Tomatoes Etc.

Pretty much what we are getting daily, although today we got twice that many cherry tomatoes.

Squash plant barely two weeks old.

Cherry tomatoes still wet from a good hard rain last night.

My favorite, Green Zebra tomatoes.

Tomatillos look like little green Chinese laterns to me.

The difference between ripe and unripe Green Zebras.

This should be a "How many tomatoes can you find?" game.

My first lima bean flower ever :)

Fennel Flowers

My slightly sad basil plot. I still have hope, but something ate all but one of the sweet basil plants right when they came up. The others are lemon basil.

Sunflowers

I am so happy with the sunflowers this year. This time I planted them close together, and in the garden. I didn't want to have to water in a bunch of different places, and they seem to do better when they can lean on each other. It is a nice mix of multi-colored, mammoth, and Primrose. I picked the Primrose for the name, because it is what my Grandpa calls his farm. At first I was not happy with the pale yellow color, but they have become a nice contrast to the darker yellow and orange sunflowers coming in now.

First Tomatoes

Slowly starting to get our first tomatoes. They have all been Chadwick Cherry so far, which are heavy producers. The next two days are supposed to be cooler and within the 75-90 degree range which is perfect for ripening tomatoes. Hotter weather inhibits the ripening process.

Summer Days, Summer Nights

Summer crops are doing much better than I'd dreamed. The tomatoes especially are nearly out of control. The late planting I did this year has had its obvious perks. I am not fighting squash bugs and aphids, and the late summer rains have freed me from nightly watering most of the time. I will have a traditional fall harvest, especially once the fall crops are in. I have never tried planting a fall crop before, but it would be foolish not to with our long growing season. The downside is that last year I had already harvested a significant amount of squash, pumpkins, beets, and carrots. This year I have only been able to enjoy greens and some herbs so far. So my focus is now on the distant harvest moon as I dream of the bounty to come.

The Year of the Tomato

Just got back to my garden after a two week visit to see my family in Missouri. Although, I hate to leave my garden, I love to see the amazing transformation that can happen in a small amount of time. Joseph did a great job keeping everything thriving and happy. I told him not to weed, and the wild ameranthus kept everything just shaded enough to not burn up in the intense New Mexico sun.

I first tried gardening, because I wanted to have my own flavorful tomatoes. There is nothing like it in the world. Grocery store tomatoes shouldn't even be considered the same thing. Unfortunately, I've never had much luck with them. Last year was my best year, and I only got about 40 tomatoes the whole season. I had a good feeling about this year, and I was right. It IS the year of the tomato. I left with some small, but healthy tomato plants (about 25) and was just hoping they would survive. I came home to 3 foot tall tomato plants with tons of flowers and a fair amount of baby tomatoes. The tomatillos are four feet tall, and on the verge of taking over. They will probably need to be cut back in the next couple of weeks.

Green beans, watermelon, and cantaloupes are all doing well, too. The only thing I am a little disappointed in is the cucumbers. They are small and shriveled. There's always next year!

Morning Glories

Morning Glories are seen as an invasive plant in most climates. Here in Albuquerque it is nice to have a vigorous vine plant. It likes to grown around the beet and carrot beds, and I am hoping to encourage it to grow more this year. Mostly I like them because they are wonderful to photograph.

Lettuce Harvest

Even though I started our lettuce super late this year, it just keeps giving. I got a huge harvest about a week ago, and today got enough to last us another few days. Except for a hybrid that came back from last year, the lettuce shows no sign of going to seed. I am hoping to be able to harvest tomatoes and lettuce at the same time for once.

Summer Gardening

Summer crops are my favorite of the gardening season. Outside it is so hot I feel like I might pass out, and the bugs are driving me crazy. The tomatoes are thriving though, and there is a distant promise of watermelons and cantaloupe. Last summer I had more time in the spring than summer to garden so my crops fizzled in the hot summer drought. This year the spring was too windy, too dry, and too cold at night to get decent spring crops going, plus I was super busy until early June. Now I am focusing on summer crops, and am hoping to have a full fall garden.
Thursday, Juan and I managed to get sunflowers, ameranthus, beets, basil, cucumbers, green beans, watermelon and cantaloupe planted. The tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers are transplanted and doing fairly well. In the next week I want to plant some more carrots and basil and get the lima beans going.

Today's Harvest

Well, it has been a rough year for gardening so far. The birds ate my beets as soon as they came up, and I have been late planting everything. That said, it has been so windy and dry that it has been best not to have a lot of stuff to water right now. The tomatoes and peppers I started inside are finally transplanted and I am hoping to get beans, watermelons and cantaloupes out tomorrow. We got a huge harvest of lettuce and peas today. This year I decided to try planting lettuce thickly instead of in rows and it has really paid off. It shades itself and keeps the moisture sealed in longer. If only I could eat as much lettuce as I am producing.

Expanding Garden

This weekend my friend and co-worker Juan came over to help with the garden. It seems like it is going to be a really good arrangement for both of us. I get company and help in the garden, and since he doesn't have his own gardening space he gets to be involved and paid in food.
It was kind of a cool and blustery day, but we managed to plant another spinach and lettuce bed, beets, radishes, and carrots. The early greens and peas are taking off, and I should probably stake the peas soon. They are starting to send out tendrils and seem healthy despite some pretty warm days.

Indoor Sprouts

This year I decided to start my indoor sprouts a little later. Last year I was so excited that I started a TON of seeds indoors in February. It ended up that in early April they were ready to go outside, but it was still cold and windy. I also started a bunch of things indoors that really can be directly seeded - squash, pumpkins, basil, and other herbs. Our house doesn't have a lot of great light all day (except for the skylights) and I had sprouts on every available surface that was out of reach of the cats.
I am only using two trays this year, and it should be nice and warm by the time they are ready to be transplanted. These two trays are planted with:
-Tabasco Peppers
-Chadwick Cherry Tomatoes
-Lemon Basil
-Golden Jubilee Tomatoes
-Sweet Italian Basil
-Green Zebra Tomatoes (My Favorite)
-Thyme
-Red House Tomatoes
-Tomatillos
-Marjoram
-Jalapenos
-Pimiento
-Emerald Giant Pepper
- Marigolds