first (slicing) tomatoes

The San Marzanos have been coming in for about a week. But today I picked a monster Yellow Bradywine and a nice Boxcar Willie - as well as a few handfuls of other veggies.

two harvest in three days

(There were another ten yukons last night but I forgot to snap a photo.)

So the heatwave is finally over! We had another week of 90* temps (on the coast!) and incredible humidity.
But the garden likes it.
The green beans have been so prolific I can barely keep up. And the zucchini plants have hit their peak, where if you don't pick them when they're perfect and tiny, then they triple in size overnight.
The gladiolus are going nuts. I've cut about seven and they are just beginning. They bloom in succession by color. Every one so far has been a rich orangey red and the ones budding up now look pink.

garlic harvest

Twenty-two heads (minus a few early ones I snatched) on the front porch to cure in the shade! Half look perfect half are starting to bust out of the bulb, so I guess I could have harvested last week.
This garlic came from a friend of my mom's and is supposedly a Sicilian heirloom. Whatever it is, it smells so sweet and perfumey and unlike the potent stink of grocery store garlic.

the hard truth

I have to fess up that keeping with succession planting and diligent weeding is too much for me this summer. The manure spread in the spring has done less for the mammoth thriving produce that i'd hoped for and more for encouraging thick green grass to grow between everything.
I guess I've done alright so far, with several small harvests and lots of cut flowers, considering it's still early July. But it's been hot and the season seems two weeks ahead so I'm looking at the beds and the ambitious hobbyist in me thinks I can rip out all the weeds and spent plants, and replace them all with a new blanket of carrot seed, potatoes, and squash. Alas, the busy young mother in me knows I'll be lucky if I can get the place weed-whacked and hope that my red chipolinis don't get COMPLETELY choked out!
Champagne problems. Look at my pretty snaps!

garden meals

With a one-year-old and a four-year-old I have a hard time getting much garden work done, let alone remembering to photograph it! But the beds are full and coming along nicely. Yesterday was around 95 degrees and today should be closer to 100! After a very cool Spring, I think this will jump start those tiny emerging San Marzanos.

I've made 2 garden meals so far this season. The first was heavy on the salad greens with a warm baby Yukon potato salad. The second was egg topped grilled pizzas! Hard to beat. My cornmeal pizza dough topped with garden peas, a baby zucchini, herbs, and store bought leeks. The eggs of course were from my uncle's Rhode Island Reds next door. I'm so spoiled.

potting up!

I re-potted my zucchini a couple of weeks ago and they instantly went little-shop-of-horrors on me. So I decided to wait on the tomatoes because I'm short on indoor growing space.
Well they can wait no more, the poor little buggers are cramped. I was able to get to about 32 of them yesterday: all San Marzano and Cherokee Purple. Hopefully I'll get the rest done today or tomorrow. Since I only have a few grow lights (and my house has nearly no direct sunlight) I'll be moving a couple of flats to my mom's house, which has big south facing windows. Hopefully the tomatoes thrive like the zukes.
I'm planning to start setting everything out in about 3 weeks. All garden growth seems about 3 weeks ahead of schedule this year so I think that will be safe.

germination trays

I see a lot of transplanting in the near future.

2012 indoor sowing complete

The onions are coming along nicely. I ended up filling the tray with all onions and decided to start tomatoes in cells again.
Here's the list:

San Marzano - 18
Cherokee Purple - 12
Box Car Willie - 6
Hillbilly - 6
Brandywine - 9 Red, 9 Yellow
Zucchini (raven) - 8
Summer Squash (gentry) - 4

Luckily I can set the onions out in early April, because I'm going to need lots of room when I transplant these babies up!

*incidentally, it brings me immeasurable joy when my 3.5 year old come in when I'm planting seeds and says, "are you planting yellow Brandywine, red Brandywine?"

onion-ettes

Pretty nice germinating.

first seeds started

Tonight I sowed a bunch of onions! My first time trying onions from seed. I've always had poor results with onion sets. They make great spring onions, but I never get anything resembling a big round bulb. These are a large storage onion from Burpee. I'd love to grow enough so that I won't need to buy grocery store onions for a while.

In a few weeks I'll add tomatoes to the tray. Onions and tomatoes are the only things I'm starting indoors this year. I'll plant four tomato varieties: San marzano, Cherokee purple, red Brandywine, and yellow Brandywine. Growing tomatoes indoors makes me so happy. It's like a little nursery. Squeal!

this blanket of snow is a blanket of woe

Saturday we got 9" of snow. I shouldn't pout too much, it's the only significant snow fall this winter. And it's rapidly melting today as temps are in the 40's.
I washed and dried one large seed tray and will likely start onions soon. I'm excited to grow onions from seed. I hope I get some large ones. Sets have always been disappointing for me, beyond spring onions.