I went into the garden today...

but not for long!

Sweltering is the word that comes to mind.  I did however get out early and snipped a bunch of yellowing leaves and branches off the tomatoes.  When I first saw them my heart sank, but upon closer inspection they were only on the tomatoes that had suffered all the storm damage, and the ones that I was pretty heavy handed on the lower leaves with the soap spray for the aphids.  Just in case though, I disinfected my shears in between the two varieties.  The only ones affected were the Red Zebra and Amish Paste, and they are nowhere near each other.  Most of the branches that were dead looked like where they had been whipped against the ties that held them to their supports during the last big storm.

That took about 15 minutes, and that was enough for me!  I spent another 5 minutes just taking photos of them for future reference.  I always forget to do that, because when I'm waiting for things to happen, it's nice to be able to page back to "same time last year" on the blog so I can see how things were progressing then.

I have 30 tomato plants this year from 9 varieties - how did that happen??!!!  All now have fruit on them.

Pink Brandywine - Heirloom, 6 plants

Burpee Long Keeper - Heirloom, 2 plants

(this is supposed to store until December, yeah I laughed too but I'll keep you updated, I couldn't resist)

Red Zebra - Heirloom, 3 plants

Yellow Pear - Heirloom, 2 plants

 Hillbilly - Heirloom, 5 plants

Orange Wellington - Hybrid, 1 plant

Fourth of July - Hybrid, 1 plant

Amish Paste - Heirloom, 8 plants

Although the Amish Paste were the first to set fruit, I expect the Yellow Pear and Fourth of July to be the first to ripen, probably within a couple of weeks.  The only ones not pictured are the "Jake Gyllenhaal" mystery tomato (2 plants) from 2010 that I saved seed from.  I forgot all about them as they are planted far away from everything else!  It remains to be seen what they will be like this year, since I'm sure my saved seed was cross pollinated with one of my other heirlooms.  All the rest are fresh seed every year since I don't have enough space to prevent crossing with others.

I then decided to go ahead and do indoor stuff I had been putting off.  I'm one of those people who can't cook or preserve anything unless my kitchen is clean, and it's been looking like a war zone lately so after cleaning the house I did a "special" cleaning of the kitchen, scrubbing cabinets and fridge, sink and all that stuff that gets forgotten.  Now I'm ready to make some jam I think!

I have been using a lot of dried legumes and other things lately so instead of working out of the baggies from the whole foods store, I put them all into jars, I just like looking at jars :)

Deja vu... yep, that's corn on the bottom shelf.  I thought I was done having seedlings in the house, I guess not.  I had to start them in flats since if I direct seed the birds get them all, but even in a flat on the deck the birds got to them.  The pulled out all my sunflower seedlings, snatching what was left of the seed and leaving the massacred little seedlings strewn about, then started in on the corn.  I snatched it and brought it inside.  Tomorrow I think I'll just plant them out and put bird netting over them for another week or so.  It won't be too bad since I'm just doing a few clumps, 3 sisters-style along the fence.

Who am I kidding?  It's going to be hot again tomorrow, no corn planting.  I'll be cleaning the freezers and defrosting getting ready for the harvest that will hopefully be coming in, weather permitting.

Today is the first day of hurricane season here.  Normally, nobody cares because we never get hurricanes until September/October.  This morning I decide to actually turn on the Weather Channel and what do I see?  A tropical system forming off the southern East Coast already, on Day 1!  Normally hurricanes don't phase me a bit, but this year?  I admit I'm more than a bit nervous, and we are long overdue for a strong one.  Does anyone else feel a little uneasy about the weather patterns for the rest of the year, or is it just me?