We have many green tomatoes but we also suspect we'll have the blight again before we harvest. It's been taking over Long Island already. I can't believe we'll lose another year of tomato crop thanks to Home Depot.
The bunny does a lap around the garden every morning, seeking a way in. J. says he knows how to clean/prepare one. But I don't think he wants to catch it. I haven't eaten meat in nearly 20 years but I would actually eat that rabbit if we could catch it.
(07-06-2010 09:34 AM)catsnotkids Wrote: [ -> ]I haven't eaten meat in nearly 20 years but I would actually eat that rabbit if we could catch it.
ROFL That made me LOL!!! I do understand your frustration.
What is tomato blight? And how did Home Depot cause it?
Holy crap! I had not heard of that before. Good article. I started all but two of my tomato plants from seed... I guess that cuts my chances down, but yeah, it's been rainy and if it's everywhere like that article says it is, I'm worried!!!!
I was out there yesterday and noticed the leaves looked curled up, but I chalked that up to having not watered the garden the day before and a STOOPIT hot summer day. The ground was parched. I soaked the garden so hopefully that's all it was.
OH! Looky here what was in the Hamilton paper today:
http://www.thespec.com/go/living/article/816320
An article about how urine is a great thing to add to a composter! LOL I'd been reading that, and I'm on fire for composting, but I think it would just be easier if I were a guy. I'm not exactly going to pee in a bucket, then carry it out to the composter. HAHA!
How is everyone's garden going? Mine is A FRIGHT!!!! It's overrun with weeds. I'm either going to weed like a madman tonight or spray on the RoundUp I bought. Everyone (except for CNK) on my Facebook is giving me a really hard time about using a chemical herbicide. I get it. I know it's bad. I just don't know what else to do. It's beyond out of control.
Please weed and not use Round-Up.
Return it to the store.
Pretty please!
I dumped a several inch thick layer of grass clippings into my garden as a mulch. The only weeds I have to pull is where the stems exit the soil (I left that part bare so I'd know where to put the water).
My cukes are growing too fast. I can't seem to pick them before they're a bit too ripe. One day they look good and the next they're huge and yellowing. I have a few green tomatoes, but haven't got any ripe ones yet, but it's been super hot here. I think my plants won't produce new fruit until it stops getting over 90F every day.
We picked two tomatoes today! Our first big ones. We've had cherry tomatoes for about 2 weeks now. The tomatoes are starting to come on strong - there are several more right behind these and MANY more to come.
We've been eating peppers for about 2 weeks now as well and squash for nearly a month, but the squash seems to have reduced it's production schedule. The broccoli continues delicious - we're on side shoots now.
I harvested basil about a month ago (early!) for pesto and we've still got a couple of other plants producing.
I couldn't put the RoundUp in the veggie garden... I was out there manually weeding and Eli and Tommy (the neighbourhood cat) were in there. Tommy was chasing a frog and Eli was just sitting pretty smack in the middle of the garden the whole time I was out there. I have no fence around it and there is no way to keep them out, never mind I didn't know I had frogs living in my garden. I can't in good conscious put down pure poison where animals go. Never mind it might kill my veggies that I worked so hard to get going.
The garden is a fright. I weeded for a full hour -- a full wheelbarrow full of some weeds nearly knee-high. Ugh. It doesn't look like I did anything at all. I was in a terrible mood, though, and I knew some manual labour outside would do me some good and clear the cobwebs. Seriously, within about five minutes, I was in a much better mood. The sun was shining those big gorgeous rays from behind a cloud, and the temperature was perfect. So weeding was kind of therapeutic in that regard.
All my tomato plants on the one side of the garden have green tomatos on them. They are cute -- you can see which ones are Roma and which ones are not. I am so pleased about that. Several heads of lettuce are good to go too, so like I said at the beginning -- if I could get one salad out of the garden this year, I would consider it a success. I'm already declaring it a success. LOL
Bad news - J's brother has tomato blight!!! And J spotted some on one of our plants. Tragedy strikes two years in a row. Too depressing for words.
Jo - you can advertise for weeding help on craig's list. Amazingly there are people willing to do work like that for $10/hour. I'd happily pay that so I don't have to do it. I hate weeding.
The main reason I gave up my veggie garden was because of weeding. I just can't spend an hour on my knees or bent over pulling weeds. It kills my back.
We have really bad Creeping Charlie and takes over everything if you're not out there pulling it almost every single day.
This year, we opted for a few planters on the deck however, they are not doing well. The tomato plant had two flowers on it about two weeks ago but they fell off. The herbs are in the same way. Not good at all. The only thing that's doing really well is the basil. The parsley, thyme and cilantro (which I HATE - DH planted that) are not doing well at all.
Oh well. I'll try again next year. I should have tons of tomatoes by now but I have not had one.
Reduce weeding:
- mulch walkways and paths and around plants ( I use cardboard on walking paths, look up other mulches)
- mulch around plants ( newspapers, grass clippings and more)
- intensive planting ( ie square foot gardening, french intensive, etc) ( dense planting of the plants you want makes for a smaller garden and shades out weeds)
- pick weeds when small ( I have 3 large gardens and do about an hour of weeding per week for each garden and alternate the weeks (ie 1 hour per week))
The cherry tomatoes are taking over, lots of fruit ready and more green ones.
I have never had luck with zucchini, but there is one with a 10 inch one, we should harvest this one soon. Japanese Cucumber had one fruit which shriveled, but there is another one growing. The heirloom tomatoes are not as productive as the cherry ones, but have a decent amount of fruit, all green for now, though.
The pumpkin squash is doing really well(at least I think it's from the seed I got from my friend...)and flowers will start to grow soon.
The red sunflower may be blooming tomorrow in time for the housewarming party!
Cassia, I did not use the Round Up. I couldn't. You are right, it goes against everything I believe in. It's funny how you can be talked into stuff so easily when you are looking at a weed infestation of epic proportions.
So I've sadly basically neglected the garden. The weed situation is making me want to cry. We've been having a few back-to-back heatwaves, and I can't go out there in this heat. I'm really rather ashamed of myself.
That being said, I just went out there and waded in among the knee deep weeds and picked these:
They are Heirlooms and Romas. They are 100% herbicide free and both of these were grown from seed and lovingly cared for by me up until the weeds killed my spirit. LOL I think some of them might be organic seeds -- I'd have to check the packs, but I'm 99% sure the heirlooms are.
I'm looking forward to breakfast tomorrow. I'm going to have a toasted tomato sandwich.
OH OH OH! And get this -- I was a bit concerned that if I did get a bumper crop (might not happen this year) where would I put all my food? And yesterday I got up bright and early before the heat hit, and went yard saling in Welland. I got a CHEST FREEZER (mini, apartment sized! Like the size of a kitchen stove) for $30. It's practically new, a high efficiency one! Carried the damn thing in from the car by myself even! LOL
Things are looking up, even if the weeds did get me down.
Your tomatoes look great! Still not ONE tomato on my plants this year. Oh well...better luck next year.
I just ate that really red Roma (the one on the top of the pic)... it was DELICIOUS!!! OMG so flavourful!
The skin is really tough though. I wonder why that is?
"Some varieties of tomatoes are selectively bred for commerical reasons to have tougher than normal skins. Partly to make a tougher fruit that can stand up to automated harvesting machinery without being turned into soup, and partly as an attempt to counter cracking and splitting. Maybe you should remember what breed you used this year, and try another variety next time around.
Another reason for a tougher than normal skin in varieties that normally do not have it is environmental - water and weather fluctuations can cause the skin and outer layer of flesh to be thicker and tougher, especially when it has been hot and dry for an extended time."
http://www.helpfulgardener.com/phpBB2/vi...php?t=6049
I think it must be environmental, because the Romas and the Lemon Boys are both tough, and shouldn't be. A lot of the leaves on my plants this year looked scorched or burned. I thought it might be blight after what CNK said, but my neighbour (who is a gardener herself) took a look and said it was scorched by the hot sun. It's also insanely windy out here, and I think the plants hardened up.
I'm just happy I'm harvesting anything, and that no critters got to it, and that the weeds didn't overrun it. LOL
You might want to wait until your tomatoes are more ripe to pick them. They should be really red and fall right off into your hand - you shouldn't have to work the stem hard to get it off.
As for Round-Up - we don't use it in our garden, ever. Never near food. We use it in the cracks of our driveway and sidewalk and in the flower garden.
BTW that green one is actually meant to be green -- it's that weird heirloom variety! All of them are pretty ripe, the orangey ones on the placemat are also heirloom, and were perfectly ripe for my toasted tomato sandwich this morning! Weird colours... I'm used to my tomatos being red, too! This is my first year ever trying heirloom.