2012 Veg Garden October Magic

There are two dozen or so fruits on the full size plants and dozens more on the cherry size plants left ripening after today's harvest and we are scheduled to get one inch of rain over several days this week so it looks like this season's tomatoes will give us at least one more magical basket of goodness. The hose water is just no match to our rain water and with this drought I am surprised they have done so well and think the rain will be just what they need to finish out the season with a mid October harvest!

2012 Veg Garden Winding Down

There may be one more basket like this one before the 2012 Veg Garden offers up it's last morsel. This fall has proven a little too busy to try for a late planting not to mention too dry, the driest since they started keeping track. A fairly wet spring and early summer means we are technically still a few inches above average on the year but since it's been 70+ days without more than .03 of an inch of rain that's little consolation.

2012 Veg Garden Tomato Bounty

From one tomato last week to glorious bounty this week. We're going to break out the dehydrator and see how well it works for making sun dried tomatoes. In the meantime those sweet gold nuggets are addictive and don't last long once they ripen.

2012 Veg Garden Perfection

This red jewel is the first of the heirlooms to ripen. Finally the carrots are big enough to harvest. I'm not sure what happened but it's taken from the spring planting until now. This little guy is a mini and is so very sweet! Despite what turned out to be a devastating case of powdery mildew the on the winter squash side of the garden the summer squashes are still coming.

2012 Veg Garden Late Summer Harvest

Purple broccoli, yellow and zucchini squash, green beans, cherry and early girl tomatoes make up this basket. The purple broccoli has a smaller, looser crown than typical green varieties and the green bean bush is performing very well considering it was planted in July. Despite the numerous flowers in the winter squash patch there is only one pumpkin and no sign at all of a butternut. Better luck next year I guess.

2012 Veg Garden Tomayto Tomahto

Either way they're here! These yellow sweeties along with similar sized gold nuggets are the smallest and first to ripen. Both bushes, comprised of 2-3 seedling plants shown in a blog posting in May, are just packed with fruits. The larger early girls, siletz and heirloom plants are also full of green beauties and all are still flowering. These yellow sweeties are very sweet with delicate skins while the gold nuggets are a bit more acidic with a more sturdy skin.

2012 Veg Garden TOMATOES!

These are the earlygirls. All of the varieties have fruits now.
I'm most excited about the heirlooms, their flavor is outstanding.
Just a few weeks now to a garden fresh spinach, basil and tomato salad.

2012 Veg Garden Mid-Season

Just entering the warmest part of the season now so we picked up a bale of straw to spread under the plants and over the soaker hose. You can see the bush beans finally decided to grow, we'll see if they produce. Next pic will be all dressed up.

2012 Veg Garden Tomato Update

The tomatoes LOVE the plastic covered cages! After the last two seasons, which we call tomatogeddon, we are thrilled with the progress. We started from seed a bit late so they are still small for the date but there are already flowers so I am sure we will get fruit none the less. Sweety, gold pear, Siletz and an heirloom rainbow blend along with one earlygirl all made the cut to the garden.

2012 Veg Garden Tomatoes Are In.

Along with bush beans, pumpkins and yellow cucumbers. This year we're inter-planting with beneficial flowers. Sunflowers line the cucumber bed E to W for shade, marigolds to fend off bad bugs and zinnia to lure in good bugs. Summer temps are still in the wings so thanks to a tip from Cisco we've wrapped the tomato cages with 1mil plastic secured on the side with duct tape, dirt at the bottom and a tie at the top which allows us to drop the whole tube to the ground during the day. The strawberries are ripe!

2012 Veg Garden Starts are Underway

5 different tomato varieties along with summer squashes, lemon cucumber, pumpkin, purple broccoli, carrots, radish, lettuce, spinach, garlic chives, cilantro, basil, thyme and oregeno. I am hoping the end of la nina will equal a good tomato harvest.