Turning Over the Veggie Garden.

We've had our first frost here at The Edge and it did a number on the tomato plants.

They started to die back.

The tomatoes that were left on the vine were also damaged.

I picked the few that were ripe and ate them (they were not as good as earlier season tomatoes). I know some people will pick the green tomatoes and try to get them to ripen after the plants die back but I have enough fresh, peak season tomatoes frozen that I don't feel the need to do that.

Since the last tomatoes were not great and the plants were damaged I just went ahead and hauled them out, cleaning up the bed for fall.

I'm not big on fall crops but I didn't want to leave the bed bare so I put in some colorful Swiss Chard to liven things up a bit until the snow flies. 

I also put in some bulbs: hyacinths, daffodils and crocus. I'm treating them as annuals that will perk things up early in the spring but will be done by the time it's tomato planting season again. The veggie bed is right near our main entrance to the house so they'll give me a LOT of enjoyment and I'll have enough that I can pick some to take to work without feeling like I'm reducing the pleasure in the garden (if that makes sense).

Now I have to teach my neighbor how to plant bulbs. Last year she bought a few and planted one in each hole, spaced out evenly like it says on the package directions. The image above is how I do it. Guess which looks better in the spring.

This year I got all my bulbs from Messelaar Bulb Company, they're about 10 or 15 minutes up the road and when you walk in you're blown away by both the selection and quality of the bulbs. Or, at least, I am. It's hard to walk out without quite the armload. I've done a tulip bulb run, a daffodil bulb run and I still have to go back for the late arriving Amaryllis bulbs (for forcing, indoors). They should be in soon.... I better dig out my Amaryllis pots!

Tomatoes September Update

The weather is starting to turn cooler and we're still short on rainfall but my tomatoes keep on producing!

I have plenty of ripe ones.

Plenty of not-yet-ripe ones.

And this is today's harvest (sorry for the wonky color - I'm taking a Photoshop class this winter that I hope will mean better quality pictures on this blog next summer). I'm only harvesting once or twice a week but I'm getting about this much each time. Plenty to eat and plenty to freeze. This doesn't include all of the small tomatoes that I munch on while in the garden, is there anything better than working in the garden and wandering over to the veggie bed for a quick snack? Mmmmm.....

It's September

Welcome to September. For many gardeners September is a great month with cooler temperatures and a second planting season. For me, my garden is starting to go downhill, I'm back at work [trying to convince college students that are only taking science because they have to that Biology really is cool!] and Winter Is Coming.

But it's not all doom-and-gloom. Yet. I still have tomatoes ripening.

My Buddleia, butterfly bushes, are just past their peak (with a patch of Gaura to the right) but still attracting butterflies.

My Sambuncus (Elderberry) Black Lace is looking gorgeous and the birds are nibbling on the berries.

The view against the side fence is fabulous but hard to photograph because the neighbor's house is white. It really needs a paint job - do you think I can convince them to change the color so I get better photographs? Left to right - Physiocarpus, Ninebark Diablo, Buddleia evil ways and Paniculum virgatum, switchgrass Cloud Nine

Lacecap Hydrangea, possibly Lady in Red, past her peak but still handsome

Hard to photograph but this is Thalictum, Meadow Rue (afraid I don't know the variety) growing up over the edge of the deck (as planned).

My experiment with Palms in pots got mixed results. The palms grew but also got some sunburn. I think I'll try something different next year. The New Guinea impatients in the bottom did very well (they're pinker than they appear)

That's my garden as the month changes. How's yours doing?

Tuesday Tomato Review

Now that all of my tomato plants are in full production I thought it was a good time to review the varieties that I tried this year and think about what I'm going to do next year.

This is one day's harvest. I don't get this much EVERY DAY, usually it takes 2-3 days to build up to this. Is that a humble enough brag? These were picked the day after we got an inch of rain - notice the splitting.

First up: Baby Boomer

Plant

Tomato

This plant was the first to produce fruit. The early fruit didn't have a strong flavor (not like grocery store tomatoes, bland compared to some of my other plants) but they've improved over the summer. They've continued to produce a large amount of fruit with no signs of diseases. I will probably plant this one again next year.

Next: Brandy Boy

Plant

[can you tell I spent the morning chopping up and freezing tomatoes? And that I hadn't gotten to work in the garden yet (no dirt under the nails? horror!)]

Tomato

This is supposed to be an improved version of Brandywine, with more disease resistance and more fruit (I grew Brandywine one year and got ONE tomato off the plant. I think it needs longer summers than we get here in New England, all my choices this year were listed as "short season" plants)

I didn't have any ripe ones when I took these pictures (I had harvested already and froze down that day's Brandy Boys). They do have some disease issues and the tomatoes go over quickly. The taste is excellent but they don't produce much so I have mixed feelings about this one. First tomato: Aug. 1.

Next: Fresh Salsa

Plant

Tomato

Reject. Lots of meat in the fruit but late starting and very bland. Might as well buy canned tomatoes. Definitely not planting again.

Next: Honey Bunch

Plant

Tomato

Relatively early fruiter, very productive, good taste. Will plant again.

Next: Magic Mountain

Plant

Tomato

Good taste, solid performer, prolific. First fruit Aug 1. Will plant again next year.

Next: Napa Grape

Plant

Tomato

EXCELLENT. Early fruit and prolific. Great Taste. I prefer the taste of the smaller tomatoes to most medium and large sizes. These are great to snack on while I'm working in the garden. Definitely will plant again.

Next: Patio Princess

Plant

Tomato

First fruit July 22. Not strongly flavored but a nice compact plant that produces plentiful fruit. Not high on my list for next year but if I wanted a tomato for a pot this would be a good choice.

Next: Summer Girl

Plant

Tomato

First fruit July 22, acidic but good taste. The lower leaves are dying back now, I don't think that's a sign of anything other than that it's late summer and The Husband failed to water the week I was gone. It's a maybe for replanting.

Last Up: Sunchocola

Plant

Tomato

FANTASTIC flavor in a brownish tomato. Prolific. First fruit July 22. A must for replanting.

In Summary. I planted 9 plants on May 3 (gasp! So early for north of Boston! My neighbors gossip about me because of this. I'm actually serious. They don't plant until after Memorial Day. In the 5 years I've lived here we haven't had a May frost in my yard but they remember when May frosts were common. Yet another sign of global climate change.). I ordered the plants as starts from Burpee and was pleased with the quality when they arrived.

I planted in a raised bed with purchased garden soil, purchased compost (some cow manure, some mushroom), and composted leaf mold (self composted). I watered on an as needed basis with a soaker hose. The plants were fertilized when planted with Neptune's Harvest Fish Fertilizer and have not been fed since. 

I dug extra large holes, filled them with water, let them drain then filled then with the diluted fish fertilizer and let them drain again before planting.

Next year I will most likely order plants from Burpee again. Specifically Brandy Boy, Honeybunch, Mt. Magic, Napa Grape and Sunchocola. Since the 9 plants did so well despite the crowding I will probably try three of four new varieties to bring me back up to 8 or 9 plants. We'll see if my freezer supply lasts all winter or not.

I have to say I am QUITE PLEASED with my garden this year.

Got any recommended varieties?

Tomato Tuesday

Harvest day.

I'm harvesting more tomatoes than we can eat so I've started freezing tomatoes about every other day.

Yum.

Tomato Update

My tomatoes are doing very well. I'm picking (and eating) daily.

My favorite variety this year is called Sunchocola (from Burpee). Delicious flavor and unusual dark "chocolate" color.

Most of my varieties have produced at least SOME fruit, a few are not yet ripe.

Soon I'll have to start freezing some for the winter (gosh, darn, fresh from the vine, frozen tomatoes do great in chili and spaghetti sauce and soups all winter).

First Tomatoes!

On Friday I picked the first tomatoes of the year! Finally.

Baby Boomer Hybrid Cherry Tomatoes

My neighbors make fun of me every year when I plant tomatoes so early (the mantra up here is not until after Labor Day - it's tradition, the way it's always been done).

To them I say nyah, nyah, nayah. They're still weeks away from getting theirs.

To myself I cringe, realizing that my early planted tomatoes that do well EVERY YEAR are a sign of The Oncoming Storm of Global Climate Change.

On a more cheerful note - these were tasty after a winter of not having fresh tomatoes.

Sorry, Husband, you'll have to wait for the next ones to ripen.

Support Your Garden

I have a chronic problem that plants in my garden grow larger than the tag predicts (and larger than the same plants in the garden down the street... I think it's because of the ritual sacrifice I do every spring). Sometimes these plants get so large they need support. If I was a controlling (and organized) gardener I would cut them back half way through the growth cycle so they ended up shorter.

I'm not that controlling (organized).

These are the plants that get too big for plant hoops.

So I'm experimenting. My Baptisia (that I wouldn't want to cut back anyway, it blooms too early) gets top heavy and in strong rains it tends to flop over - I'm trying chicken wire with the hope that new growth will grow THROUGH the chicken wire and hide it. We'll see.

My October Skies Aster (either Aster or Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) could be cut back. But I love it's oversized exuberant blooms in the late fall. I'm trying the square tomato cages. They're nearly invisible already, we'll see if they can carry the load.

Speaking Typing of tomatoes... They're always problematic. I got this idea from a neighbor. Tomato cages combined with stakes. The cages support the lower branches and the stakes are to support the weight of the tall plant. It worked when we did our community garden and had 8 foot tall tomatoes so it should work here.

Now we just wait and see which ones work and which ones look least annoying.

Or I could get on the ball and cut things back. 

Just not the tomatoes. 

Or the Baptisia. 

Hmmm... I think I'm sensing a problem...

Veggie Garden Update

Memorial Day weekend is the traditional time for gardeners in my area to put in tomato plants. Traditionally Memorial Day has been about the time of average date of last frost. 

Global Climate Change is making a mockery of tradition. If you average data for the past 20 years the average date of last frost has been around May 10. In the five years I've lived here we haven't had a significant frost in the month of May.

Since I didn't know the tradition of waiting till Memorial Day when I moved here I looked up the average date of last frost and used that as a guide. And because, when it comes to spring planting, I have the patience of a Jack Russel Terrier puppy I usually plant a bit early.

Memorial Day weekend and MY tomatoes are blooming. Yum. How long after pollination till we get fruit? Good thing I plant a lot of other things to attract pollinators so I should have a high pollination rate, and lots of tomatoes.

LOTS of tomatoes.

Do you think The Husband and I can eat everything produced on ALL NINE of these plants? Don't worry. I have plans for freezing enough to get us through the next long New England winter.