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?

Wacky weather... and a video for meemsnyc!

I know I'm not the only one... what is UP with the rain?  For once I am thankful that our soil here is sand, since it drains right away, but all the tidal waters here (it's ALL tidal here) are rising and I'm sure the people with waterfront property are probably not liking this at all.

The below photo was snagged off Facebook, but it was taken locally this afternoon...

The past 10 days that's what we've had, rain and overcast interrupted by beautiful sun for an hour or two here and there, very strange, it's been going on for so long.

Here's a photo from this morning in my yard, sun is shining, but it's raining!

I took the opportunity to get out and tie up my tomatoes, they are getting big with all this rain.

This is the main tomato garden this year, all the large ones were planted here in beds, boxes, and in ground.  That pile in the middle was everything pruned off the tomatoes today.

Below is another shot after they were all tied up and the lower branches trimmed so they wouldn't touch the soil.  These are Pink Brandywine, Hillbilly and Red Zebra.

In the center garden (the fenced in garden) I have one bed of Amish Paste that also needed trimming and tying.  All the varieties now have little green tomatoes on them except the Yellow Pear in the big tomato garden, but they are blossoming finally.

Another rainstorm arrived just as I finished, so I spent the next few hours organizing my craft and sewing stuff and rearranging furniture LOL.  I got all my thread organized with the labels facing the same direction... just sayin'....   :)

Kids got home from school and I had a Eureka!  moment...  I've finally found something healthy that they love - they immediately asked for pita chips and hummus as an afterschool snack.  I am making big batches of hummus every week now, with hubby working nights he can always grab that and some pitas if there are no leftovers from dinner :)

Stopped raining for a bit so I headed back out and saw this... yikes - my potatoes are flowering already!

...went to go check on my peppers and found a blossom, but they are getting tall trying to search for sunlight in the shade of the peas... I might have taken my intensive planting a bit too far this time.

You can't see them, but they're in there!

I picked peas last NIGHT for goodness' sake!  I was hoping for an "every other day" picking cycle, but apparently the peas have other ideas.  I'm thankful they are so productive, but I'm getting pretty anxious for them to be done, so I can get the sun back on those peppers an plant something else there, too.

No time to pick tonight, thunder and lightning this time...

Sorry, lots of photos here today, but I plan to take the day off blogging tomorrow, it's supposed to rain and I promised Loch and Finn I would make them Hawaiian Shirts for, you guessed it - "Hawaiian Shirt Day" at school.  I have until the evening of the 22nd to finish them, I'm pretty sure they will be horrible since sleeves scare the cr@p outta me.

One more thing, a Hops video for meems @ Gardening in the Boroughs of NYC, she had asked about how we grow our hops:

Planting Day!

I couldn't stand it any more, the tomatoes were turning the house into a jungle.  The temps have been in the upper 60's during the daytime with mid to upper 50's at night so I planted almost all of them out in the beds today.

Below are the worst offenders, the Amish Paste.  They've been supported with chopsticks the past 2 weeks.

Below is the Pink Brandywine bed.  I have no clue what I did with these stakes LOL, all I know is that cages suck, the Florida Weave wasn't what it was cracked up to be, not sure what I'll do this year but I have to keep the dogs out of the beds until the plants get bigger.  Does anyone else find that along with the need to continually try different tomato varieties comes the need to find the "perfect" tomato support?  There isn't one, of course, it's a sickness :)

  

6 Pink Brandywine and 2 Heirloom Long Keepers

The small bed below has 3 Red Zebra tomatoes

I won't be able to save seed this year as the tomatoes are absolutely crammed in tight to make room for all of them.  I definitely needed to grow more this year since hubby is not deployed this year so it's another mouth to feed, and a big one at that :)

This is also the first year I have planted in-ground tomatoes.  We amended the soil a bit to break up the sand/clay that we have, but this area is also immediately next to the compost area and our peppers that were in unamended ground last year did pretty well.  The below area holds 6 Hillbilly tomatoes.  Once again, I know these cages won't do much but for now it keeps the dogs from trampling them.

Below, the peas are really healthy but S.L.O.W...... or maybe I am just really impatient.

Dadgum raspberries coming up all over my beds....

Below, the Brussels Sprouts bolted!  Now I don't have to feel bad about yanking them to make room for the Amish Paste tomatoes, 8 of those went into this bed after I pulled this out.  Pretty, though!

Spotted today... a 1962 (I think) Ford Falcon Squire Woody Wagon!

I don't care how few miles per gallon it gets, if I had this car I would drive it all the time, I'd probably sleep in it.  I'd probably have to moonlight as a table dancer to get the gas money for it but hey, think of the cool road trips we'd take in it!  :)

I followed it as long as I could :)

As you might have guessed, my back is feeling about 100% again, and I can breathe "a little", the pharmaceutical winner this year appears to be Astelin Nasal Spray :)

It's Here!

It's as big as his head!

First came the extraction. Funny thing: before hubby left, he gave me this tool and said "here, you might want this for your garden stuff"... what the heck is that LOL? I figured he just didn't want to put it away. Sure came in handy!

While I was doing the extraction, I decided to look over the plant. It is VERY healthy, over 6 ft tall now, and loaded with fruit as you can see below. Here's the thing... look at the fruit at the bottom of the plant (above pic) and then look at the fruit now forming at the top of the plant. See the difference? RuralRose, are you looking and laughing? It appears we may indeed have an identification of the UFO Heirloom: "Oxheart"...! I'll keep my eyes on the fruit development but that shape is pretty unmistakeable. I have grown them before, but never ended up with the regular Mortgage Lifter shaped fruit I got at the bottom of the plant. I wonder if seeds were crossed or what the seed's history really is! I will probably never know, but it is fun nonetheless!

It's as big as Sprocket's head too!

Now on to the details:

Tomato fell way short on taste - oh, no! Maybe it's because of my anticipation... I was starting to dream about driving around with it strapped to the hood of my car like a redneck hunter with his prized whitetail, or maybe finding a veggie taxidermist to mount it for me!

It could also be the weather, it rained (thankfully, we needed it!) all day long, heavily. I went out and got it tonight since I was afraid it would split badly by morning with all the rain. It had split this evening but only a little. Maybe it was too swollen with water, but I found the taste to be quite bland, of course way better than store bought, but yet nowhere near the taste of a Brandywine. We'll keep on tasting, though... hopefully the next will be better. This would make a fabulous thick slicing tomato on a burger it is so meaty. Also interesting is that the bottom tomatoes set so much earlier than the ones on top and are so much bigger and slower developing... I will remain hopeful for the next harvest! They better get good because it looks like these two plants will provide the majority of my canning this year, each has over 20 tomatoes on it!

I have had some inquiries for the seed next season, I will definitely be waiting for the best ones to save from, this one wasn't it, sadly!

I'll leave you with a video of one of my favorite summer visitors:

Click Here to learn more about the Hummingbird Moth!

I obviously had hornworms somewhere in the garden, I just love it when I don't find them until they have turned into this stunning moth!

Tonight's the Night...

Yes, I think tonight will be the big night for the first UFO!

How AM I going to get that thing outta there?!

Below is a photo of the UFO Tomatoes, they are really getting tall, that is me reaching as high as I can next to them!

This morning I got a little accomplished before the humidity and heat drove me back inside. I was able to replant some beds with more beans, cilantro, dill, lettuces (I keep trying), and a couple of hills of small pie pumpkins. I should still have enough time in the season to get the pumpkins in time to brew our Harvest Pumpkin Ale and freeze some for pumpkin bread in the winter. I still need to rip out and replant the "green roof", and prune one of my Crepe Myrtle trees that is completely blocking one of my garden paths, but that will have to wait until evening, but truth be told, I am hoping it will rain today and I won't have to go back out!

Photos from the garden this morning, good, bad & ugly in no particular order:

Note: Orange Wellington hybrid tomato does really well in a container!

Sugar Baby Bush Watermelon containers, cosmos are starting to take over the area, though!

Planted Japanese Climbing Cucumbers in this bed just 2 weeks ago, already out of control!

Now get ready to have a good laugh...

My "cornfield" in the shade experiment! It's pathetic! About 18" high and believe it or not, has tiny ears on it LOL! I just shake my head and laugh when I see it every day, it's right next to my shed. I left my radio on out there this morning, maybe they will grow more if they have some tunes to listen to. Here's the description of it for an extra laugh:

Corn, Early Sunglow Hybrid

Best early variety, thrives in cool weather.

Garden-fresh sweet corn is summer's greatest pleasure. A packet contains enough for four 15 ft rows. Seeds are not treated. Extra-early, uniform ears are about 7 inches long with 12 rows of deep kernels. Stalks yield 2 ears. Best early variety, thrives in cool weather. Height 4 to 4½ ft. Proven tops for productivity, flavor and wide adaptability. Ready to harvest in 63 days.

Ears 7" long? LOL... and cool weather? what was I thinking?!

More laughs above. This is my Asparagus bed. The one I dug out by hand all day by myself, even bothered to fence in from the dogs... I kind of forgot about it! So now it's a bed of Sassafras, grass, and miscellaneous weeds! Should have planted that stuff in the green roof, it might still be green!

This is just plain redneck!

I swore I would not buy any more stuff for my garden except seeds for fall. I have more than my fair share of "stuff" in my shed to create things from, and this is what ensued! These are my bean and Edamame beds, and this is actually working to keep the Mockingbird out. I caught him red handed yesterday morning hopping around eating tops off my beans. I sent Sprocket the "Outback Jack" after him and then she was in there messing up my bed too! We made up our own breed for her, she's half Jack Russell, half Australian Shepherd, and the only Aussie in her is her coloring, other than that she is a complete terrier-terror to all vermin in the yard! So while my setup is ugly, it's working. It can come down in a couple of days, the birds don't bother the beans once they get their 2nd set of leaves.

In case you are wondering, this is what an Outback Jack looks like! Yeah, we can't figure it out either...

Sprocket the wonder girl

Really?!

I am really hoping my grapes make it to harvest this year, last year I put paper bags on all the bunches and the mockingbirds still got to them!

Don't you love the fact that the garden can provide delicious junk food, too?

Tomatoes, Jalapenos, Cilantro, Chives & Homebrew

I walked outside with this yumminess last night and my neighbor said she wouldn't be surprised to see me milking a cow in my backyard and making my own cheese for the nachos, too - hmmm, not sure if that was a compliment or not LOL!

Speaking of last night, this is what the kids looked like when I arrived to pick them up at the "Y" from Parents Night Out! While I am glad they had fun, this means I had to spend a half hour scrubbing them down at 10 pm before bed!

I will be hiding out from the heat all day, but hope to post about that tomato very soon...!