It's the middle of June and the star of the show? Why the tomatoes, of course!
But, not for long I am afraid! It looks like this weekend I will be trimming back the tomato plants to try to salvage the baby maters that are left on the plants. The stink bugs have gotten so bad, and the heat and humidity are taking their toll. It's not likely that any more of the blooms will set fruit. :-( So with a heavy heart the plants will be pruned to only what is left with fruit set. Then new plants will be started. I think I'm going to look into more determinate varieties for the fall and for next year. I've got 18 plants and still not getting as many tomatoes as I should be getting. That is just not right, and I am not happy about it. I should have enough of them to make several batches of sauce already, not just one. *pout*
Other harvest this week include my first ever pole beans! (Thanks Daphne!) It's a whopper of a harvest, too. 2 beans. Yup. Count 'em again. 2 beans. :-D Ah, well. It IS over 90 each day now so I don't know if they will set in this heat or not. But, I tried anyway. I got 2 beans so not a complete and utter failure, right? Besides, I absolutely *love* watching them climbing the poles and the corn stalks in the garden. I hope that next year the pole beans will go in earlier and have a permanent place in both my spring and fall rotations.
1lb 5.8oz cucumbers 6.4oz zucchini and 8 cayenne peppers for .7oz round out this weeks tally. With the heat the garden is pulling back. It's time for things to start changing up again but meanwhile a lot of the harvest will fall off. I'm just hoping to limp by for a couple weeks here until the next wave of harvest pick up. I know that the limas will bloom soon, and the tomatillos skin will split and be ready for harvest. Meanwhile it's hot and humid so I'm staying busy inside!
'Till next time!
Barbie~
What a beautiful bowl full of tomatoes. I think my first green bean harvest will also be a whopping two beans, but there will be more than that eventually. I can't imagine having two seasons of tomatoes! As far as I know, determinates are the way to go for sauce. They ripen mostly all together, which helps when you need a lot to get a batch going!
ReplyDeleteThis tomato's look great! Don't give up hope! Maybe you will still get more beans!!
ReplyDeleteWe can take your 2 pole beans and my 3 snow peas and feed the gnome family living in my dead fig tree.
ReplyDeleteThe tomatoes look wonderful! I never even thought about the fact that you could have two tomato seasons down there.
ReplyDeleteI just have to laugh Barbie. Two whole beans. I grew runner beans last year and even our summer was too hot then. They grew beautifully all summer long, but wouldn't set any beans until the fall. I ate them as shelling beans since I couldn't let them dry. But my regular beans can take out "heat". Yeah we don't usually get a lot of heat. Tomatoes and beans can set all summer long.
ReplyDeleteYour tomatoes look so delicious. I'm sure I won't get any until the end of July.
Beautiful maters! I'll add my handful of tiny pickling cucumbers to the meal for the gnomes living in Brie's fig tree. Only one pickling plant survived...I'll never get enough cukes to pickle. I've been ripping out tomato plants today..many are done and diseased. I still have two varieties setting fruit, so will see how they go. I highly recommend the Black Moor grape tomato...they just keep on going.
ReplyDeleteTomatoes already? And we live in the same country? Same time zone? :-) They do look bountiful and beautiful.
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice big bowl of tomatoes. Sorry about the stinkin bugs! They are a pain sometimes aren't they? Hope you get more beans!
ReplyDeleteWow, look at all of those tomatoes! You're getting me excited!
ReplyDeleteA beautiful tomato harvest. Hopefully when the weather gets cooler all your plants will start to produce heavily again.
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