Fall Tomatoes

I have to wonder what tomato I got these seeds out of.  I thought they were more round than these.  All of the ones here are kind of pointy and long.

I guess the cross pollination came into play here.  This happens a lot in producing fruit.  Apples particularly are planted in areas with varieties that you eat and varieties you plant because they give off a lot of pollen. This makes it unlikely that the seed you get out of an apple will produce a tree that will give you the same kind of apple.

At any rate they look good and are a decent size.  The one in the back should be good to eat tomorrow and the two in front there in a day or two after that. Several green tomatoes are here and there and I expect it to continue through early fall.

Another seed I got recently is a pine seed from a hotel pine tree I was near.  The tree was trimmed a lot and not too tall but it looked nice.  Thinking about planting it at the edge of the HOA lot where the drainage goes.  Pine trees usually have a pretty good root system and there near the lake will keep it in good shape through the hot summers we get here.

Tomato Flowers

It's been a while since I've had a good home grown tomato.  These grew from seeds and are a smaller variety so they should produce pretty quickly.  They've shot up in the last week.  I wasn't sure they were taking hold at first.  Last Thursday though I noticed these little flowers growing and hope sprung anew.

Again once the sunflower is gone it'll have more room and may be getting much bigger.

My wife doesn't much care for raw tomatoes but cooked are fine.  I find this isn't so great for the varietal flavor of the tomato and loses something.

If you like tomatoes raw or cooked, what's your favorite variety.  The usuals are plum, cherry, and hothouse but the beefsteak and brandywine can also be found occasionally, especially at more specialty grocery stores like Central Market.

Sunflowers

This sunflower has gotten pretty heavy.  I hope this means that the seeds are developing well.  I've kept it watered so this should be the case but won't know until I try harvesting.

The head is getting yellow but I want a little more darkening before I cut it off.  Once he's gone the pot will have that much more room for the other plants.  Will need to spread them out soon.

In this pot I have several things.  Among them are tomato plants, turmeric, day lilies, green onion, and some kind of fruit tree (apple I think? really not sure.)

Up front there are of course more things growing but this was out back by the bird feeder where the seeds for the sunflower came from originally.  So much going on at one time right now though.

Rustic Sphinx

This guy was just hanging out on the breezeway of the apartments.  I didn't see him when I went by later so he either flew away or one of the toads ate him.

I wasn't sure at first what kind of moth this was, not an expert on bugs, but a friend recently told me about the identify function on my iPhone.   If the picture is good enough the photos will have an "i" over the picture and when tapped on will do a search of similar images and can tell you even before that what it thinks it is. This works with bugs, plants, animals, and other objects.  As you can see in the image, I was pretty close when I took the picture. That's the shadow of my phone.

I did see a toad in the area as well, possibly eyeing him for dinner.  The toads are one more reason to water regularly.  They really like the humidity it makes.  Another resident in the area, wasps, also like it when the pots are watered and some of the water collects in the trays.  I've seen three at a time drinking from the water and coming back regularly.  Temps in the mid 100's will do that to any animal.

The plants of course also want regular water and it hasn't rained in weeks.  Maybe a sprinkle here or there but nothing to make the water gauges register anything.  Can't wait for cooler weather and more tomatoes.  The plants are still looking good.

Our Late December Tomato

Our tomato plants really didn't do very well until it got quite a bit colder.  Fortunately the freeze held off until we had a few tomatoes on the vine.  This is the best of them.  We still had to pick it green but as you can see it's turning color nicely.

We talked with one of our friends about tomatoes and how you can pick them green if you need to and let them ripen off the vine.  He told us about when he was little and his family had a garden.  They would have a ton of tomato plants and have to pick many of them green before the frost hit.  They would then stick the green tomatoes under their beds until they turned red.  Then they would go sell the red ones at the markets in the winter.  Some of the tomatoes would take weeks to turn.  This guy actually took a couple weeks as well before it got to this state.  Still waiting a little longer for a better color but I'm hopeful.

Precious Tomatoes

Most of us well know the prolific nature of the cherry tomato.  They grow fast and put out lots of fruit.  This was of course our best tomato plant last year and so it isn't surprising that the plant that seeded itself was a cross between it and one of the nearby varieties we had.  There are of course less tomatoes than the original but they are also slightly larger.  We haven't had to water it at all this year and it's still making tomatoes in this Texas summer we're heading into.  Now that we've added plant food and are watering it regularly we hope to see even more growth and a productive season.

Green Beans Growing

Growing a bean plant indoors just for giggles. I didn't expect much from it but there are four beans already. This picture was a few days ago but now you can easily see the little seeds growing in the pods.

 

In with it are the apple tree and a tomato plant.  Going to add some more dirt soon to help support the tomato plant. Everything is growing toward the window trying to get as much light out of a north facing window as possible. With spring just around the corner I really should have more started but the garden has taken a backseat to the rest of life for the moment. We'll see what ends up getting planted after things slow down again.

 

On a sadder note, two of my remaining five cacao trees have died.  I was out of the office for an extended period of time and no one else waters anything. In the room they were growing it gets really hot and dry and they just ran out of moisture and shriveled up.  The one at home is doing great still and the other two are in a more appropriate location in the office and doing nicely.  they even had a growth spurt recently of a few inches in height.

Warmer Temperatures Back

With the short frost gone and warmer temperatures back in swing my tomato plants are uncovered again and ready to keep producing.  There are several tomatoes still on the vine and although there was a slight bit of damage on some of the leaves for the most part the plants I was able to cover are doing great.

The parsley too seems to have grown significantly. Compared with the one on the outside it's almost twice as big.

No worries for at least a week and hopefully more. I left the stones out there for future use and folded the sheet up as well.

Tomato Protection

Made a protective cover for my tomato plants. I actually do have a greenhouse but these plants are in the ground and well established. Tonight is supposed to get into the mid to low 20's, no way they would survive without this.

What I did was get a medium thick sheet and put in stakes to support it over the plants. Sure some of the plants are hitting some of the sheet but for the most part they are pretty safe. The stems are hardier than the leaves anyway and with the warmth of the light in there they should be enough, with the small area, to keep warm overnight. I weighed the sides down with large concrete blocks.  Most of them took both hands to pick up and place carefully. There is also a parsley plant in there with them.

It;s supposed to freeze again Sunday through Tuesday next week so I will probably leave the sheet on until Wednesday and turn the light off during the day as long as it isn't supposed to be too cold during the day.

I used some of our parsley last week in my gumbo. Loved it!  Still have a few bowls left over in the freezer, one of the few really good freezer foods. Another of which is the muffins we made, fennel, fig, and chocolate. We made a lot of them about two years ago and I popped one out yesterday to thaw for a couple hours.  Almost just like we had made them that day.

Cold Hardy Tomatoes

The tomato plants made it through a little freezing weather but tonight is going to be below 30. I'm going to have to do something before night falls to keep them from dying overnight.

I plan to pick the peppers and let the bush go. We already have more peppers than we will use this winter and have some still in the freezer from last year.

Upcoming Winter Weather

I was really hoping to have a longer fall season before the temperatures froze. It's only supposed to be for a short time but that will be plenty to kill off my tomatoes if I can't get them protected better than last year.
That won't stop me from trying at though.  This year I plan to put in supports and weigh it down with some fairly heavy blocks. It isn't supposed to rain much so as long as I put it in well I also plan to put a light in with the plants for a little warmth, propped up off the ground a bit of course.
The saffron fortunately loves this kind of weather and will keep sprouting. 14 counted so far and hoping for at least 20 if not more. Eventually I hope to have hundreds of bulbs springing up each season. That would be enough to use more than once or twice, depending on the recipe.
After this week it's supposed to pop back up a little and be good growing weather again.
Carrots should be planted this week too, probably mid week when I get a little time to work on the garden again.

Garden Harvest

The garden is growing well. Here are a few of the picks from yesterday.  We already ate one of the zucchini and a few of the cherry tomatoes.  The peppers we have planned for a curry although we haven't decided which kind to make yet.  It will almost definitely involve potatoes though since, as far as we can tell, potatoes seem to go well in every curry dish.

 

There are plenty more tomatoes out there as well as some more forming zucchini and peppers. There is also some squash that should be ready soon and hopefully some cucumber.

 

I planted some green onion from seed recently and it's taking off well enough.  It isn't huge but it's already a few inches tall. Quicker than I expected.

 

It's supposed to continue raining for some time this week which hopefully won't interfere too much with the outdoor activities we have planned. The percent isn't too high so maybe it will be mostly morning showers.  We can deal with that.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are doing well so far this year. These first ones are large cherry tomatoes. There are several plants and three of them so far have tomatoes developing to some degree or another. These are the largest of the group and were the first ones to make an appearance in the garden. That is of course not counting the other vegetables.

The next tomato here is an unknown variety and was the runt of a litter. I really didn't expect it to live where I put it but it surprised me and took off better than any of the other plants planted so far. I guess the pot it's sitting in was just the thing it wanted. Although the tomato shown started well past the large cherry tomatoes, it is at least twice the size of one of them. It is also the only pot on the side of the house that currently has plants I intended to plant there. There are a couple more but they only have weeds.

In with this plant there are also other tomato plants as well as an onion plant and what I believe is either a pumpkin or other squash type vining plant.  It doesn't seem to mind the company and it has kept any other weeds from growing in the pot with it. There are also several other newly forming tomatoes on this plant. Although I'm not expecting a bumper crop, this is already turning out to be a much better start to a year than last year.

Saffrons Blooming

It's that time of year again.  The saffron is blooming and there are many more this year than last.  I pulled the treads from one of the flowers and my finger where the juice hit is now a lovely yellow color with a  hint of the aroma I can anticipate.  I will get around to harvesting them some more later today and see what I have so far. A quick look revealed at least four flowers and many sprouts.

The purple color is a welcome sight as the air chills and unfortunately killed all my tomato plants.  As always, next year will be better.

I plan to make a nice saffron bread from my egg bread recipe. The flavors should work well together.

Blueberry Bushes

I don't think I watered quite enough for the blueberry bushes this year. I don't think they're dead but they sure don't like the heat that has come back.  We left for a few days and most of the leaves are now gone. The stems still look healthy though so I'm not giving up on them just yet. If this month is anything like a typical September then we should be getting some more cool weather coming soon which these guys will love.

Similarly the tea plant isn't happy about the heat but it looks pretty good still.  We'll see what happens this winter when it has to bear the cold and wind.

The tomato plants are still pretty happy though.  I thinned the weeds out of part of the bed but left quite a few just in case the heat came back, which it did.  Still have plenty of flowers and hopefully in a few weeks I'll have plenty of tomatoes.  The back beds have died back with little or nothing to show for them.

Tomato Plants Still Producing in the Heat

We've all heard about the problem with tomato plants in the heat.  Once it gets in the 90's you can forget having any  more tomatoes on the vine for a while.
Well even in 100+ heat my tomato plants have laughed at that notion.  I didn't see it growing but a few days ago I went out to check on the garden and saw a hint of red low on the tomato plant.  I figured it must be some trash blown in on the wind since tomatoes don't produce in high heat.
After getting a closer look I was surprised to find a little tomato a little smaller than my fist, shiny and red.
The reason it grew was the bottom of the plant was protected by a bit of grass that has grown up in the garden, soon to be pulled once the temperatures drop into the low 90's again.

It's gone now though. I ate it...

August Planting

August is here and the heat is far from gone here in DFW.  Fortunately there are still lots of plants that can be either started or worked on for a nice fall garden.

I've already mentioned okra recently but we shouldn't forget carrots and squash at this time of year.  Carrots especially have a short growing time and you can expect a carrot harvest in a few months.  Winter squash is good to plant now too for a nice harvest.

If you already have tomato plants and they are nice and healthy then you can bend over some of those stems and cover with dirt to encourage more growth for a fall harvest.  I know some of my tomato plants are nearly four feet tall right now but aren't producing very will in the heat.  I've gotten a few tomatoes so far this year but a good fall harvest would make my gardening this year great. If you notice there are fine hairs on the stem of tomato plants.  These will pull in moisture from the air and if there is enough moisture either in the air of if they are buried then they will start to form roots.  They also detect disturbances and help release natural pest control. That's why when you mess with tomato plants too much you can smell the plant releasing these chemicals.

Remember to drink plenty of water while in the garden and use sensible sun protection methods.  You want to keep your plants and yourself from getting too hot or scorched.

Tomatoes a Plenty

Some of us have dared to plant a garden again this year even if their past attempts have gone awry.  If you are among them then you are probably pretty happy with the way the weather has cooperated so far.  Your tomatoe plants will probably look full and with quite a bit of fruit on them.
If you haven'd done so already it's not too late. You can still plant squash and beans.  Carrot is also one of those things you can plant nearly year round and expect some harvest or another.  So don't worry and get out your gardening gloves and trowel and go plant something.

If nothing else there should be a wide assortment of already started plants that will give you a head start in getting your garden looking great.

Planting for Spring

Spring has sprung even if the plant store is a little more wary. We've already got plants in the ground and seeds from last year are already popping up and saying hi.

Among the returnnig plants are the dill, which has come up in a carpet in the area it was in last year and is already attracting the black swallow tail butterflies, and the cilantro or chinese parsley, which again doesn't want to grow in the planting beds but likes to stretch out and grow in the rocks.  I think this is partly due to the birds eating most of the seed they can see on the dirt and when they're in the rocks it's harder for the birds to get to them and swallow them up.

From the plants that come back from the root we have the purple cone flower, hollyhock, a wide variety of iris, daylily, ferns, a basil plant that just didn't want to die, lemongrass, fennel, and onion.

The survivors who stayed green and happy all winter were oregano, thyme, lavender, green onion, rosemary, the monster beet, and of course the live oak.

We've planted seeds, starting from north to south, for corn, bush beans, beets, carrots, onion, and radishes.

Plants we've put in as plants are tomato, thyme, and rue (near our rose bush out front).  So far everything seems to be acclimating well.  the tomatoes, which usually droop a little at first, never even tipped a leaf.  We actually planted two thyme plants, a lemon thyme next to the one that's finally acclimating well and a yellow leaf thyme out near the fennel.

Fall Tomatoes

Even after being run over with a trailer and sat on by neighborhood cats, my tomato plants are still trying to produce tomatoes for me.  The first couple had some bugs but there are several that are doing really well.
The weather seems to want to cooperate with me too.  No freezing temperatures in the near forecast and plenty of sun. All I have to do is keep them watered and happy and we'll have some good pasta sauce in our future.  Likewise the basil plants are continuing to grow and look healthy.  We'll probably harvest them soon and make more pesto and save some for making sauce.
The beet plant is still getting bigger but no flower stalks yet, a few more weeks of waiting and we'll see what happens.