I haven’t updated on the garden in a while because I’ve been so busy dealing with electricians and looking for a plumber and other things in real life the garden has sort of taken a backseat. Adulting is hard, y’all.
Since I last posted I have purchased and almost killed another bell pepper plant. I just kept watering the half dead ones when I bothered to water at all. I added more dirt to one and it seems like it is setting fruit. I’m very surprised by that. The orange pear tomatoes and producing tons of fruit. I’ve been very lazy lately about picking them. The other tomatoes are all in various states of distress. My one Brandywine tomato was eaten by something big. It was three or four feet off the ground and something took a huge bite out of it overnight. The plant is right up on the house so that freaked me out.
It’s been so hot lately that I am not watering much.
What’s going on in your garden? I should probably go to the Farmers Market next weekend and get some good tomatoes. My oven is making weird noises. When I pushed down on it, it stops. I don’t think my floor is level. It’s always something…Once I fix the oven issue, I have a new laptop to set up. It’s been an expensive month here.
The freaking squirrels are munching my tomatoes before they get big enough for fried green tomatoes and I don’t know what’s going on with the okra but it is not okraing at all.
Yesterday in St. Louis it was 97°, 82% humidity and felt like 111°. Ugh. Nothing gets me outside in this kind of weather.
I must confess, I gave my plants to my daughter a few weeks ago. I couldn’t bear watching them die a slow death. Which was one of the smarter things I did this summer because I still get to enjoy the fruits of her labor!
I agree TT, adulting isn’t what it’s cracked up to be!
Mine is still alive! I had to set a 7am reminder on my phone to water it though as the 90’s arrived last week and it’s unlikely to dip much lower in the upcoming weeks. This morning two of them had a color other than green. I’m stunned.
Good luck on finishing up your stove and starting your laptop. Too much adulting for me!
Surplus of tomatoes here. I found the carcass of a tomato hornworm covered in braconid wasp eggs, in mid-hang on one of my plants today. That must be why I’m not having pest issues this season. Those wasps in the garden keep those hornworms at bay. It’s a scene straight up out of aliens though 😖. Every watermelon is still getting endrot. I picked my first ear of sweet corn EVER today and it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever tasted in my life!!!!
I’ve got a new set of blossoms on my teeny tiny tomatoe plants growing so other than the couple of handfuls i’ve Harvested so far…there is hope for at least one more harvest if I keep up the watering! Definitely planning to head to farmers market next weekend because this is the time in MD for heirloom tomatoes, and I love those darn things! Purple, yellow, orange, red…the uglier and misshapen the better! So dang flavorful! But the window is only a couple of weeks, so I am getting my tomato consumption on!
My garden consisted of one cheater plant in a big pot. I did get 3 good tomatoes so that was something. I paid a neighborhood kid to empty the pot because I didn’t drill holes. It turned into a swamp and weighed 1,000 pounds. My backyard looks like crap. I had a crabgrass issue earlier, the man that does my lawn put something on it to get rid of the crabgrass but now I have all of these weird some kind of grass sprouts coming up. I’m seriously thinking about fake grass for my small backyard. Not joking. Does anyone have suggestions? Tamara, there are leveling things on your stove so try that before you check the floor. As for the plumber, there is a company if our area that gives the portion to breast cancer, which is a wonderful thing. The only problem is they quoted me about $500 more than another company to replace my water heater. I’ve had one or two many glasses of wine so I probably shouldn’t post but I’m doing it anyway. I’m serious about the fake grass. Does anyone have fake grass and dogs?
Bad combination hire a yard service. Cheers Pinot tonight
I am such an un-Gardner that I didn’t even realize we had blackberry bushes in the backyard.
This is the first year we are actively gardening. My daughter is at home going thru grad school and is very interested in cultivating the veggies in the backyard
Considering we live in Northern California it seems ridiculous that we haven’t availed ourselves of fresh produce.
So now we are proudly watering and tending…zucchini,cherry tomatoes,arugula.
And we also have made some pickles from our backyard cucumbers
Our new pastime is watching the garden grow.
Hey Mrs MoonLight! -I live in Sonoma County, are you close?
Your garden sounds amazing and yummy. Bravo for your hard work.
I don’t have a garden, and I haven’t even made it to a farmers’ market yet. Too tired, too hot. I’ve been eating cottage cheese, grapes, turkey slices and string cheese. Which sounds pretty healthy, except I HAVE to have my 40 oz ice-cold diet Dr Pepper in the morning…or life just ain’t worth living.
After reading “Tomato Talk” for a few years here, I got inspired to plant a few myself. Now I’m obsessed with the darn things. Apparently it isn’t all that easy to grow tomatoes in Colorado. So far the two plants I have have done really well. I have 19
little bitty tomatoes growing! Thanks for all the advice from here when I got started. I’m looking forward to the tomatoes getting ripe.
Tomatoes are coming in now. Had BLTs for dinner on Friday. TJs has a wonderful Black Forest bacon that gives the BLT a little something. I know not traditional.
My dog ate the only almost-ripe tomato (she is quite the omnivore, but has never bothered the garden until this year, alternately laying on plants and nibbling the leaves of the mint and the medicinal). Two days later, something, likely roofrats, took bites of the two green tomatoes. The potted flowers that survived the worst six months of my life (after our landlords sold our house we moved in with “friends” and the experience would have put the show “Shameless” to shame!) are slowly recovering. The water gardens are doing SPLENDIDLY. After spending six months in plastic garbage bags, the tropical waterlily is outgrowing it’s pot, the water canna that hasn’t bloomed in seven years is blooming and my hardy waterlily survived after breaking and has put out a small bloom. I got 60 last year. I highly recommend potted water gardens — the most low-maintenance, high reward gardens ever,
Damned program put the apostrophe in “its,” one of my pet peeves. Sorry.
No tomatoes but we sure had heat last weekend.
On the Friday I drove inland for hair appointment. When I arrived, my car said it was 93°. When I left after 2.5 hours, it registered 118°.
On the way home if hit 120° as I went by Disneyland..
At home if said 108°
Thankfully, the temperatures are down to bearable this weekend.
I do love hearing about all the Tamara inspired tomatoes 🍅🍅🍅
My daughter always plants the tomatoes, peppers, etc. and she did not do it this year. I finally dumped all the pots, which were growing weeds, and put them in the garage for next year. I do have flowers, in the ground and in pots, that are blooming despite the ungodly heat and sun. We had an hour of rain yesterday for the first time in weeks. So I do a lot of watering of the flowers. I miss the homegrown tomatoes though.
I’m growing an impressive amount of weeds. There are a couple that are so big and have grown roots so deep, I may need to get a tree removal. JK, but damn, I have to dig around the roots and pry the mfs up.
My mother could grow anything (unfortunately I didn’t get that gene) and tomatoes need a bit of stress early, so they start trying to reproduce and produce lots of babies, and then you feed and water after they have tiny little tomatoes. You don’t want to feed and water early enough so you get a huge plant with no tomatoes. Of course with this heat everywhere, we’re lucky to get anything.
Has some nightshade growing too, but not the deadly stuff, just the weed that produces the little black berries. Hence the belladonna nic.
It sucks bc there are so many varieties colors sizes with tomatoes and they are (relatively) easy to grow, but I hate the taste of them. I’ve tried too and I WANT to like them but it’s just something about the taste. What’s weird tho is I do enjoy tomato soup.
Hi there!
This might help your stove issue. It might be the regulator (if it’s gas or propane). Be very careful an call a serviceman to have it checked out fully. I wouldn’t feel right not saying something that might save your life. As far as the garden goes…Tomatoes love this hot weather. Make sure to water and feed your garden. If you skip this important step you’re not going to have anything to eat in your salad! HA! I’ve found that if I put human hair in and around mine I have less problems with things being eaten or altogether GONE. I’m sure your local hair salon/barber would save some for you. Have a lovely day…Oh and by the way, Love your Recaps and Articles. You have a special way of seeing things and I get a charge out of reading them.
My tomatoes are green, but according to google it’s too hot for them to ripen. Here in our area we’ve had heat indexes of around 103-113 for the past two weeks and any temp over 90 degrees will keep it from turning red. My cucumbers are doing great, but my squash were the victims of vine borers, even though I’ve never planted squash in the backyard.