Tukie's Tomatoes

One of my friends gave me three heirloom tomatoes. Black Prince on the right, Dixie Yellow Giant on the left. There is assorted basil in the middle. The third tomato, Mortgage Lifter is in my main tomato row and will be posted soon.

Thanks Tukie.

An easy fruit we can grow that Bright Eyes likes.

We have finally found a fruit that is easy to grow and Bright Eyes likes. It is ground cherries. They look like underdeveloped tomatillos, with the paper husk still closed. But they are sweeter. The variety I have is called pineapple and there are definite pineapple notes to their flavor. The big things is that they are not more difficult to grow than tomatoes or peppers. I will definitely have to plant more next year.

The Garden Grows

I went outside to walk around the vegetable garden and to pick some sunflowers. Pick is really not the right work as they are much taller than I am and I cannot even reach high enought to cut the biggest flowers.


The pepper plants seem to have doubled in size since I look at them earlier this week and I know the tomato plants have added at least a foot each. So many green tomatoes, I should fry some tonight.

Still a long way from cucumbers. The last of the lettuce has bolted. But the broccoli is still making sideshoots, though the flavor is not what it was earlier in the season. The ground cherries are full of their peculiar fruit and hopefully will be tasty.


The garlic is ready to be harvested and hung up to dry. I think I got the garlic and the leeks mixed. If it has a bulb and smells like garlic it must be garlic if not it must be leek. They look identical to me above ground.


Hope your gardens are growing well.

Planted Corn, Pumpkin, Gourds and Assorted Melons

Yesterday we sowed seed for Corn, Pumpkin, Gourds and assorted melons(old melon seed, most probably will do nothing) These are at my father in laws and I hope he enjoys watching them grow.

Tuesday I began mulching my vegetable garden beds with straw. I hope this is not a mistake. I might be weeding out wheat seed before too long.

My tomatoes are now about 3ft tall and full of flowers and young fruit. Peppers are only about 1ft and are growing strong now that the days are hot. The Eggplant is full of holes from flea beetles and I should spray it with liquid kelp to help it recover. Weeds are coming on strong with morning glory trying to take over the world.

I will edit my varieties list to include what I planted today.

Varities 2009

Since I posted the varieties I planted last year it seems right to do it again this year. So here goes....

I sure did not have a complete list last year. I should do better this year as I am trying keep my garden notes here.

Here is what I have planted so far-

Swiss Chard
Bright Orange

Peas
Sugarsnap Star (did not do well but the spring was quite warm, the ones we did get tasted great)

Broccoli
Early Dividend (from Walmart), have already harvested the main heads and will have side shoots to harvest for a while

Lettuce
Jericho(dead seed), Plato II(dead seed), Little River Blend(yummy, will eat some today), Sucrine(nice and sweet even with a warm spring)

Spinach
Erste Erste(first to bolt), Avon(second to bolt), Olympia( still good)
Leeks
American Flag

Tomatoes
Early Girl, Pompeii, Big Beef, Better Boy, Raad Red, Sungold, Dixie Yellow Giant, Black Prince, Mortgage Lifter (I only have one plant of each except Raad red, and was given the last three unexpectedly)

Pepper
Roumanian Rainbow(grew last year and had wonderful taste but where can I get seeds? I was only able to get one seed to germinate this year.), Italian Sweet, College 64L(Anaheim type), Gourmet(Orange bell), YumYum ( mini bell), Lemon Drop(hot with citrus notes, at least that is what the catalog said)

Eggplant
Listada de Gandia

Ground Cherry
Pineapple(has anyone ever tried these, I'll let you know how we like them)

Pole Bean
Scarlet Emperor( to grow on trellis on side of house, hope it attracts hummingbirds, will probably only harvest beans when dry but we will see)

Herbs
Oregano(pink flowering), Cilantro(bolted already), Basil-cinnamon and Italian pesto, Parsley-favorit and gigante

Flowers
Sweet pea- fragrantissma, Coreopsis-presto(flowering right now), Nicotiana-Eau de Cologne, Alyssiam-rosie 0'day(blooming beautifully), Orange Cosmos, Zinnias, Calendula, Red and Pink Poppies(wonderful in their variety, surprises every day as new buds open)

Cucumber
Dive, Summer Dance

Corn
Honey and Cream

Pumpkin
Baby Bear

Gourd
Corsican

Melon(just 2 or 3 old seeds of each)
Trocadero, Gallery Galia, Earlidew Honeydew, Solid Gold Cantaloupe, Tiger

Starting Tomatoes, peppers and eggplant

5-31-09

As I was going through my gardening notes this morning I decided to start trying to keep them here instead of in assorted notebooks where they are hard to find and a search can take days.

Starting tomatoes, peppers and eggplant-

This year I started my early tomatoes(Early Girl) on 1-26-09. That worked well and I will repeat it. I don’t mind handling a couple of huge tomato plants to have good tomatoes early.

I started my main crop of tomatoes on 3-3-09 and this was a little too early as the tomatoes grew too big for my light available before I could plant them out and I had to do an emergency give away before my peppers were ready to plant up. I also need to give one application of liquid kelp when I pot them up and then wait until 2 weeks before they go out to give more. I should start my main crop of tomatoes about two weeks later (~March 15th).

I started my peppers and eggplant on 3-24-09. This seemed a little too late and next year I should start them with the tomatoes on ~March 15th.

Varieties

The varieties I am growing this year are:

Peas
Super Sugarsnap

Leeks
American Flag

Tomatoes
Glacier, Pompeii, Big Beef, Better Boy, Raad Red, Sprite, New Big Dwarf

Pepper
Roumanian Rainbow, Italian Sweet, College 64L(Anaheim type), Admiral Golden, Baby Bell(it the seeds will germinate)

Eggplant
Listada de Gandia

Herbs
Oregano(pink flowering), Cilantro, Basil:sweet- scented basil trio- Italian pesto- opal

Flowers
Sweet pea- fragrantissma, Coreopsis-presto, Nicotiana-Eau de Cologne

Will add more as I pull out the seed packets