Tag Archives: tomatoes

5th Garden Update 2019

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One of our yellow cherry tomatoes is ripening. It’s one of the vines we’re growing in a container on the back porch.
The tomatoes in the garden have babes on the vine, so hopefully we’ll have a few big tomatoes too.
Our chard is beautiful and delicious.
The onion bulbs are getting larger.
The squash and cucumbers vines are starting to bloom.
Something has been eating on the bean vines.
We found a baby bean on one of the luckier bean vines.
Our potato plants are big and healthy and new potatoes are cracking the ground at their base.
Last but not least our peppers are starting to produce. These are orange peppers and will take a many weeks to ripen fully… although they are quite edible at any stage of the growing/ripening time.
So despite our region having hot dry weather, our garden is doing well.
I hope all your gardens are productive.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

 

Baby Cherry Tomatoes

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I planted a couple of cherry tomatoes in containers on my back porch.  The plants are growing beautifully and one has a few babies on it. I hope the plants continue to do well and will produce several cherry tomatoes over the Summer.

Wishing you all a productive week!

 

 

Black Swallowtail Butterfly Egg, 1st tomato & bell pepper, squash and corn

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We made a fennel bed Black Swallowtail Butterfly nursery. I planted parsley and carrots in it because they also like to use it for a nursery too. We put it out near the woods and hopefully far enough from our backporch that the caterpillars will go to the woods to chrysalis.
We’ve anxiously waited for the butterflies to use the fennel bed and we worried that they hadn’t yet.
However Friday I checked the bed and I’m happy to say that there are several Black Swallowtail Butterfly eggs scattered about on the fennel. ~happy dance~We harvested our first tomato and first bell pepper out of the garden. For us, it’s fun harvesting our veggies. We harvested a dozen yellow squash too.Our corn is standing strong and silking beautifully. Hopefully, we’ll have a nice harvest of peaches and cream corn this year.The rains have been a blessing, but I’m glad the forecast is clear for the next few days.

Here’s wishing you all a great rest of the weekend.

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Random Few For Friday

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Talk about late bloomers, my snowball bush has produced
one lovely fluffy pretty bloom.
It’s odd, I think, but pretty neat too.My herb garden has came a long way from when we first started it back in 2016.There’s nothing like homegrown tomatoes!
Yep, that’s the mantra this gardener gardens by. I’ve finished my ‘Joy In The Journey’ cross stitch.
I’m thinking I may make it into a wall
hanging instead of a framed wall picture.
I’m going to leave it on the frame until I decide.

I was surfing around for movies and surfed upon a 70 episode set of ‘One Step Beyond’. I’m familiar with the series from watching a few of the episodes on a video site. I didn’t realized it was based on true stories and was even aired before ‘Twilight Zone’ came along. That impressed me and as it was reasonably priced, I bought it. I’ve not watched but a few of the episodes on the first disc. I plan to watch through the episodes in order. I really enjoy the stories. The stories do give one cause-for-pause to ponder the odd events that happen from time-to-time.

Have a great weekend!

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Deer, Gardening & Shrubs

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There’s a new fawn in the neighborhood. I was able to get a photo of it and its Mom. They’re so pretty.
~*~
Our tomatoes are finally ripening in larger numbers. We like the Roma variety quite well. We eat them like regular tomatoes. They also make delicious juice.Now that our tomatoes are coming in, our squash is coming to an end.Our garden is pretty much at an end. My husband mowed everything down except the tomato, squash and cucumber plants.
~*~
I’ve always wanted a ‘Rose of Sharon’, I was delighted Friday when my husband surprised me with a lovely white one.
Saturday, we went for a ride and found a garden center that was having a 50% to 75% off the shrubs. We bought 2 crepe myrtles, a pink rose of sharon and 2 garden phlox.Sunday evening, We transplanted the shrubs in the yard. I’m in high hopes they’ll thrive and bloom and attract more butterflies. We’re happy to have lucked up on such a good deal.
~*~

I hope you all have a great week.

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Potato Bucket Done, Corn Harvest & a Tomato

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My potato plant was looking poorly and began to turn yellow, so I decided it was time to see if it was productive. I’m happy to report the my potato bucket produced one little potato. Unfortunately, it is too small to eat.  I left the little potato in the garden for any critter that might want a snack.
I don’t think my potato bucket experiment has been a total failure. It solved my curiosity and it produced several blog posts. 😉
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A short time ago, a storm came through and flattened our beautiful corn. About half the crop struggled to stand back up. Some critters feasted on some of the corn. Even though the corn probably needed another few days of ripening, we thought it best to harvest it or we wouldn’t get any to eat.
On the 4th of July we harvested, shucked, blanched, cut-off-the-cob, vacuum packaged and froze 17 bags of corn.
We’re very happy to have the corn frozen and available for many meals to come.
~*~

At last another tomato is finally ripening. It’s so pretty snuggled down in the lush green leaves of the tomato vine. It should be ready soon.

Originally, I kind of wondered if our garden was too small, but it’s proven to be a good size for us. We’ve enjoyed tending our little garden and the veggies are a mighty tasty reward.

Wishing you all a happy harvest!

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Gardening, Potato Buckets & Roses

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Our squash and cucumbers are producing well. Maybe a bit too well.
Our onions have grown well too. The onion patch is almost ready for a complete harvest.
Despite the critters, our beans are trying to produce. Luckily, we had enough for a small cooking of them.
We’re happy to have our first tomatoes, even though they need to sit a few days to completely ripen.
Yep, we are quickly becoming squash poor…  😀
~*~
Our corn is tasseling and getting silky ears. I can hardly wait for the first sweet harvest and cooking.
Our garden is at that special point where it’s not pretty and clean anymore. But it’s producing and that’s the important thing.
~*~
We went ahead and dumped the wilty potato plant bucket out. The plant was rotten down in the bucket. I guess there was something about it that made it fail to thrive.The potato plant in the bucket that we have left is gorgeous. It’s healthy and green and has little buds ready to bloom. Hopefully it’s well on the way to growing a potato or two.
~*~
Recently, we bought a couple of rose bushes.
We haven’t had any in years and thought it might be fun to have some.
Plus they might attract a few more butterflies.…
The ‘yellow hybrid tea rose’ is attracting japanese beetles and insects, but the red ‘knock out’ rose is bug free. I reckon the yellow rose must be sweeter than the red one. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve seen a few japanese beetles in our corn. But now that we have the roses, the corn is beetle free. Honestly, we’re glad the japanese beetles are attracted to the rose and leaving our corn alone. I use the old stomp & squish method to control the japanese beetles. Hopefully, I won’t have to resort to pesticides.~*~
There’s never a dull moment with gardening. It’s a lot of work, but it’s enjoyable work and the rewards are a beautiful bounty.

I hope you all have a pest free week full of beauty and goodness.

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November Tomato Update – a few left

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p1100253Every week there’s a few more of the tomatoes ripening in the bag. When I see they’re almost ripe, I set them on the window sill so I can keep an eye on them.
Putting an  apple in the bag  with the tomatoes trick does work, but you need to keep checking them every couple days.
I can’t get over how pretty they are. I’ve only a few more November tomatoes left. It certainly has been fun having these volunteer tomatoes this late in the season.

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