August Tomato Update 2014 and Plans for the Winter Garden

I spent most of yesterday morning pulling up the tomatoes along the driveway.  With the heat, wind and drought this year I didn't get the production off these plants that I had hoped for.  The tomatoes at my community plot also had low production.  We had a total of  23 plants plus 4 cherry tomato varieties between the two locations.  Oh, we had plenty to eat, but I was expecting a mother load from all these plants!

For some reason the 5 plants, plus the 4 cherry tomato plants I have growing in the grove are still doing very well, with no signs of blight.  They reached the top of the 8 foot cages in July, began growing over and towards the navel orange tree which grows behind their bed on the east side.  I will leave these in and continue to feed and water them.  We may still be picking from these 5 plants well into December.  Not sure how long the cherry tomatoes will produce with the sun moving more towards the southwest side of the house, and that may be a problem.  I don't think it will shine on them for more then 4-5 hours.  We will just wait and see what kind of weather we get moving towards fall.  Soon, I will need the raised bed space that these tomatoes are using for my winter garden.

I read on a local garden site that many gardeners had the same problem with their tomatoes; probably due to late season blight.

I did harvest enough tomatoes to freeze 6 quarts of whole, oven roasted tomatoes, some sauce and a few jars of salsa, but that was it.  I still have enough green tomatoes on the counter that will continue to ripen from what I picked off the vines yesterday.

Moving on: I am now planning my winter garden and have started planting in my seed starter trays already this morning. The moon is almost full and a perfect time to start more seeds.

I ordered these seeds from Botanical Interests Seeds, I have a link to their site on the right side of my blog.

I still need to order from Kitazawa Seeds,  I like the Asian greens varieties they have. Plus, they are out of CA which is nice, the order will come quickly.

 Do you save all of your old catalogs?  I do, I actually order online but I love to browse through the pages and I also cut out photos of what I am growing each season and paste them in my journal.  Yes, even though I blog I still keep a garden journal.  I keep it with me when I am out in the beds so I can make notes on what I am planting and what is doing well or not.  Also I am getting old and forgetful so this helps me when checking back from year to year.