It's been quite a tumultuous and eventful month in my tiny vegetable-patch-turned-mostly-tomato patch! I finally have one thing that is producing enough to preserve a bit of, Hungarian Heart tomatoes. These things are HUGE and plentiful! The photo below was taken three weeks ago. I have four of these plants, all getting enough sun, unlike anything else in my veggie patch.
A couple of days ago I managed to harvest a half bucket of tomatoes, which is a bonanza for me!!! I made one large batch of ratatouille with the red tomatoes, and have eaten more tomato sandwiches than I can count with the white tomatoes. I am sick of tomatoes!
Wipe Out!!!
One morning a couple of weeks ago, I found that one of my tomato plants had fallen onto its side during the night. I propped it up, and thought I had taken care of the problem. The next morning most of my tomato plants, including the one I had propped up the day before, were on the ground.
If anyone were to ask me what my favorite garden device is, I would have to say these trellises. I've bought ten a year, at 4 bucks each, for the past five years, and finally feel I have enough of them. I use them to stake very tall flowers, and to make walls here and there for climbing plants.
This year, they rescued my tomato plants.
I had to use two or three per plant to fortify those wimpy three ring tomato supports, which I will never use again. I'm going to have to find something else to support my tomatoes next year.
Here is my garden, the tomatoes back in the upright position, and I could still walk through there.
I pulled up my unproductive zucchini plant, and all my finished sweet peas, which left me with a huge space to fill.
I had three tiny Heavy Hitter Okra plants barely hanging on in a spot that was much too shady, so I carefully transplanted one of them to this huge space. It's much happier there, and already has several fruits on it. Hopefully I have learned the lesson of allowing each plant enough space!
Here is the entrance to my veggie patch today. The pepper is clearly leaning north to try to catch some western rays, since the tomatoes block most of its sun on the south and east sides, and the eggplant in the foreground is giving the pepper plant serious competition for sun on its western side. I do have half a dozen or more peppers, but I worry that, without enough sun, they will never turn red. The plant looks happy, but it has moved into my pathway. I'm thinking of sacrificing a tomato plant so that the peppers are happier, and so that I can get in there without having to be so careful.
The Selfie
I have never ever wanted a selfie stick before today.
Today's biggest revelation comes from @papa-pepper and this post of his on wild garlic. I have had wild garlic growing all over my yard for years now and didn't know it. I only knew it was an onion of some sort. So today I harvested the last bit of it I could still find, which were two stalks in my veggie patch, and submerged a handful of garlic cloves in honey to ferment for the coming winter's cold season. The bulbils I will distribute at my new home, whenever I figure out where that will be, and manage to get there.
My last day in this house is August 31, and I still don't know where I will be going! It's a massive job to pack up a house you have lived and bred in for 21 years. I'm confident I'll find the right next place.
Thank you all for reading about my food producing tribulations and triumphs. I appreciate and love each and every one of you.
This is my entry to @riverflows Garden Journal challenge for August.
Hey @carolkean and @jerrytsuseer, why don't you join in the fun?
Previous Garden Journals Of Mine
Previous Years, and Early Spring 2021
Equipment Posts
Foraging Posts
barn divider is by @thekittygirl
Oh... that wildflower garlic honey sounds amazing! I have a big jar of garlic honey this year for hte first time, although I have not needed it as everyone's distancing and wearing masks - colds and flu are wierdly non existant (I shouldn't say that, because sod's law)
Those hungarian heart tomatoes look lovely. I collected some seeds from a friends tomotoes that look just like those - I wonder. She wasn't sure what they were called. Just popped my own seeds in (post will come out in a few hours). I can't believe you actually said you were sick of tomatoes. Girl, you won't be saying that come winter when they're either store bought or canned! I never get sick of them - a slice of tomato, cheese and fresh basil is heavenly imo.
Great post - love the selfie - you are a total #gardenjournal treasure!
Thank you!!! How lovely you haven't been sick at all - same here!
Question: can you cook with the honey garlic? I can't imagine needing even all of the tiny bit I have.
Love your tomatoes! I can't believe you're sick of them 😮 you can never have too many tomatoes!!!! 🍅🍅🍅
I only like them fresh from a garden, so I am not in the habit of eating them. Canned, almost never. In the winter and raw, never ever. I've had my fill of grilled tomatoes, tomato salads and sandwiches! But things could certainly be worse than having too many tomatoes.
That's fair enough!
I can't help myself. Tomatoes go into nearly everything I make: curries, casseroles, pasta sauces, guacamole, on tacos, sandwiches, wraps. I'm terrible -- I use canned diced tomatoes for a few of those meals, but hopefully as my own tomatoes flourish that becomes a thing of the past.
I've... never actually had one fresh from the garden before!! 😮 Soon, though, soooooooooooon! I like to imagine my food will become a lottttt tastier.
Beware! Once you've tasted the real thing, you can never go back!!!
El tomate es muy rico y su planta cuando está empezando a dar frutos debe de asegurarse con algunas cuerdas para que el peso de sus frutos no le hagan daño a el tallo de la planta. Me gusta su huerto. Felicidades.
I thought they were secured, but these got so big, and the tomatoes are so huge and heavy, that regular tomato support was not enough. Thanks for stopping by!
This is a dream of mine to have such a garden. I think the satisfaction of seeing the fruits and veggies becoming ripe and ready would be everything one would need in life. Well perhaps not everything but pretty close in my opinion.
I have never seen an okra plant before.
To discover wild garlic would be like finding gold!
The flowers are the true delight of okra - they are exquisite!
You might have garlic outside. I've been calling it onion grass. Someone above said she heard it could be poisonous, but papa pepper gives it to his kids. This definitely has a garlicky flavor.
I just started growing veggies a couple years ago. It's not easy, mostly because anything that tastes good to humans tastes good to a great many other critters. The struggle is real.
Drawn here by all the green therapy floating around. I put tomatoes in everything so to see them thriving so beautifully has left me wanting to care for a tomato plant. Love the gal and her new specs. Something about her face radiates the kindness she has accorded me. Onto the discovery of wild garlic, that looks familiar... but oddly, I have never bothered. Word has always floated around that it is harmful so I have never bothered.
Oh! There is nothing I'd rather hear about myself than that I have been kind! It doesn't hurt that I love your work. So raw, deep, beautifully written.
Even though I am of Mediterranean blood, I don't eat tomatoes much. It could be because I had too many of those horrible things that get passed off as tomatoes year round. I do love them fresh from a garden, but there is such a thing as too much!
I'll have to do more research on that garlic. I can see that it would be poisonous to dogs, but what I have definitely looks and tastes like garlic. I've always eaten the young shoots that come up in the spring.
Thanks for the tag @owasco, I've upvoted and reblogged this so I can get back and be reminded.
When you said all your tomatoes were on the ground, my heart sank, thinking you had what we call a "Cut Worm" I don't know the real name, but the bug comes out of the ground, eats a lot of whatever plant stem or stalk is nearby, everything crashes to the ground and dies.
Glad you didn't have that problem
Nope, they just tipped over in heavy winds because the supports I used are too wimpy. No cut worms yet in my garden. They sound pretty awful!
Read some of the other posts - I learn a lot here.
Oh look at all those tomatoes! Love the new specs, too. :)
If we lived closer I'd happily swap some squash for tomatoes. I need some more friends to start gardening so I can do that, haha. Hope the okra and peppers give off some fruit before you have to leave!
Good luck on the continued hunting and packing as you get ready for the move. My parents are doing the same thing, though as yet unsure if they'll be selling their house anytime soon. They figured might as well start the process at least because it will happen sooner than later!
I do not have any squash, not even cucumbers, so that would be swell! I've given a lot of these away, I simply cannot eat tomatoes three times a day,
I've known for a few years that I would be moving, and I started leisurely culling my stuff then. It's a lot of work! Good for your parents to start early. Packing up what I want to keep is the easy part.
Wow those tomatoes are huge indeed! and the rest of the garden looks good too, you've done well despite the challenges this season.
I'm fascinated by that garlic honey. I'm a garlic lover and I don't think I've ever had this combination before.
Best wishes with the upcoming move, you'll be hitting the road in style with those new specs :)
It's a variety that is supposed to get huge. Peeling them is extremely easy as a result. The taste cooked is very good, even just quickly grilled.
Watch papa peppers video about the garlic. His kids eat it in winter if they are sick. We'll see.
I love my new specs so much I ordered another pair! Splurging while my money is still good I guess.
Bummer you are leaving your gardens behind!
I have to use very sturdy stake 6' high to tie up my tomatoes. They'd flatten the trellises.
The trellises are propping up the useless rings. It's not a great solution, and all those trellises are getting in my way both for walking in there and for harvesting, but the plants are staying up. I'll try the sturdy stakes next year, but even those would tip over under a heavy tomato plant, no? Do you lash them to a fence or something?
I use 8' x 2" x 2" posts, driven into the ground at least 2'. They do not break nor fall over.
is not possible here. This county isn't called Rockland for nothing. But I will remember this for my next garden. Thanks!
This is a lovely post!
Those tomatoes really are huge! Are they a standard type or a paste type?
Allowing enough space for each plant? Ha, I say that every year. My rows of tomatoes this year are more like hedges than spaced plants...
Right?! They are a privacy hedge for me, so when I go in there and talk to my babies, no one can see me doing that!
The red tomatoes are Hungarian Heart. They are very good cooked, and not bad raw. I'll definitely plant those again. They are huge!!! So huge that the whole fruit doesn't ripen at the same time.
Thanks for stopping by!
Lol I am the same with tomatoes at the moment! What's wrong with us???
Great garden!
What a lovely post, it seems like your tomatoes are definitely loving their space. Did I see right in the one photo it looks like you have a rhubarb growing?
The wild garlic was such a great bonus, I love it when things like that happen. Have a beautiful weekend!
Amazing tomatoes! I find one of the most difficult things is calculating how much produce you are going to get from how many plants. Some years I don't plant nearly enough of a loved vegetable, another time there's more than we can manage. I've grown my own spinach from seed this year and it has thrived, previous years I've had plugs and after one or two pickings they were done. Great idea about the trellises, too, I must look out for something similar here.
I see you love your tomatoes! I had that same problem of trying to pack everything in and plants getting crowded out and not producing - I finally learned that if I want production it's not in the quantity but in giving the plants I have what they need when they need it so they can grow to their full potential.
It must be hard to leave a place you've been in for 21 years - I do hope you find another one that you can be happy in!
I HAVE SO MANY TOMATOES! Everything else might not have been happy, but these tomatoes are ecstatic! I spent hours yesterday peeling a slew of them, for canning today. But there's another couple batches on their way, and I don't think I'll have time to put them up.
The move! Still not sure where I am going, but will send a bunch of packed stuff to the most likely place next weekend, just to clear my head. So many of us are on the move now.