This very nice 4 day weekend saw plenty of work in the garden. I started by harvesting 3 pounds of sugar snap peas. And looking this evening, it seems that I have at least another 2 pounds to pick (right away please!). And I picked all of the apricots (after one startled me by falling off!) There were only 6 this year, but that's 6 more than I've ever gotten before. So, I'm pleased.
I cleaned up the Rubine Brussel Sprouts (victim to the grey plague of aphids) and harvested the Elephant garlic and some of the Walla Walla onions. I collected seeds from the dying calendula and did plenty of clean up, dead heading, potting up, weeding and watering. The prunings that I took from the German Strawberry tomato (which Mr. C put in a bucket of water) are sending out roots. I suppose they will reach up to the shelf in the green house soon and add some fish emulsion when I'm not looking. I just have to be careful where they crawl out of the bucket and plant themselves.
Two new beds went in and I planted them with a bunch of bulbs and such that were needing planting out. I've been behind with planting dahlias, but they were about to join the tomatoes and plant themselves as well, since I wasn't working fast enough.
I keep trying to think how to present all the tomato varieties I'm growing and I think I will have to supply a link to an outside site where I can build a table in HTML. I've fiddled with this blog and the HTML long enough, and still don't like how it builds a table. But until then here are some green tomato shots:
Florida Pink (greenhouse)
German Strawberry (greenhouse)
(The Doomed) Kentucky Beefsteak (just before I plucked it off)
Roma Pompeii
Ukranian Pink Pear
Camalay
Cherokee Purple
Ukranian Heart (biggest tomato at the moment)
I think the only vexing thing is that I've lost a few tomatoes. Another one this evening, I noticed it on the ground. I think it came from the Japanese Oxheart. There is a little mold on the top, just like the Kentucky beefsteak. I pulled the beefsteak off (broke my heart too as it was one of the largest tomatoes I had) but the mold had gone too far. In fact, there was no saving it or frying it green as it had rotted out to the very center of the tomato. The third was off the Cream Sausage plant, but there are so many little fruits on those plants, it could have been a "bump" accident. The weekend was nice and warm and clear. I could see the fireworks in Monterey on Tuesday from my deck, it was that clear (pretty unusual for July). I can't figure out what is causing the continued blossom drop on some of the tomatoes, as the temperatures have been plenty warm. Maybe just not warm enough. There are about 45% without fruit: Sweet Horizon (removed only fruit as there was blossom rot), Mom's Paste, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Cosmonaut Volkov (why, why?) Julia Child, Northern Lights, Hawaiian Pineapple, Great White, Purple Russian (again, why?), Heart of Compassion, Black Zebra, Sunset Red Horizon, Ruffled Yellow, Orange Russian, Peche Jaune, Hungarian Heart, Great White, Anais Noir (I'm assuming the German Strawberry is overpowering it or I can't see the tomatoes through the jungle), and 1884.
If I haven't thanked Cynthia before (or often enough) I'd like to do that now. Cynthia is the owner of Love Apple Farms in Ben Lomond. It was her class that supplied 95% of the varieties I'm growing, and she will be selling tomatoes to anyone who ventures her way this summer starting in August. She also has a blog, which hasn't been updated in a while. She's probably busy working in the tomato fields. Please support her efforts, and buy some tomatoes. They really are wonderful.
Hope everyone had a happy July 4th. And now, a little fireworks ("Cactus" Dahlia Nuit d'été)
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