Mini Sugar, Baby!

I picked the small watermelon from the container. It was easy to cut open and it had a sweet aroma when I cut it in half. The aroma wafted into my nose and I knew it was going to be good. I started cutting into it and had a piece. Delicious! I think I actually waited too long to pick it because I had to cut off a few overly ripe pieces but I got a nice sized bowl of watermelon. 

Smaller of the two container watermelons 

Cut in half.

My sizable bowl of container watermelon, it was so nice and sweet. 

Melons, Finally!

For the last week or so it's been tomatoes and nothing more. At this point I think 20lbs are going to go to waste which is not what I wanted. All of the references said not to go to big but I can say Patch was the perfect size even with the extra containers. Potagar may have been too big with too many tomato plants for our own good. 

Anyway after days and days of just tomatoes and some growth of the other plants but not much because its been unseasonably cool, first rainy, then hot, now cool. This summer has been the worst for a garden but like I was saying after many days of nothing to report I picked a watermelon. It wasn't as big as it should have been but it was ripe and sweet. Pretty awesome coming from a container. 

Getting Ready For Fall

Now that the summer is winding down and things are starting to put out less fruit we are thinking of what we'd like to grow during the fall. My plans for the fall are broccoli, blueberries, cauliflower, and some other favorites. What are your fall garden plans? 

Garden Fall

Fell down the stairs...

After going out in the garden to check on things and harvest whatever was harvestable I took off my garden clothes an shoes and put on my slippers but I didn't put the backs on. I went upstairs to sort my goods into brown bags and the fruit bowl. I gabbed the brown bags I was going to keep for myself and started heading downstairs. I got to the first landing by the sun room door took my first step onto the first basement step and my foot slipped out from under me. Rather than squash my tomatoes I tore up my arm. That's how much I love my "babies" apparently. My right arm is swollen and scratch and my left arm has one scratch and an elbow scrape. We have so many tomatoes I should have let them get squashed but they were the Lemon Boys that everyone including my Mom loves. I'd gathered those for her so I couldn't let them go. 

My harvest of tomatoes, chili peppers, basil, and a cucumber. The 3 lemon boys I wanted to save over my "neck." 

Bowl of our goods collected over the last few days, not the lemons although I so wish. Pretty huh? 

Not the largest but the most painful and swollen of the injuries I sustained. 

Harvesting

The sweet potatoes are finally flowering. They produce beautiful purple flowers that fall off when the potatoes are ready. They open in the morning and close at night. 

Medium cantaloupe hanging on the trellis about 3.5 feet off the ground. The skin is changing slowly, not like the container melons that changed overnight.

Large cantaloupe hanging about one foot off the ground. Skin changing. 

Eggplants of all different shapes and sizes. 

Our first red bell pepper. It has, obviously, yet to turn red but its very exciting to get even one considering that the tomatoes overthrew that box. 

Ready for harvest chili pepper (transferred to PM bed from container). The transfer has done them well we have at least 4 other peppers turning red. 

My full harvest for today; lemon boys, jalapeños, cucumber, tomato-berries, super sweet 100's, and chili pepper.

Summer Virus

Sick...

I have had a pretty serious stomach  virus and head cold for the last few days. It's going around so be careful. I haven't been able to get out into the garden much but yesterday the 4th and one of the better days I went out for a few minutes to check on things and I ended up picking some jalapeño peppers. I gave them to my mom along with a brown paper bag full of large multi colored tomatoes. She's going to make a traditional Honduran  dish called Chimole. It's a cooked tomato salsa-type dish used as a dressing on carne asada and other grilled meats. I can't eat spicy because of my acid reflux but she'll make me a separate batch sans jalapeño. I've never been a big fan which is good because of the condition but I think with my tomatoes and no spice I'll like it, a lot. 

The transferred chilies in PM are finally turning red. The transfer and constant sun has done them well. 

 Yesterday's harvest. We have like 6 or 7 eggplants growing in different stages. This was the only one ready for picking. 

Color change on the chili peppers transferred into the raised bed in Patch.

The number has about doubled since I took this but there are 4 pictured. 

Cantaloupe

Raised Bed Melons...

I took a look in the raised bed filled with just melons, cantaloupes and bush sugar babies. I wanted to see if there were any new watermelons, without holes, growing. I found one and I am happy to report it was hole and bite free. I guess reinforcing that fence, place in the fence, was the thing we needed. As I was looking in the bed for watermelons I found a few hidden cantaloupes, up high, supporting themselves on the tomato vines. The super sweet 100's spread out all over the place so it is only natural that the spreading cantaloupe vines would seek support on the higher parts without trellis support. We have 6 sizable and viable cantaloupes growing at least one foot off the ground, if not more, each. 

Largest to smallest going counter clockwise. Lowest to highest placement going clockwise. With the growth they drag down a bit, gravity and all! 

Cantaloupe in first stage growing on the now transferred, into the Patch raised bed, container cantaloupe plant.

Tomato Woes

Vine Ripened...

So many and no one is eating... Everyone is picking even the ones that aren't ripened fully yet but no one is eating them in a steady enough stream to keep up with harvest. The grocery store charges extra for Vine Ripened Tomatoes and for some reason we're ripening 50% of our crop in a brown bag with a banana. That actually works, which is amazing because fruit that was only slightly red turned bright red, but vine ripened is better, charged for... 

Brown bag 1/3 full of just cherry sized tomatoes. 

Today's harvest, only mine, another 12-15 were picked. 

Small cantaloupe that fell from the container. I cut it open and ate it after smelling its sweet strong aroma. It was sweet and soft and delicious. I couldn't believe I had a ripe edible mini melon. It's pretty cool! 

Weak Spots

Fencing Weak Spots...

When I was out in the garden yesterday I shuffled through the raised bed with melons in it because I wanted to see if we had any signs of watermelon growth and we did. Sadly, they had been bitten into so I decided to find the weak spots in the fence allowing something small in to bite them. I think I found it. It was the start of the fence where I used a insertion poll rather than staples and the wooden polls Mr. S installed. That was the weak spot I found and seems like the only weak spot. When I came out today none of the tomatoes close to the ground had bites taken out of them nor did anything else. Either the animals weren't out last night, not likely because the items on the ground have had bites everyday since ripening started, or the weak spot I chose to reinforce was the "weak spot." I hope by picking the bad melons the plant will put energy into growing new ones and do it soon because watermelons need long hot days and we only have 6 weeks left of summer. 

Harvesting...

I harvested a couple of onions, yellow tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, tomato-berries, and a cantaloupe. The cantaloupe wasn't so much a harvest as a picked from the ground. The larger of the two container cantaloupes finally made its plunge to the ground. I haven't cut it open to see what it looks like yet but my guess is it fell because it was too big and/or as big as it was going to get. I transferred the container melon into the Patch raised bed. Transferred both trellises as well. I forgot to get a picture but ill get one after the rain. Things were wilting and since it was going to rain or was supposed to rain, and did, I didn't want to water or over water. So glad to get some rain, funny how things change. I'm hoping the extra space keeps e container loupe alive. It may not produce but it was so pretty and all of the sudden it wasn't. I'd like to keep it pretty at least for another 6 weeks. 

Today's harvest. B-E-A-utiful!

Melon Bites

Cooking with Gardens...

Mikes parents made the eggplant I picked into eggplant parmesan. I didn't get to taste it but it looked really good. My mom mixed yellow and red cherry tomatoes to make a tri-colored spinach tomato salad. I have yet to use heat with anything but the pickings are good. 

Eggplant Parmesan

Melons have doubled in size over the last two days, even though its been unseasonably cool.

Large flat melon doubled and rounded out.

Today's tomato harvest, my portion, Mikes dad picked a few other earlier.

Small strawberry harvest from 8G bucket. Slowly coming back now that the rain has let up a bit.

Baby watermelons from the raised bed with bite taken out of them. When I saw these I picked them off so that the energy  the plant was putting into trying to grow them would go to growing new ones. I also double enforced what I thought to be the weak spot in the fence allowing animals in to bite them. I hope I'm right because I looked all over for other weak spots and saw nothing so at this point getting full raised bed melons counts on the spot I enforced being it. 

Tomato City

Picking and Bags...

Every time we pick tomatoes we put them in brown paper bags to ripen a little more or if they are ripe just for storage. They seem to keep a lot better that way. If we are ripening them a little more we put a banana in with them and if we're not we don't. Something about the peel helps the process. Anyway, at this point we have 3 brown paper bags full of all different types, shapes, and sizes and I have given a small bag to a friend, 2 small bags to my mom and 1 large bag. We have about 100+ more tomatoes on the vines at different stages of growth and ripeness and 25 of those are ready for picking but we rather them ripen as far as naturally possible on the vine than bring them in to rot. It's amazing! Mike's dad has attempted growing tomatoes in containers every single year since we've been here and every single year they either get eaten or don't ripen. I think that's why he wanted so many plants this year and my green thumb prevailed, even the container ha set forth 3 ripe tomatoes and only keeps growing and ripening. Yah, we over did it a bit but its nice to have some veggies to give away. 

Bag of tomatoes I have to my mom today, with plenty leftover for us. 

Some of what was ready for picking today, definitely not all, I found an pick these in 2 minutes so I could give my mom a few extra Lemon Boys. 

Time After Time

Progression of Gardens...

Over the past few weeks the hot long day plants have been growing wild. I made a point of capturing all the stages of those plants (and others) because there growth has been so obvious and so quick. The raised cantaloupe and watermelon bed started with two 3 inch cantaloupe plants that shot up covered two four foot trellises and kept going. It finally started to fruit at the beginning of last week and boy is it fruiting we have at a least 6 viable melons of all different sizes. My sweet potato slips started off slow finally grew into slips and were transferred with a disappointing "death" and revival. The leaves came in two weeks ago and in the last week the two plants, that I didn't yank out because I thought they were dead, have grow six plus inches in vines. The watermelon container started off slow and didn't grow for weeks then it doubled in size and Tripled and quadrupled all over the bamboo trellis until it started fruiting. When it started fruiting all of the little melons were shriveling up and dying except one. Finally, we got a second one a week ago and now the plant has grown 6-8 inches of vine that I've had to stake because the trellis is full. That vine has a third melon on it. It's tiny but you can tell It is viable and won't be shriveling like the others that have come since the first and second. 

Here is a little pictorial of the plants progression and current state...

First viable Bush Sugar Baby on the first week (L), the 2nd week (top R), and the 3rd week (bottom R). 

The Bush Sugar Baby plant when it was first transplanted from newspaper seedling pots to the recycling bin (L), it doubled in size after no sign of growth for 3 weeks (top R), and now it has covered the trellis and grown vines so long they needed to be staked (bottom R). 

Sweet potatoes over time. The slips finally came out after 8 weeks (L), I planted them in the beginning of the 9th week and the shriveled (top R), and now they are at least 6 inch long vines (bottom R). 

Cantaloupe bed first planted (L), a few weeks later the plants were half way up the two 4 feet tall trellises (top R), and now they are a few inches taller than the trellises (bottom R).  

Cantaloupe bed fruiting. All the different sizes of melons at different stages, currently on the vines. 

Transferred the Pepper Container...

Because the tomato plants have basically taken over all of the neighboring beds the only pepper plant that was doing extremely well was the pepper container. Today I decided that since a bunch of the plots in Patch were now empty that I would transfer the container pepper to give it the space to grow. I took a big chance by guessing that the roots had run out of space and the plant would plop out of the container as a whole. I was right it was like an oversized seedling pot. I turned it over pulled it out and replanted it in the PM raised bed. I watered it with some sea magic and am hoping we get some good sun, which we did today despite the initial clouds dissipated, so that gets the long hot days it needs during this tender time.

Transplanted pepper plant. I thought I had a full photo of it in the container but I didn't, all I had is the top right image of the peppers that started there growth in the container 2 weeks ago. Part of why I thought it needed more space was that the peppers grew quickly then stopped just like my cantaloupe container. 

Melon Baby

Cantaloupe...

The cantaloupes in the raised bed are finally starting to grow in, there are at least 3 of all different sizes. One is flat which is really weird but I'm excited because these should grow to full size. The ones in the container haven't grown for weeks so I picked the smaller of the two so that all the energy went into to growing one. I didn't expect any so getting 2 is amazing and 1 good would would be a miracle considering how small the container is.

Picked container cantaloupe.

Interior of container cantaloupe. 

A second watermelon was hiding under all of the leaves. Pulled it out so that it could get sun. The yellow on the right is where it was touching the ground. 

Zanahoria

Carrots galore...

I pulled up all the carrots today because they were way past there due date and I didn't think they would get any bigger then they already had. It's hard to tell when carrots are ready because there root veggies but I got a pretty good harvest and the smell was amazing. I've never smelled carrots. They had a really strong sweet aroma. It was amazing. Each time I pulled one up it was exciting and surprising. Some were big, medium, and small. You just didn't know what to expect. One was huge. I was shocked when it finally popped out. 

Basket full of carrots and their greens.

Largest carrot in the bunch. 

All of the larger carrots. The far right on top is the most perfect of the bunch. 

Tomato Mania

Intense Heat...

It's been advisory hot outside for the last 4 or 5 days. It's been in the high 90's to the low 100's with a lot of humidity which has been amazing for the tomatoes. Tons of them are ripening on all the plants. I collected at least 10 tomatoes and 2 squash today alone. I took the squash to my moms for her to cook them,like she can only do, for me. Mmmm so good! The heat is miserable but the results are amazing! I hope it stays sunny and fairly hot, maybe just maybe, not advisory hot but tomato hot. 

Today's collection! The yellow is a lemon boy. The small ones are tomato-berries.

Cooked squash with onions. 

Fuzzy Tiger

Held Hostage...

When I see an insect that scares me I always freeze up, especially when I'm inside. I am terrified of caterpillars. When I was 4 I went to NCRC a beautiful mansion transformed into a preschool with expansive grounds covered in blackberry trees and caterpillar nests. I used to like the little gypsy moth larvae they entertained me up until that faithful day when one fell on my tennis shoe and I froze. It was the first occurrence of me freezing at the sight of these fuzzy creatures and I didn't know what to do. I felt like I couldn't pick him off, even though I held them all the time up until then, and started shaking my foot. The thing was stuck. I started to panic and shook harder and harder with a final dramatic fling and I'm sure eminent death. Since then I've been phobic when it comes to any caterpillars so when I intended to check on container drive this morning and saw a fuzzy brown caterpillar sitting in the middle of the walk, my only path, I froze. I felt like I was being held hostage. I couldn't walk over to the drive and I didn't want to let him out of my sight for fear that he'd find his way inside or into my plants where he'd "get me" later. So I stood there frozen thinking of how to get rid of him. Finally I saw the yard stick and grabbed it. I slowly approached the fuzzy worm with the stick and pushed him a bit to see if he would attempt a mad dash. He didn't. I actually think he was dead; dropped by some evil bird to frighten me. After pushing him around for another second or two to check the status of life I chopped him. Guts shot out so I felt comfortable that he was dead and flung him, with the stick, under the table where he'd shrivel and disappear out of sight. 

I moved into container drive slowly, just in case more were about. I checked the containers then ran inside. I was still too thoroughly creeped out to stay out. When I got inside I looked up "brown fuzzy caterpillar" and got "wooly bear", a lot, which was incorrect but then I found out that it was a garden tiger moth larva. Gross! I'm starting to think that gardens attract too many gross worm varieties for my particular phobia. 

Garden tiger moth or some other variety of tiger moth larva.

Eggplant grew another inch overnight. 

Darker and darker! This sugar baby should be ready in a couple weeks! 

Pepino

Ripe for the picking...

I went out early this morning to try with the squash again but it was overcast and sunny in short intervals so the flowers weren't open again. I looked around the bottom after giving up on stigma rubbing and noticed that the crookneck plants are taking over the patty-pan space and some of the space in the cantaloupe bed. We do have some nice medium crooknecks growing so some cross-pollination is taking place between the crookneck flowers but the patty-pan has not only been invaded but hasn't grown anymore fruit, at all. 

After checking on the squash I went over to Container Drive to check on the watermelon, cucumbers, eggplant, strawberries, and peppers. I looked into the cucumber container and saw a medium size cuc was ready for the picking. For some reason I shuffled the leaves and an enormous cucumber popped into vision. I was amazed. The container is half the size recommended for growing cucumbers but keeps producing and produced a cucumber more like the store sized ones. I picked it, it was ready and took them inside. After that I went back pick a strawberry and took a few pictures of the progressing melon and eggplant. 

Since it's been sunny and extremely hot the last two days I decided to water everything with sea magic and spray the foliage. I made a gallon of sea magic mix in a pitcher for the spray bottle and made 6 gallons of sea magic in the water can (at separate times). I watered and sprayed everything then went inside to shower. After my shower I took out the ripening tomatoes I picked yesterday and snap a flick of the last two days hull. Our harvests are looking better and better. We would have had more tomatoes today if I was scared to pick them because of the hornworm. I even had a nightmare about it. Ugh! 

2 days worth of harvest. 

Our first eggplant has grown almost an inch each day for the last 3 days. 

Largest cucumber, yet, peeled and chopped. 

Watermelon 5 inches wide and 4 long. It's starting to really weigh down the branch. It probably weighs 2.5lbs.