These are two of the three trays of tomatoes that need to be canned.  Aren’t they beautiful?  They are all heirloom tomatoes.  The smaller ones are a paste type tomato, good for canning, and the big yellow ones are pineapple tomatoes.  The pineapple tomatoes are yellow on top and red on the bottom.  The big red ones are some kind of heirloom, whose name I have forgotten, and the pinkish ones are Brandywine pink.  I should start over with fresh seeds next year, so I can be more precise with the names of them.  If it really matters….

 

I picked 40 tomatoes on Tuesday, and we spent the afternoon blanching and canning them.  It was so much fun.  We love working as a team in the kitchen.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

When we were in the garden, Joseph was fascinated with this bumblebee “doing its job.”

 

We must have watched it for 5 minutes, dipping into the rattlesnake bean flowers.  

 

I love sharing the magic of Nature with my friends, especially the young ones.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

Photo: compliments of Grammy

 

My friends came up to the garden the other day, to pick some kale, zucchini, and tomatoes.  

 

Joseph (who is almost 8 years old) was so excited about everything in the garden.  He loved seeing all the tiny green beans, tomatillos, and the butternut squashes.  He also enjoyed picking cherry tomatoes.  He even told me that “this is the best garden I’ve ever seen.”  

 

Maybe he will remember Miss Gerry’s garden, and become a fabulous gardener someday.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

When I was inspecting the garden on Friday, I looked up into this tomato plant and saw the damage.  The leaves were chewed off at the top of the stem.  Oh No!!!  I knew what that meant:  tomato hornworm.  So I started looking for it, and there it was, just a couple leaves down from the damaged ones.  

 

So I cut off the stem (so I wouldn’t have to look at it anymore) and here is the hornworm.  YAK!!!  It was almost as big as my index finger.  

 

As I continued along the row of tomatoes, I found evidence of another one (you know the moth doesn’t lay just one egg.)  So I looked and found another hornworm.  Just as big as the first one.

 

I know they are part of the food chain, and some bird may go hungry, but I can’t support that kind of wildlife in my garden.  They will have to live somewhere else.  But not these two:  I squished them.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

 

These are called Autumn Beauty sunflowers.  Aren’t they fabulous?  

 

They are about 10 feet tall, and just keep blooming.  We’ve seen hummingbirds and gold finches visiting them.  The bees probably come too, but they are up so high we can’t see them.

 

The garden is so pretty right now, mostly because of the sunflowers.  

 

Try growing your own sunflowers.  A package of seeds costs $3.00, and all you have to do is poke the seeds in the ground.  Be sure to check the package for height.  Not everybody has room for 10 foot plants.  But they grow so easily, anybody can do it.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

The Butternut squashes are coming right along.  I planted seeds from last year’s squash next to the tomato cages, and nearly all of them have come up and started growing squashes.  This squash is about 10 inches long, and the vines are all climbing the cages.  I plant the squash seeds on the north side of the tomato cages, so those giant leaves don’t shade the tomatoes.  

 

The squashes take about 90 days to mature.  Let’s see, I planted them on May 4th, so we can harvest them in August, when the skins turn that pretty buff color.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

This is what garlic looks like when it comes out of the ground.  Not too pretty.

 

We have to let it cure in a dry, well-ventilated space for a couple weeks.  Then we can cut off the tops and the roots, and strip off that dirty layer of skin.  

 

You will be surprised when I show you the finished harvest.  Stay tuned.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

I know this is a funny looking picture, but I want you to see the difference in dill berries and dill seeds.

 

The seeds have turned brown.  Not exactly the same as the beautiful green berries worthy of a crystal vase.

 

But they are important.  This is next year’s dill crop.  And, now is the time to start sowing the seeds.  Dill is a hardy annual, and the seeds that fall on the ground now will wait for the spring to germinate.  So I can start sprinkling dill seeds all around and next year in April and May they will start coming up.  How easy is that?

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Remember the Romanesco cauliflower?  The weird cauliflower with the green spiral curds?

 

Well, we harvested two heads, and within a week, they started to bolt.

 

You can see the green spirals down low near the leaves, but look up above them and you can see that each spiral is growing a stem.  I had no idea what would happen, but I guess this is logical.  Cauliflower does this too if you leave it in the ground too long.  Just like broccoli, it grows stems under the buds, then the flowers open.  

 

I tasted the stems, and they aren’t too tough to eat, so I guess I can still harvest these weird cauliflowers.  It was interesting and fun, once.  But I think I will stick to white cauliflower, preferably a variety that is slow to bolt.

 

 

LIVE AND LEARN!!!

 

Ever wonder what broccoli left too long looks like?  Well, those little flower buds that we call a head of broccoli are really flower buds that haven’t bloomed out yet.  You can see some unopened buds;  they are green, and the flowers are yellow.

 

You will never see a broccoli like this in the grocery store, but you can eat the opened flowers.  They taste like…broccoli.

 

This is why we plant broccoli.  Because we like to eat the whole plant:  the leaves, the buds, and the flowers.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!