right now

right now

Jun 1, 2011

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?

21 comments:

  1. I just had to call Papa Pea in to look at the pictures of your tomatoes. He said, "That's depressing," and turned and walked away.

    Regarding the weather, with the totally whacky start we've all had to the season, who wouldn't be a little leery of what's to come?

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  2. I know what you mean about that feeling. I had a yellow lower leaf on my one tomato plant at the plots this morning.

    Boy your tomatoes are liking this heat! I have some tiny ones.

    This weather has been horrible. We are supposed to have nice cool weather tomorrow though. High 76!!! We shall see

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  3. Mama Pea, ha! Tell Papa Pea you all are going to be my newest experiment this year - I'm going to mail you an heirloom tomato and you can tell me in what condition it shows up in! I figure I'll pack it in lots of newspaper and then in a plastic bag to contain the mess when things don't work out LOL!
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    Robin, I hope you get those temps, we are hearing a high of 79 here on Friday. I already put hubby on notice that it's going to be a big work day!

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  4. Weather....rrrgghh. Anyway, I agree with Papa Pea. It is not nice to have those beautiful tomatoes if you dont have enough to share with the class. I would be very afraid of hurricane season this year, if the beginning of this year told us anything.

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  5. Well, now you've gone and done it. Do you know how eagerly we will be waiting for that luscious, juicy, super-flavorful heirloom tomato straight from the Garden Goddesses' garden?? Who cares if it gets squished in transit? We'll lick it off the newspaper!

    Jane, your tomatoes would look like Erin's if you hadn't been plagued by the floods and then searing heat.

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  6. Wow! That's alot of tomato plants! I cut back this year to 28...HA! And I know what you mean about the beans etc in jars, they are just so pretty and practical!

    Let's not think about hurricane season. We simply can not have you in that situation because if your garden goes belly up, there is no hope for the rest of us!!!

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  7. Hey, I've almost stopped reading the blogs because of all of you in the hurricane/tornado/flood areas. Scares the crap out of me when I think my friends are in danger. Our high winds don't seem to have a season, we've suffered damage in January and July.

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  8. The worst weather we get is a thunderstorm or a snow storm. No tornadoes or hurricanes here or even really high winds. Sometimes one of the small creeks culverts will overflow if they aren't watched and cleaned regularly but that's about the worst it gets here.
    I'm very thankful we live in an area where we don't get extreme weather (knock wood).
    I hope your hurricane season isn't too bad and none of them come your way.

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  9. OMG! you actually have more tomatoes than I do!! I scaled back to 'more manageable' this year. 20 plants- 11 varieties. But I think I've got 30 peppers. What was I thinking planting 13 varieties. Somebody stop me next year.
    Judy

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  10. Thirty tomato plants??? What will you do with all of those tomatoes??? I cut mine in half to twenty.

    It must be exciting to see all of those fruit. I never get tired of it.

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  11. I'm with Papa Pea... your pictures are depressing. But, that's because here in Oregon we don't put our tomatoes in til May, and I shouldn't have done that, because of all the excess rain we've had. I heard on our local news tonight that they are predicting a really bad hurricane season for you this year. Stay safe!

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  12. I'm in PA where we don't get much of the extremes either, but the last few days have been in the MID-FREAKING-90's which is pretty extreme for May and giving my newbie garden some major problems. I used the soap-oil-water aphid spray the night before one of these hellishly hot days and fried my two poor little potted eggplants and three cherry tomatoes. I may actually have to buy new plants :( See the post for pics of the devastation:
    http://www.awesomeburgh.com/2011/05/fail.html

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  13. See? If you start your own tomatoes, madness ensues.

    I hope you manage the upcoming storm season. It will probably be a whopper.

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  14. We're a little nervous too. Spent yesterday going through the hurricane supplies just in case.

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  15. I am very nervous about the weather this year. Unpredictable seems to be theme for 2011. I was already feeling this way, and now this tornado business has cemented my fears. I amgoing to start stockinb up on water today. Sorry for the errors, i am typing on a small device.

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  16. LMAO-YOU AND MOMMA PEA-ARE SO DARN FUNNY- I WILL PROBABLY FEEL THE TOMATO JUICE AS IT LEEKS OUT FLYING OVER HEAD ON ITS WAY TO MOMMY PEAS'S HOUSE. MY SISTER DID THE PEAR TOMATOES,SHE GAVE ME SO MANY I WAS READY TO SHELLAC THEM IN PUT THEM IN A DECO BOWL,THEY ARE SO DARN CUTE. WEATHER-omg mommy blog was stuck in Chicago and watching the news as a tornado hits Maine and her babies where at home in Maine. I mean Maine? really?

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  17. Jane, hope you fared well with the tornado last night, was it near you?
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    APG, I think the most so far for me has been about 15 plants, I didn't have enough sauce! Last year was small by comparison since hubby was deployed.
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    Gran, I think it's going to be a wild ride this year.
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    Sparkless, you may be the only one to get something to mature this year if this weather keeps up!

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  18. Judy, LOL, I'm definitely not the one to stop you with the peppers, I still struggle every year! I think I may only have 2 or 3 jalapenos this year, yay! I still get over 100 peppers per plant though, it's madness...
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    Thomas, sauce! I use heirlooms for canning as well, so I need more of them. This is my first year for paste tomatoes, so maybe I will be overrun!
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    Ruth, I hope your heavy rain tapers off, there's nothing worse than watching a rainstorm take out all the seedlings.

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  19. N, that's crazy weather for sure! I sprayed my soap spray and it was too hot as well, burned some of the leaves but I think I got most of them... this time LOL
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    Stefaneener, madness indeed! I just hope they make it through storms this year.
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    Dani & Kelly, we are doing the same thing here! I have a feeling...
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    Judy (2), those Yellow Pear tomatoes are cute for sure!

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  20. It's amazing how fast your tomato plants can multiply! I am expecting nothing but extreme weather. While I am usually more on the optimistic side, with the way this year's shaping up, it's not looking great. I hope the heat relief you get is not hurricane related. Keep us posted!

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  21. Holy smokes! 30 tomato plant! Your zebras already have cute stripes =)
    Good luck with Hurricane season, I hope that it's a light year for you all on the east coast.

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