinking I might go take photos of all the dead trees and plants, since it’s really hard to imagine just how bad the drought is, even in urban areas that are getting water from people watering lawns, etc. It’s just so tough to keep things alive.
jeffreyw
@R-Jud:
Mmm…first pie from local apples. Mrs J picked up a small bag of Galas at the farmer’s market yesterday.
R-Jud
@jeffreyw: Galas are lovely, but I prefer to eat or juice Galas. If it’s not face-puckeringly sour, there’s really no point in pie-ing it, IMHO.
I just wish I had some blackberries.
Lost in America
None of the fruit trees or shrubs (except currents) did well in my little northern Minnesota garden this year. I am, however, enjoying a pretty good crop of acorn squash (dinner last night) and breakfast is simmering as I type this (canned black beans with chopped roma tomatoes and diced serrano peppers from my garden). The tomatoes are still mostly green and the plants aren’t looking well, but the serrano pepper I grew in a pot is really producing nice, spicy peppers, so I plan on trying to keep it in the house over winter. Does anyone have tips on overwintering hot pepper plants indoors properly?
JPL
@R-Jud: Bean is so tall. It won’t be long before she’s off to school and we’ll still be here at balloon juice commenting.
bemused
@Lost in America:
My garden (here in northern MN too) hasn’t thrived well either. It’s been too dry and I haven’t been able to keep up with the watering enough to compensate. I did buy some lovely patty pan squash at a local farmer’s market on saturday. Yum. I’m going to try patty pan in the garden next year.
I just read an article about a local woman, Beth Wiemken, who has entered her garlic in the MN State Fair three times winning 1st (2009), 2nd & 3rd places. The garlic she grows is the Music variety which does well in cold climates.
@R-Jud:
We adopted 2 kittens, litter mates, from a shelter almost 3 weeks ago. They both have had an upper respiratory virus. One shook it off more quickly so we have spent most of our time nursing the other with critical care cat food and water by syringe, taking her the vet for checkups and fluids. Thankfully, earlier this week she started to perk up and improving each day, eating on her own more and now really chowing down. She has some catching up to do with her sister being only half the size but she already is looks like she is getting bigger.
John Weiss
@Lost in America: The problem with overwintering peppers is light. Peppers do well under artificial light but they need a lot of it. I kept a habenero alive and well for years in a brightly-lit greenhouse, low temp. about sixty F.
Constance
Beautiful photos.
Haven’t had the energy to garden enough so weeds have taken over the two raised beds, the entry garden and the south garden–someday my thyroid situation will get straightened out. I have watered and even so the tomatoes are just starting to ripen. The only ones I’ve been able to eat are sun golds. A handful a day for about a week.
Weird garden year. Snow June 4. Rain all spring. We have weeds and insects don’t normally see in such quantities because of the wet, wet spring.
The huge project I’ve been working on is winding down and I can take more time for the gardens. Get set up for next spring.
Jealous of folks with new kittens. I have four older cats and must wait a year or two before introducing kittens into the mix. And want to wait until my house sells and I move to Grass Valley, California. Someday.
wapsie
those garden photos are total porn
waratah
Finally relief from heat and drought! Here in Panhandle of Texas we had a cool front come through with some showers. Currently we are cloudy and a lovely cool of sixty degrees with a high today seventy six. Dropping from upper ninetys.
My garden this year is containers and even with watering constantly cannot substitute for rain. My favorite tomatoes this year are the only ones that produced. Celebrity are the only large one that did and my dwarf cherry tomatoes are the lovely Red Robin and Canary Yellow.
I planted one Japanese eggplant that has done well and I love the mild jalapenos.
I am now wondering if the tomatoes that did not set fruit will now do so with the cooler weather and if I will be able to harvest before a freeze. I would love to can just plain tomatoes nothing can compare.
wapsie
photos are pure pr0n
R-Jud
@JPL: 85th percentile for height, like her old lady.
@bemused: Oh, I hope your sickie mends. Our newbie has just had a nap and is back to stalking and attacking everything that looks hazardous.
mazareth
Well I’m definitely moving into fall mode. Dried some local Paula Red apples in the dehydrator last weekend. I canned 7 pints of salsa on Tuesday before work. Today I’ll do some more canning – salsa again. I can get B grade tomatoes from my CSA farm for $1.00 a pound. I’ll be canning every weekend until the tomatoes run out.
My own tomato plants are finally succumbing to late blight, but I should still get another 8-10 pounds yet this week. The beans are still going strong. We should be getting our first frost in the next 10-15 days, so that will end the warm weather stuff.
Unlike one of the posters upthread, I have good success with heirloom tomatoes. The yield is slightly lower, but the better taste makes up for it. I grew the following varieties: Black Krim, Rasta, Big Red, Rose de Berne, Moskvica and paste tomatoes Olpaca and Amish Paste.
The most productive of the “regular” tomatoes were Rose de Berne and Moskvica, with Black Krim a close 2nd. I plan to grow all three again next year. Of the two paste varieties, I’ll be growing Amish paste again. Both Olpaca and Amish paste set roughly the same amount of fruit per plant. However the Amish paste were 2-3 larger.
Here’s how I process my tomatoes. I wash and dry them, cut out the stem end and any bad parts. I then grind them up skins seeds and all in a Vitamix blender. I cook them down to about 1/2 the original volume. I like my sauces thick and the cooking down really concentrates the flavor. Once the tomatoes are where I want them, I start adding in sauteed onions, garlic, peppers, herbs, etc. Which peppers and herbs determine whether the final product is salsa or spaghetti/pizza sauce.
Here’s my recipe for Chipotle and corn salsa:
In 8 quart pot:
Tomatoes as above
1 1/2 – 2 large onions
7-10 cloves crushed garlic (I use Romanian or Georgian Fire)
3-6 various colored bell peppers
X jalapenos to taste
3-4 cobs worth of corn cut off the cob
ground cumin, chili powder
ground chipotle powder or canned chipotle
salt and above spices to taste
cilantro is optional
yield is 7-10 pints depending on how much water I cook out of the tomatoes
Process in a water bath or steam canner.
This salsa has smokey and slightly sweet taste. The corn and chipotle really work well together.
I do the same basic process for Italian style sauces. I substitute basil, tyme, oregano for the Mexican ingredients. The quantities are estimates, because everything varies in size, and I don’t use a recipe. I just add stuff until it looks right.
Well the sun’s out. Time for errands and then a nice long bike ride north of town!
Mark
Central Wisconsin
WaterGirl
@R-Jud: Oh, she’s so cute! What big ears she has! How old is she?
R-Jud
@WaterGirl: Seven weeks. I like the teeny weeny tufts on those ears, myself. Also her eyes are a pale brown, which I’ve never seen in a cat. I suppose they will change as she gets older.
bemused
@R-Jud:
Our bitty one is mending. Her congestion is much less so she has an appetite now. She is more active every day, interested in doing a little playing now. And now we can hear her purring. She was so weak before that she had silent meows and purrs.
Our vet said there was a rash of this URI in the same time period ours have been sick. Two kitties died and the test results were HVR caused by herpes virus. We are giving both kitties lysine paste. We feel fortunate that our sickie has survived (we had our doubts at times) and she is improving rapidly.
We got attached to them right away and would have been crushed if we had lost one. They follow us around, come when we call and love to be in laps or as close as possible. We’re in love.
I
Yutsano
The ranch is loaded with produce. The tomato vines are literally overloaded with red fruit, zucchini everywhere, and the apple trees are all drooping like mad and the horses are drooling. I’m gonna o home with more stuff than I came with. And EGGS!!
R-Jud
@bemused: Well, it’s no wonder they love you, given how tenderly you’re taking care of them. It’s so heartwarming to see a sick animal show signs of being on the mend.
I think it will be all lovey-dovey around here pretty soon. Tillie’s sleeping on my right side, my daughter on my left. Have a feeling we will be finding this kitten in the crib of a morning.
waratah
@Yutsano: I miss having fresh eggs. We would let them out of the pen during the day and I think this was what made the centers golden yellow. Yum.
WaterGirl
@R-Jud: One of my two kitties (litter mates) has the same coloring as your new girl, and they both have those tufts growing out of their ears. I am really fond of the tufts, myself! Tufts on my black boy are even bigger than on my girl (who looks like yours)
I got mine at 5-1/2 months, now maybe I have an idea of what Willow looked like when she was younger..
bemused
@R-Jud:
We would find a cat sleeping with one of our kids in the crib once in awhile when they were older babies, not quite toddlers. (The cats were relegated to basement at night while we were all sleeping until the kids were bigger). It was a problem when the 3 kids were older and they would fight about who would get to take a cat to bed with them. We had only two cats.
My husband just remarked how quiet it is in the house when the kitties are sleeping. It’s amazing how loud a 3# kitten running around can be.
Kristine
Finally was able to pick enough tomatoes to justify blanching/peeling/freezing. Not impressed with the flavor of anything I grew this year–better than supermarket, but that’s not saying much. I will be looking for some new varieties for next year.
nvrb4
All my tomatoes got some kind of fungus this year.
Julie
My tomato plants (barely) survived the hotpocalypse and are flowering again, I’m hoping to get more tomatoes from them if they can beat the cold weather. They had a hard summer, what with living through the hottest July in US history and all. The heat just finally broke today, it’s only about 80 degrees or so even though the sun is shining.
The volunteer petunias are still flowering, they have been since June, even though I probably only watered them twice in July and not at all since. They’re the most heat/drought tolerant petunias I’ve ever seen. The cypress and hyacinth bean vines I planted for the hummingbirds are finally starting to flower.
mazareth
@Kristine. That’s why I leave the skins on my tomatoes when I grind them up for sauce and salsa. Lots of flavor and vitamins in the skins!