Never thought I'd say this....

Well well well, what do we have here??

Refreshing! The tomatoes have met the wrath of April! Unfortunately--the spiders have already relocated to places I don't expect them--garden gates, door knobs, the peas...

Weekly garden pic looks a little bare--but truly, I like it. It seems my life revolved around the tomatoes for the last 6 months! Getting rid of wood chips, digging up the dirt, adding compost, planting (in the rain) then tying, staking, tying, staking, watching, picking finally, and then, then! We have 40 tomatoes in no shape for "non gardeners" to want to eat. Organic tomatoes are NOT always pretty.

Now we have this: 

In other news--Travis is officially old... He loved the yard tools he got for his birthday. Hedge trimmer and air blower(to clean up after himself)

And yard work! Really the hedge was about to eat our guests and we cannot have that.

And these spiders have relocated as well--eeek!

Now if it would RAIN already(now that I don't have to worry about tomatoes molding) we could get to work on the house. This summer sure has been distracting.

Less than 2 months til we move upstairs!!

Last day of summer

What is with all the spiders this week?
We have so many we have started naming them. Big Bertha, the sleeping ladies outside the slider...

The one Travis likes to pet... 3 more in this pic below...

My 1 non gigantic sunflower started blooming!! Multi headed even! Come on Sunflowers! It's a battle against time now. 3 of 15 blooming?

This is the Monday tomato harvest. Lots of cherry tomatoes. Mmmmmmm, like candy. I slacked on the harvest this weekend due to not being able to eat real food. I better get out and get the last beans too.

My itty bitty zukes, squash and patty pans. I keep losing them when they get any bigger. The zukes are only about 4 inches long... is it blossom end rot when the blossom rots and makes the ends icky?

This is why you listen when your garden advisor tells you to stake your tomatoes with 8ft supports when you are told... Not 4ft posts 2 weeks later, and extend them 2 months later. Early girl took out Brandy boy and they were both caught by Cherokee Purple. Whoops

I think I'm losing my first pepper plant. Temps are quite down this week, supposed to drop to under 50 this week... I'm leaving it anyway. Hoping to get more red ones. Same with Jalapenos--not pictured--I recently heard that Jalapenos turn RED?! I cannot wait to see that.

So long Summer, Farewell tomatoes and peppers! It was a great time--stay a bit longer next year will you?

Celebrate Good Toms, come on!

First Salsa. Ever!
Mmmm fresh basil, tomato and pepperjack. More of these to come.

Not a single one of these are Green Zebra. Im positive of this.

This is one of the siamese tomatoes. I wonder how it will taste.

Tomato Mystique

Last night I noticed my Green Zebra were getting pinkish so I asked my Master Gardener about it and she said no chance. Maybe yellowish, but never pink. So what they are will remain a unsolved mystery unless someone has similar..they aren't done changing yet so I will post another pic as they progress

Unfortunetly that makes me doubt all the OTHER tomatoes in the garden. I had them all tagged and listed but one which when I compared the leaf and size, resembled Brandy Boy.

If plant 2.2 isnt right, did it get switched with 1.2 which should be Paul Robeson, or is it all its own accidental seed mix up long before I planted it? Did someone come in and change all the tags? I may never know.

The original Mystery Plant is now putting off tomatoes that look like this...

(Warning: Gratuitous pictures ahead)

I wonder if it was 2 tomatoes that became fused, like Siamese tomatoes?

Or is it going to hatch soon?
Or did it simply grow around a stem of blossoms?

Or did it eat its brother?

Is it looking at me?

And also when I picked these all from OM, Black Tula, Cherokee Purple and Green Zebra, I tossed them all in the same bowl and forgot which was which! So Im guessing here on these labels for this last pic

From Left to right: Early girl, Cherokee Purple, Black tula, Original Mystery, Green zebra at the bottom right and some sun golds bottom left. Also 1 jalapeno, 1 Cayenne

Cherokee purple... or Black Tula.. Next harvest I will take my time and photograph the curious ones from the start individually.

Anyone have any idea on my Original Mystery or Not Green Zebra?

State of the Tomatoes

I'm not sure this post needs any words, but I'll say things anyway.


The Friday harvest. We have been eating tomatoes for 3 days!! And and and... I see more ready to come visit my windowsill!

This is probably my favorite picture of the garden.

I have several posts started on our weekend, our stairs and the house, yet lack the time to get them edited. So stare in to the tomatoes and be mesmerized til then.

Scene of the crime

Do you think the garden is looking a little smaller?

Friday night, I came home and prepared for what I knew must be done.

I got all my supplies together...

Cold beverage-Check

Pruning sheers, tie tape-Check
Phone, Sunglasses, Book-Check.

Pumpkin-Not needed but festive nonetheless--Check!

Id been given instructions by my master gardener... to "take care" of the tomatoes.

I tied up the fallen branches, sweet talked the plants and broke a support post in the process. Then I got down to business.

A sad sad event- I had to remove the tops and blossoms that were going to hold back my tomatoes from ripening. Sacrifice the natural growth and a dozen tomatoes to get more light in for ripening.

I only had enough courage to trim about half the plants on Friday evening. When I came out Saturday to "finish the job" I found 1/2 of Black Tula laying on the ground. Weeping for her fallen brothers.
Apparently I clipped something that wasn't tied tight enough and she committed tomatocide.

A memorial for the fallen. Long live Tula!

After the thinning--they look like they are 4 weeks younger. I was afraid to go out this morning and find them all dead, but they are still standing.

But now- what do I see? Tomatoes for you and me! This is Early Girl.

And the most joyous occasion--my first brandy boy! If I get no other tomatoes to ripen, I would settle for 1 glorious Brandy Boy. Id prefer it to be bigger first (and right side up).

And there are more in the back row that I can see! This is Tulas other half. I can actually see the supports now.

And after all the drama, I was glad to see my favorite little wild flower standing at attention.

Total tomato harvest this year:

1 Black Seaman

1 Silvery firs

2 early Girls

12ish Sun golds

In 4 months!!! #@$#@!

In other news: We started sanding the stairs! I thought it would take about 4 days start to finish... but as a common occurrence in home ownership--it always takes at least twice as long as you expect. So patching and sanding take 2 will begin Tuesday.

And in silly news:
I stopped dinner to take 10 shots of a bug crawling in the bean harvest bowl. This is my favorite one.

Stay tuned for more ripe tomatoes!

Rainy day in the garden

I should be used to this by now, being in Western Washington and all. But there are a few things I planned for that I am thinking twice about today.
Washing cars
Picking blueberries
Weeding the garden

Obviously a garden needs to be watered, but the state of my tomatoes concerns me now. With 5 days of off and on showers due(which I was hoping was a weather LIE) and it coinciding with our 5 days off...Im a bit saddened. The tomatoes are very cute with water droplets though.


Pumpkin blossom filled with rain.

The gorgeous patio 80% complete and wet
Cherry tomatoes after a rain
and the sun starting to peek thru the clouds

Partly cloudy with a chance of showers


Sun break on pumpkin #1
These pictures are from 8/22/10.

I have yet to venture out in to the completely cloud covered world today.

The show will go on!
Blueberry adventures MUST be had, rain or shine.

The weeds will wait for another day. They do come out easier in wet soil.

The dark side of gardening

You think Im talking about spiders and slugs and aphids and ugly little bugs that eat roots...

Nope.

Im talking about MOLD on my zuchinni leaves.

I have sprayed them with Zeem oil, once, half assed Im sure. You have to wait 24hrs to harvest after using it, so I never know when that will be, so I havent resprayed yet.

And how about how my tomatoes are all green and September is almost here?

Also, my sunflowers are still sun leaves and the rain is coming.

How will I ever revel in my 7yr old dream house? Im gonna have to plant them again next year.

And what about my nasturtium with no flowers?

Its AUGUST 26TH!!!

I read recently how this is a year for the lesson of HOW tomatoes grow. Not how they ripen. Or what they taste like. Grow. I may not get to taste any this year.

And neither will you. After all the anticipation.

Its been great watching it all grow, but it breaks my heart. Takes some ooomph out of my excitement to do it all again next year. Twice as big.

The one shining light? Greens. Collards, chard and kale. Best thing yet.