Mystery Tomato Update & The State of the Plots Mid-July Part 1

This morning I heard from Lisa at Amishland Seeds regarding the mystery tomato. At first she thought it was a variety of tomato called Schimmeig Striped Hollow, since it looked similar and she files her seeds in alphabetical order. After I looked at the description on her site, I knew it wasn't. I emailed her back and she is going to do more research and get back to me. I have purchased seeds from her for years. She has very interesting seeds with detailed history and is a very kind lady. The week I ordered the seeds from her, she was moving from her home of 20+ years. So....the Mystery Continues!

Now onto "The State of the Plots Part 1". I was going to do this is one post....but, it would be way too long! The gardens are really holding up surprisingly well despite the weather. I'm really not sure how many heat waves we have had already this year and the lack of rain continues. The rain just goes right around us! Thank heavens Doug fills my barrels with water in return for an occasional jar of jelly and I weed whack the front of his plots. Thanks Doug!

Click on any picture to enlarge 

The front of the plots.

These are Red-Seeded Asparagus Beans. The vines are supposed to get 10' tall. Well, they are about 1' right now.

These are Chinese Red Noodle Beans. They are also supposed to get really tall. They are much taller then the asparagus beans.....but not nearly as tall as I would have thought they would be by now.

The King of the Garden Lima Beans are at least 8' tall! I guess they are just going to have to hang over. And...yes, the gates are finally up!

Bed #1 The Potato Bed

As you can see, the plants are dying off already. I have dug more then half of the Yukon Golds.

Bed #2 Tomato Bed 1

The plants are looking good.....kind of like a jungle!

They are loaded with tomatoes!

This is the Mystery Tomato plant.

Lots of big beautiful Cherokee Purples!!

Bed #3

This end of Bed #3 has the Three Sisters Planting. They are all looking good. I did have another squash planted on the other side. But, it just died. I have no idea what happened to it. It looked like SVB. But, when I pulled the plant, I couldn't find any evidence of SVB damage.

Behind the Three Sisters are two trellises. The one in the front of this picture has pickling cucumbers. They are struggling along with this weather and just starting to produce cucs. The trellis behind the cucs has Ottawa Cranberry Dry Beans growing on it. They are slowly moving along.

Next in Bed #3 is a recent planting of Great Northern Dry Beans. This is where the spring cauliflower was planted. It's been so dry that I decided to cover the area with straw to keep the moisture in. It worked and the beans are starting to pop up through the straw!

The next area in Bed #3 is where the Eggplants are. They have quite a bit of fruit on them. I'm not sure how big they will get with the lack of rain. Time will tell.

Following the eggplant in Bed #3 are the Hot & Spice Peppers. The plants aren't nearly as big as they were last year. Most of them have a good amount of peppers on them. One variety that is having a problem is the Paprika Peppers. Many of them are getting what looks like BER. I just cut the ends off and hang them to dry. We are out of Paprika Powder....so, I'm using every bit I can.

At the end of Bed #3 are two Watermelon plants. I think I planted Sugar Baby.

The jungle in the misty background is Bed #4.

This is the second tomato bed. They are also loaded with tons of green tomatoes.

Stay tuned for The State of the Plots Part 2!

The State of the Plots Mid-June

Everything at the plots seems to be growing by leaps and bounds this past week! It seems like every day the plants are bigger. I took these pictures 3 - 4 days ago and everything is much bigger when I went over there today. I'm extremely pleased to say the least.

click on any pic to enlarge

The plots from the road

  

Bed #1

The potato bed is totally out of control! 

Some of the plants are about 4' high!

The front tomato bed. Bed #2

You can't tell from the picture how stocky and sturdy these plants are. Some of the branches are an inch wide. The plants in this bed are bigger then the other tomato bed. I'm certain it's due to the mixing of the soil. I was too tired and lazy to mix in the soil in the other bed.

Bed #3

"Three Sisters Planting"

The corn, beans and squash have doubled in size since I took this picture.

Bed #4

This is the second tomato bed. The plants are very happy and healthy even though they aren't quite as big as in bed #2.

Bed #5

Bed #6

Strawberries in Bed #7

The new strawberry plants are producing much more then the ones that I transplanted. It must be due to moving them.

Bed #8

The onions seem to doing well. I sure hope that we get enough for the year.

I was pleasantly surprised to see these blossoms and berries on the transplanted blackberry bushes. They won't produce much....but, it's a good sign of years to come!

This head of cauliflower has doubled in size since taking this picture.

Yippee.....it looks like we are going to have some nice spring cauliflower!

There are 27 Celery plants at the plots. All of them look great except for these 3. They are all twisted and deformed. I was going to pull them this morning. But, I changed my mind when I saw they had ladybugs on them.

The eggplants have some beautiful flowers.

The Fava Beans survived the attack of the ants. I picked 3 this morning and they are wonderful!

The first pepper of the year is "Happy Yummy Sweet Pepper".

The seeds were given to me by Dave as part of the "Happy Acres Happy Yummy Pepper Experiment".

This is a Sweet Banana Pepper.

There are quite a few peppers on many of the plants.

There are also a lot of tomatoes everywhere at the plots!!

That will make for one "Happy Italian"!!!

The State of the Plots Mid-May

It seems like it has been non-stop since we got home from vacation! I spent a few hours at the plots on Saturday and then we had to go shopping for Sophia's BD Bar BQ on Sunday. We always seem to be away on her BD. So, I told here we would have a BD Bar BQ on Sunday after we came home. After shopping there were important things to do, like bake a cake and start the homemade baked beans. Sunday was packed full of putting the cushions on the outdoor furniture, cleaning up a bit, cooking and then putting up a canopy since the temps were in the 90's! The Bar BQ was a great success and Sophia was very happy!

Yesterday I had planned to catch up on blog reading and visit everyone's Harvest Monday posts. In the morning I decided to clean out the refrigerators and some canned peppers that I was not happy with. All went well until I managed to clog the plumbing in the under-slab in the basement between the main pipe coming from the kitchen and the floor drain. The remainder of the day was plumbing related, including a visit from the Roto Rooter man!

I was going to post the pics I took on Saturday. But, this morning I ran over to the plots in the misty rain to cover the strawberries that the birds think is a buffet! So, I took some more pics. There are lots of pics in this post!

Click on any picture to enlarge.

Before we went on vacation, I planted all of the Tomatoes, Eggplants & Peppers in the rain!! It wasn't the perfect time to plant them. Although Sophia is perfectly capable of taking care of the plants, I really didn't want her to have to tend to them. She does have school and track, which is very important.

Bed#1 The Potato Bed

The potatoes really took off while we were gone. Some of these weren't even out of the ground when we left. Hopefully, I can get over there tomorrow and mulch them with straw.

Bed #2 Tomato Alley #1

The tomatoes are doing very well with the exception of Aphids. I found aphids on some of the plants on Saturday. I was hoping that the pests wouldn't find the new garden the first year. I am going to make a spray today with potato leaves and see how that works.

The new growth looks great and so do the weeds!! Mulching to do!

Bed #3

The empty front section of this bed will have a Three Sisters Planting and some trellises for beans, cucumbers and cantaloupe

Toward the other end of this bed is Cauliflower, Eggplant and Hot Peppers. 

There is also space for another trellis at the end.

The cauliflower was really small when I put it in. I didn't think I would have the plots ready in time to plant spring cauliflower. We shall see if they produce. If not, I have plans for a fall planting in another space.

New growth on the Eggplants look great!

The Peppers also seem to be doing very well.

Bed #4 Tomato Alley #2

Not the best pic, but the tomatoes are doing just fine. There are two though that are struggling a bit. 

Bed #5

The empty section at this end will have trellises for more Beans, Spaghetti Squash and Korean Melons. At the far end is where the Zucchini will be planted.

This is toward the other end of Bed #5. 

I have planted Broccoli, a few Cabbage, 4 Chinese Cabbage and the Sweet Peppers. There are also some tiny Leeks planted in front of the Chinese Cabbage. Hopefully the Broccoli will produce since it was started earlier then the cauliflower. If not, there is a fall planting planned. One of the Chinese Cabbages bolted from the heat over the weekend. So, it will be removed.

Bed #6

The Blackberry & Raspberry transplants are doing very well. Since the blackberries won't get too big this year, I planted onions & celery around them. There is also space for a trellis on the end where I will plant Lima Beans.

Bed #7 The Strawberry Bed

The plants that I covered were transplanted from the old site. The new strawberry roots that were planted this year are at the far end mulched with straw. They are all doing very well.

Bed #8

This bed is along the right side of the plots. The Asparagus beds are at each end and there are onions and a few celery plants in the middle.

As you can see, the asparagus is going to ferns. I am so pleased that they made it through the transplant. Even though we did not have much of a harvest this year. The Fava Beans in the front are doing much better with the exception of ants. Last year I had the same problem with them. As soon as the rain stops I will try using cinnamon on the plants as a pest control.

That's the "State of the Plots" right now. There is still a ton of work and planting to do over there. I haven't decided what I am going to do with the paths. The gate is not up yet and I also have to sow the popcorn and beans along the front. I really think the worst part of the work is over. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and I can spend a few days over there sowing some seeds and tidying up a bit!

The State of the Plots............Part 2

Last week was very busy around here and I didn't post Part 2. Although things have changed a bit at the plots, here it is!

The other "Three Sisters" planting is very happy. There is popcorn, Long Island Cheese Squash, Fortna White Pumpkins, Greek Sweet Red Winter Squash (which never produced a female flower) and Trail of Tears Beans planted here. As you can see, the grass in the paths is very happy too. I was going to weed wack it today...but, didn't get to it.

Here are some dry beans, some leeks to the left and a few small broccoli & cauliflower in Bed #2. There are also dry beans planted in Bed #1 between the Brussels Sprouts in the back right of the picture.

This is the one Aspargus bed. There are Sadies Horse Beans and Trail of Tears beans growing up the fence in the back. All of the bushy stuff to the left of the asparagus is parsley. They are supposed to be good companion plants.

The tepee planted with Dean's Purple Pole Beans is really tall. I think about 8' right now. I will be surprised if this is still standing after Irene makes her way through our area this weekend!

Some broccoli & cauliflower was finally planted at the end of Bed #2 today. Don't mind the convalescing mummy tomato plants in the background. They are still alive...so, that's a good thing!

The Bell Peppers are huge! You can't tell from this picture, but, they are at least 3' high and loaded with peppers!

The hot & spice peppers are doing great also! They aren't as tall as the bells, but they are loaded with peppers! I left the celery (right end of pic) in the ground and it doesn't look all that bad. I can dry some of the leaves and freeze some of the stalks that are good.

The two remaining Moon & Stars watermelons are growing like crazy in spite of the little nibble that the groundhog took out of the one!

The Burr Gherkin Cucumber plants are growing like crazy! They are in between the two trellises were the cantaloupe and Korean melons were growing. I removed those vines today. You can also see some more convalescing mummy tomato plants in the background.

There are at least 4 more Fortna White Pumpkins on the vines....looking good!

And the zucchini plants are still producing!!

Well, that's all the Happy Stuff going on at the plots, with the exception of fall raspberries starting to ripen!!

So, what kind of Happy Stuff do you have going on in your garden??