Spring/Summer Gardens 2015 Part 3

Until the husk splits you can't tell what color they are. I pick mine when the husk splits sometimes I wait until the husk starts to dry. When they start to really come in just pick them. Lol

You guys are awesome! Looks like we'll harvest a few tomatillos tomorrow!

stephanietx
what variety of tomatillos are you growing?
Do you have more than one plant?

Stephanie,
"yellowing or fading is waiting too long..."

Think of how you pick an eggplant. Bright and shiny is at its best -- dull eggplants are old and bitter.

Of course, we are talking about tomatillos here, LOL! But, I think you get the idea...

Drthor, this year, we planted 2 Morado (purple) tomatillos. They're about the size of a large marble or just about quarter size. The plants did amazing during the rains and continued to set fruit like crazy.

Here's my first tomatillo harvest, along with some jalapenos, a tomato, and 3 teeny tiny strawberries that didn't make it inside.

Finally the first OFFICIAL ripe tomato of the season, the one i had to emergency pick a few days ago because of cracking doesnt count, i think ;) lol!

And if these Jimmy Nardello peppers get any larger i will be able to use them for baseball bats! (the photo really doesnt show their size all that well, two of them have to be at least 8" long

Also got a shot of a bee checking out my borage plants, basically a "dumb luck" shot for me though, because i was struggling with getting my camera to NOT focus on background objects, lol.

stephanietx,
is this your tomatillo:
http://www.victoryseeds.com/tomatillo_purple.html
Your tomatillo are huge.
You need to have 2 plants right?
jmc1987 great shot of the bee !
Harvest that tomato before the birds will eat it.
Let it ripe in the kitchen and it will be delish.

Happy gardening !

I probably did get them from Victory Seeds as I do purchase from them. They are not large at all. These are really small, about the size of a quarter. They remind me of tart cherries in size.

Hi all
Since the wettest May ever for us has passed, the first week of June was more of the same. But this week... we've had three consecutive days without rain now, feels like we're in a desert.
And the bounty from my (much too weedy yet, still too wet) garden, Cauliflower (actually last week's harvest), broccoli and chinese cabbage. The kohlrabi's didn't survive the trip to the house :-) There's also been lettuce, radishes, spinach, and green onions. And the peas... so close to being ready... so of course the temp reaches 97 today.
The roofers came yesterday, 7 a.m. dropped off the refuse bin, 8 a.m. could hear them up on the roof, 5 p.m. when I got home everything was gone, and I had a fresh shingled roof, with a real vent for my bathroom fan (and a future kitchen fan). Now, the window guys and the siding guys, and it'll look like I'm living in a new house.

Nice harvest! Congrats on the new roof, too!

VERY nice harvest!!

Ditto on the new roof.

i have never actually had any problems with a bird eating a tomato, now my blueberries, thats a different story, lol, thats why i net my bush every year now once i see the berries developing.

But yeah that tomato will definitely be on tomorrows harvest schedule. ;)

Got home yesterday to a half eaten ripe tomato hanging off the vine...I was waiting on that tomato...

So, now I have to be more diligent about pulling them at the slightest hint of blush on the butts.

Linda, so what critter is responsible for the half eaten ripe tomato? Rabbits, squirrels?

todays tiny harvest which includes the red tomato from yesterday, also plucked off a few problem tomatoes, im thinking fried green tomatoes are on the dinner plate for this evening. a few green beans that will go in the freezer with the rest of the few that ive picked so far. (wish more than just a few would be ready at one picking)

Lily_love,
I think it's a bird. The mama and baby kitten hang out in a bare spot in the tomato raised bed, and I'm pretty sure they're not laying where they poop, so I'm ok with them being there for sunbathing.

I was hoping they'd keep the birds off the tomatoes, and earn their spot in my yard, LOL!

Crafty birds!

I've never had birds get my tomatoes either. I would think the cats would keep most pests away! They might be after water, but after all the rain Im not so sure.

I hope you just cut off the eaten part and enjoyed the rest of the tomato!!

I've had both birds and squirrels eat my tomatoes. Birds usually leave the tomatoes on the plant as they eat it, while the squirrels I have around here will pick the fruit off the plant, climb on the top of the fence between me and my neighbor, take a bite or two out of it, then throw it over the other side of the fence.

squirrels are such wasteful critters, thats for sure

Here too ... for the first time I find tomatoes picked by birds ... I have so many anyway that it is ok ... but it bothers me.
I am also reading on Facebook that lots of people this year have the same problem here in DFW.
I normally don't have this problem.
I will put out a scare crow.
It has been so hot that I am not going outside like the previous years ... all the water from the rain has made my garden a "sauna" ...

Tomorrow will be "FRUIT" day and I will direct seed Long Beans. I am growing okra and Malabar Spinach and soon they will go out too.

Happy gardening

It IS a bird...watched him out the window, just pecking away. They do leave the fruit hanging on the vines as they peck at them...

Steph,
I figured if he was desperate enough to brave the cats for that tomato, he deserved it for as long as it's there, LOL!

This message was edited Jun 11, 2015 10:21 AM

I forgot about my snakes ... it has been a while since I needed to use them.
I will report later if they will work as usual.

first full bag of frozen black raspberries, the blackberries wont be too far behind, seeing some that are turning red now.

This message was edited Jun 11, 2015 3:48 PM

First harvest of tomatoes and a few more tomatillos.

Everything looks great, those tomatillos are pretty big. What type are those tomatoes?

From left to right, Lg Red Cherry, Super Sioux, and Marmande.

I still think the tomatillos are tiny. LOL I'm used to the huge green ones in the store.

I've never been able to grow those huge tomatillos but yours are decent size.

Congrats on the great harvest.
It seems that my birds are scared of the snakes ... but it is too early ... I think I need to keep moving the snakes so the birds will think they are real !
I might still have my record large tomato out there !

Today I am direct seeding: Red Chinese Long beans and Rattlesnake beans (first time to try this variety racomended by a DG member)

I have one more harvest of green beans, and it's supposed to rain cats and dogs here this weekend. But, I'm gonna have to can between the rain drops, LOL!

Question: Once I clear the green beans bed, can I sow cowpeas there? Particularly, PHPs or Cream Peas? My concern is will there be too much nitrogen fixed in the bed from the green beans, and will it effect the cowpea production?

If not in that bed, I can sow the cowpea seeds in the bed(s) that I rip the tomatoes or the bell peppers from.

Thanks, guys!

Linda (with head turned sideways, LOL!)

This message was edited Jun 12, 2015 10:26 AM

gosh, i will be glad when my daily harvests are bigger than something that will fit in one hand.

Think i have a spider mite infestation on my beans, the leaves are all getting covered in brown little speckles.

Tried a hot chili powder + dish soap + garlic spray on the leaves the other day, hoping it made at least some kind of difference.

Im getting so few beans at a time that i question whether it was even worth my time.

This message was edited Jun 12, 2015 12:06 PM

a photo of todays puny harvest, lol. i was reading that maybe too much nitrogen was the reason for those peppers ripening at such a scrawny size, at least this one is a little bigger than the last one. Freezing the blueberries as they come in, the amount of flower buds that came on the plant in early spring was considerably less than last year.

ok i'll stop whining now, lol ;)

That's a nice handful of beans.

I had read about adding too much nitro to the bed when I was prepping it, so all I added was 1.5 bags of composted manure, and mulched with my own homemade leaf and coffee grounds compost...

If you have 65 days, you can sow more seeds while it's still hot. They'll germinate quickly...

Just sayin', LOL!

on the brighter side, everything else is going nuts.

and cant forget about the melons!

Neem oil is the only thing that I have found works on mites. I would apply it in the evening so it has time to "work". Never apply it in the heat of the day.

will definitely grab some of that stuff. For now it looks like my home made concoction at least drove them away for the time being (at least i hope so), because i dont see any more specks / dots crawling around under the leaves.

If you can see them chances are that they are not mites. Mites are nearly microscopic but Neem Oil is an insecticide/miticide....meaning that it will kill bugs as well as mites but it is Organic.