toms.....and cukes

Here are some harvest pictures from the last 10 days.  A 5 lb batch of Tycoon and Better Boy tomatoes!!  Most of my larger tomatoes have been harvested at this point, but lots of smaller ones still out there - I am hopeful for a second setting on some of the plants.

I also harvested my first cuke of the year, and it was promptly used with above tomatoes, some basil, and dill to make a salad.  This brings my lifetime cucumber harvest total to three. However, the vines are looking good this year, so I am hopeful for many more.  They are actually climbing up sunflowers.....note for future post.

A few other tom pics from the week.  My first Golden Pear toms.  This plant is very compact, and seems to be doing very well, it is still setting tiny yellow tomatoes.

Finally, here is a picture of one of my few Cherokee Purple's of the season.  One funky looking tomato......I did not have a good set on the CP this spring, but not sure why.  We can add that to the list of things I cannot figure out in my garden  :)

Temps in STX today are 84 / 73.

mid season

 The Spring planting has already reached mid season and we have been able to start harvesting a few things.  The tomatoes are starting to ripen, as well as, a few onions (from fall) and a couple of Big Jim peppers that were ready.  Salsa Time!!

Here are a few other pictures, the tomato plant that looks the most healthy and has taken over one of the beds is Matt's Wild Cherry.  It is planted in a bed that is just pure clay soil in the yard, with some compost added.  The tomatoes are really small, but really tasty.  You have to pick them as soon as they start turning red to beat the mockingbirds - who have also identified it as a favorite tomato.

This is my first year to plant sunflowers and they are really cool.  It was the Van Gogh seed mix that has a variety of flowers.  Two already have multiple large blooms and there are a few more that have not bloomed yet.  I read where cucumbers and sunflowers are companion plants, so I planted a few at the base of the sunflowers and they seem to be doing well.  No fruit yet, but they are steadily climbing up the sunflowers.

Finally, here is an overall picture from a nice afternoon in April and a morning in early May.  I'll have to remember to look at these in August, when everything has burned to a crisp in the South Texas sun.

Till next time!!

Temps in STX today are 81 / 74.

springtime!

Spring has definitely sprung.....in about the span of a week, I instantly felt behind with all of my spring garden plans.  Here is some left over mesclun salad mix from a couple of months ago that bolted. It has a cool look to it, but as I mentioned earlier the bees don't seem to like it as much as the broccoli and bok choy flowers.  I took picture below before I finally pulled out the broccoli and replaced it with some patty pan squash.

On the more depressing garden front - Nematodes - my garden has them.  I am pretty sure they are the dreaded Root Knot Nematodes.  Most of the tomato plants that I pull up have the "knotty roots" characteristic of nematodes.  I still have had good production with most of my tomatoes, especially, the first setting.  If you Google "nematodes" in your garden, it reads like a death sentence, especially for things like tomatoes and squash.  Apparently, they don't seem to bother winter vegetables or beans.  This year, I amended the soil and planted my tomato area solid with marigolds (Golden Guardian).  I have a mixture of hybrids and heirlooms, so we will see how it goes.

I did have one tomato plant that overwintered from the fall.  I had some others that I probably should not have removed, but they looked pretty rough, so I pulled them in early January.  I left one in the ground, a Box Car Willie, but it was not looking very good.  I had decided to pull it and start fresh, but actually found a tomato on it, so I decided to keep it in the ground see what happened.  With a little TLC, it now has about 20 + tomatoes!!  I should of kept the others in the ground!!  I really need to work on my patience with garden plants.  Anyway, I am super excited that I will have an early set of tomatoes as the new spring crop is just now starting to flower.  One other note - that tomato is in a bed with definite nematodes - so I am a bit confused on the topic at this point.  My thoughts are that since soil temps have been cooler they are probably not as active right now.

On to the tomato list for Spring 2014.  I always have a list in mind of what varieties I want to try and change it around 100 times over the winter, and then change it again when I get to the nursery.

Box Car Willie - leftover from the fall - some early season tomatoes pictured above

Tycoon - Hybrid - strong disease and nematode resistance.

Better Boy - Hybrid

Yellow Pear - Hybrid - bringing in some new color this year...fingers crossed.

Cherokee Purple - Heirloom - best tasting tomato we had last year.

Arkansas Traveler - Heirloom - very excited about this one after reading about it.

C-Tex - Heirloom - really want to grow this tomato from Conroe, TX.  It is a cross between a Black Krim and an Early Girl.  I planted it too late last year and this year, something has eaten most of the leaves. Argh.

Matt's Wild Cherry - supposed to be a very vigorous cherry tomato from Mexico that does well in heat and poor soil.  I have a new bed that just has our natural clay soil, so we will see how it does.

Hope to post more soon as the Spring progresses....

PS....Dear neighborhood cat(s) that keep going into my garden, please stop......please. The end.

Temps in STX today are 75 / 64......perfect!

quick winter recap

Well it turns out, I did not do a good job of posting over the winter, so here is the brief recap.  Planted a six pack of "green fingers" broccoli with good success.  Next year hope to double / triple that amount and try some different varieties.  Also planted a couple of packets of "mesclun" salad greens and they did well, as did some arugula seeds from a friend.  I will load up the winter garden with these next year.  Experimented with bok choy and that took a while to get going, but then did well.  On the failure side, I still cannot figure out the mystery of the brussel spout.  Maybe, I am starting them too late in the year, they were all still very small, when it is time to get ready for spring.  I almost forgot, I planted some sweet onions (I think they were sweet or 1015, I can't remember which variety.  Hence the blog, I am supposed to be keeping) with moderate success.  They have not gotten really big to date, but they are very tasty.  I pulled out about half of the onions (I need tomato real estate!) and will let the other half keep going.

Some of the broccoli, bok choy, and lettuce mix went to flower / seed.  Most was a beautiful yellow flower that the bees are obsessed with when the weather is nice.  The arugula has an interesting white flower, that doesn't really seem to interest the bee community, I will take a photo of some that is left in the garden for next time.

I also planted some turnips from seed (sparkler variety) and did finally get a couple.  I planted another round during this early spring to see if I can get some more.  Swiss chard was also another failure this winter.  I planted it from seed, but something always eats it before it gets large enough to harvest.  I have moved it to a few different areas in the yard with the same results. I might just purchase full grown chard from the nursery next year and see if that will deter my caterpillar friends.

It has been a strange winter with lots of rain and cold temps, but no major freeze.  I will post the early spring recap next time, complete with neighborhood cats and nematodes....but, for now, I am day dreaming of a garden full of tomatoes, squash, beans, and okra.....

Temps in STX today are 57 / 76.

butterflies

Over the last couple of weeks, we have had a lot of different butterflies in the yard.  It was a beautiful day last Sunday, so I decided to put down the iphone and try to remember how to use the "real" camera.  This Gulf Fritillary was hanging out on the Turk's Cap for most of the day.

We had several of these small butterflies (Bordered Patch) in the garden all day on the Cosmos flowers. 

The Orange Sulfur tended to prefer the Turk's Cap as the "flower de jour".

Finally, toward the end of the day, a Monarch showed up.  Overall, a really cool Sunday in the yard.

Temps in STX today are 68/51.

finally fall

Got started a little late with the fall garden posts this season, but here are some pics from the garden.

Purple Hull Pea Flower

The Purple Hull Peas

My first fall harvest!!

Not quite enough for a meal yet.....hopefully, more to come this week.

Some onions, swiss chard, tomatos (better boys), and bok choy (new experiment)

Other notes: I have an assortment of other things planted to see what we get.  Lots of tomato plants, with mainly leftover seeds from the spring - Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, and Box Car Willie.  Also, some Super Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes and two Better Boys from transplant.  No tomatoes yet, but the plants are starting to perk up with the cooler weather - fingers crossed.  I have a couple of other random things like patty pan squash and one straightneck squash from transplant, a cilantro plant, and one big Jim pepper.  They are all looking a little peaked, hopefully, they will liven up as the weather becomes more mild.  I have some broccoli and brussels sprouts from transplant, looking good, but still small.  Finally, I planted some lettuce mix and radishes from seed.  Had good luck with the lettuce mix last year (mesclun); but the radishes are a first. Lots to still catch up on in the garden.  I think the fall theme is randomness!!

Temps today in STX are 83/70.

summer soltice

A couple of pics for the longest day of the year.  I found this caterpillar in the garden this week.  According to Google, it is a type of sphinx moth.  Definitely, disguised well on the tomato plant!

 The summer solstice harvest from yesterday.  A few random tomatoes left, with the exception of the sungold's.  The second to last cuke on the vine and some okra and eggplant.  The okra is looking great, but unfortunately, the spider mites have found the eggplant.   

Time to start thinking about what to plant this fall.....

Temps today in STX are 95/79.