Birth Announcement We Have Tomato Sprouts

While most were out celebrating on New Year's Eve, I was planting tomato seeds.  This might seem very early to begin planting, but I plant out my tomato seedlings in mid-March, they will be large strong plants by that time and able to withstand the cooler temperatures.

Photo's taken on January 6, 2014

Green Zebra (2) Dr. Wyche's (2) Gold Medal (2)

German Queen (2) Cherokee Purple (4) plants

 San Marzano (3) Southern Night (1) Flame/Hillbilly (2) plants

 Not showing yet is Green Grape (1)  Brown Cherry (1) Sundrop Orange Cherry (1) Bi-color Cherry (1) plants.  In the middle is Poha (Physalis peruviana) also known as Cape Gooseberry and Peruvian Groundcherry (2) this is seeds I saved from my plants last year and I sure hope they come in because the fruit is delicious.

Not showing yet is Big White Pink Stripe (2) Black Krim (2) Chocolate Stripe (2) plants

 This is the same group of seedlings with photo taken on Jan 8.  Some seeds are not coming in so I will re-seed again.  Some of the seed packages I have are a year or two old and may not make it. I have plenty of seeds to germinate and plenty of time yet to try.  I am giving these a few hours of sun from the window each day now. I also will hook up a grow bulb tomorrow to give them more hours of light.

This tray still not showing their faces, Big White Pink Stripe, Black Krim, and Chocolate Stripe

Still no sign of Green Zebra, will need to re-seed this one as it is one of our favorites.

This tray is a no show yet.  These are a blend of cherry tomatoes called Rainbow Blend from Botanical Interests.  The seeds are several years old and may not show. I will plant more in here and see if they will come in.

Henderson's Ponderosa is coming in very well with most seeds already up.  I will have at least 6 of these plants. One of my favorites, very prolific and is really nice for canning and freezing whole.

At least two of German Queen is up now and this was seed that I had for 2 years from Seeds of Change.  Cherokee Purple is from Botanical Interests and some seeds I saved from years past.

San Marzano and Flame, also known as Hillbilly coming in strong. I will have at least four San Marzano.

I have already used all of my canned and frozen tomatoes so this year I will be planting far more tomatoes. In the past I have had at least 12 plants, but last year I only put in 6 plus two cherry tomato plants. Not enough!

Tomato Update 2013 and, Lots of Links from Past Years Summer and Winter Garden Beds

I was so busy with my kitchen projects that I didn't take a lot of photos of our tomatoes this year.

First of all, we generally only grow Indeterminate tomatoes. We built heavy-duty wood 8 foot cages a few years ago, see the links at the bottom for photos.

We only grew 9 tomato plants this year but boy did we have a nice harvest.  The only one that didn't do as well as the others was San Marzano.  This was a plant that I purchased at a local nursery and maybe it was marked incorrectly because it never grew that tall.  I have heard that there is a semi-determinate San Marzano and that may be what this plant was. It only made it half-way up the 8 foot cage.  It also could have been a hybrid instead of the heirloom or open-pollinated plants that I normally grow.  The fruit on this plant were much shorter than I have had in the past.  Most of them were not much over 3 inches and were not the 'pointy' long looking 5" San Marzano's that I am use to growing.   I also remember that most of the tomatoes came in at the same time which is why I think it was a semi-determinate hybrid.  I only preserved 5 pints of San Marzano this year.  Next year I think I will grow from the seed I get from Baker Creek Rare Seeds. 

All of the other varieties that we grew did very well.   

Goliath, was a real winner and produced all summer.  It is an early producer and a perfect size for canning or freezing.  The tomatoes are meaty,  4" + across and heavy, 1 to 3 pounds.  They have great flavor and a strong, upright tall indeterminate plant. It reached well over 9-10 feet, two feet over the top of our 8 foot cages; I had to let it bend over the top to the San Marzano cage next to it and it just kept on growing, producing more and more flowers as it grew!  Goliath is an heirloom variety dating back to the late 1800's.  Heavy plant, give it lots of room and support early on. This tomato will be on my list for next year.

Cherokee Purple, was another winner, this is always on our repeat planting list!  This plant was loaded with large, fabulous flavored tomatoes. We had many that were just under the 2# size.  An old Cherokee Indian heirloom, pre-1890. Indeterminate plant, heavy vines, give it lots of room and heavy support.

Gold Medal, is not a heavy producer but if you like the pretty yellow-red stripes on this tomato you will want to add it to your list of winners.  It always produces large, sweet fruit. Many reaching the 2 pound mark.

Dr. Wyche's, one of our all time favorites is another one that is a low producer but worth giving it space.  It is a huge, yellow, sweet tomato.   An Indeterminate, Heirloom variety.

Stupice,  is a small, salad tomato with fantastic flavor. This tomato is originally from Czechoslovakia, it is a heavy producer and an Indeterminate tomato. I still have this one growing as it shows no signs of stopping yet and the plant looks healthy.

Green Zebra, was a volunteer plant from last year that came up next to Stupice.  We decided to leave it and see how it would do. Good thing we did because this was the only green tomato that we had this year. I do love Green Zebra!  Indeterminate tomato.  Not a true Heirloom as it was only developed in 1985 but it is on its way to being America's favorite green-stripe tomato.  This one is still growing and is giving us tomatoes so we will leave it until the end of the month or if the weather holds out, both Stupice and Green Zebra will be still growing until December.

We planted two cherry tomatoes this year. One was an Heirloom Black Cherry and the other was a Super-Sweet 100 Red Cherry.  We loved the Black Cherry, it had nice size round fruit, super sweet with a grape or cherry flavor. Dark purple, it looks like mini Cherokee Purple tomatoes.  Super Sweet 100 was a new hybrid that had tiny fruit and the skins broke at the stem end as soon as you picked it.  This is not good if you want to store them in a bowl on the counter. It encouraged fruit flies in the kitchen.  I kept a bowl of cider vinegar next to the bowl to keep them away but with not much luck.  This one will not be on list for next year, but Black Cherry will definitely go on the list.

Except for Stupice and Green Zebra, we have pulled up the plants and are now preparing the beds for the winter garden. I would have liked to keep the rest of the tomatoes growing until December, but we don't have a lot of space.  I may need to devote more space to veggies and less to flowers in the future. With water costs rising all the time, we can't afford to grow roses! 

I bought 20 bags of organic manure and organic soil amendment Saturday.  We dug up the beds yesterday and put in all the goodies, covered the bed with plastic to warm it up and I will plant next week.  The Farmer's Almanac moon planting guides states not to plant seed today, so I will take the day off and relax and plan the gardens.

Here are some links to past years varieties and photos. Since I didn't take a lot of photos this year, these links will give you some idea as to how well tomatoes do for us.

2010 New Tomato Cages and Varieties ( these cages were the first ones we built for the raised beds)

2010 Tomato Photos and Review

2011 Tomato Update

2012 Tomato List

2012 105 Tomatoes in 2 Days

2012 Still Picking

New Cages for 2012  (scroll down to the bottom of the photos to see the new cages.  These are the cages I use along the driveway)

The links below will give you an idea of what we plant and harvest around here in the winter months.

2011 Winter Garden Beds

2012 Winter Garden Beds

2010 Winter Garden Beds

RED DRAGON FLY ON IRIS SEED HEAD September 2013

Long Overdue Post on the Garden!

 Heartsease moved in last spring on the West side pathway. I love this cheerful plant and am so happy to see it growing and blooming in every nook and cranny of the stepping stones. It does make for some eye-to-ground closeup weeding though! There are so many that are still coming in.


The kitchen remodel is about finished and with the sun shining just about every day now I needed to get going with some planting and spend more time outdoors.  I planted 6 tomato plants yesterday; this year I am trying to scale back some and will try to keep it around 10 plants.  We will see how I do...

San Marzano, my all time favorite paste tomato.

Gold Medal; I grew this one last year and the fruit is huge, over a pound to a pound and a half in weight.

Cherokee Purple, always a favorite.

Black Heirloom cherry tomato

Goliath, this one is new for me this year

Super Sweet 100 Cherry (hybrid) Tomato; this is an improved variety of Sweet 100.  The flavor of this cherry tomato is so sweet and wonderful that even though it is not an heirloom I wanted to plant one. It bears long clusters of sweet, juicy fruit. I will snack on these while I work at tying up the indeterminate tomatoes this year!

That's it for tomatoes, now on to some more goodies I found while strolling through the garden this morning...

It was early when I went out and the mist was still in the air.

 

Heartsease has been very busy while I worked on the kitchen, reseeding itself over the fall and winter into every little space it could find. 

These two Cymbidiums have been blooming for weeks. They are showing a bit of brown on the edges of the flowers now with the sun coming in stronger and more sun is hitting them.  We had one of our  pine trees  trimmed severely a couple of months ago, and I am regretting that now.  

Above, is a Galangal (rhizome) plant that I purchased last fall at City Farmers Nursery. I need to find a space for it somewhere so it can spread out.  It will get very tall, around 5 feet. Galangal is used in Thai foods, you may have seen a chunk of the rhizome in soups.

Pineapple plant is coming along nicely. We started this last fall from a pineapple we bought at the farmers market. 

Espazote  (epəˈzōtā)  plant, used in Mexican cooking is waiting to be planted out in the herb garden.  I am sure if I looked around the property I would find this "weed" growing but since I have not taken the time yet, I bought one at the farmer's market instead. It is good in beans, and is supposed to reduce the gas!  Although, you must not use but a few leaves in your dishes as the plant is Poisonous in very large quantities.  

Clivia in full bloom, but again with the sun beating down on them I am not sure how well they will withstand the suns ray and heat this summer. I am hoping that the Liquid Elms will provide enough shade for them now that the Pine tree won't be able to.

Madarense Geranium

I will leave you with a few more beauties that were showing off for me this morning.

Earl of Essex

Sage in the herb garden

Narcissus on the front bank

Pink rose in front, not sure if this one is Cecile Brunner or not.  It was a cutting from an old German gardener I met a few years back and he couldn't remember the name. It grows tall with a sprawling habit, might be a Blush Noisette; whatever the name it is beautiful!

Violets coming in everywhere!

"Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it."

-Mark Twain

Still Picking Tomatoes...

I am picking about 100+ tomatoes every other day, or so.  My dining room table has become the holding place until I can get to them to can and freeze. So far I have put up 16 quarts.  About a third of these are stewed tomatoes and the rest whole or cut tomatoes and a few pints of sauce. 

The San Marzano tomato plants were pretty much a loss this year. Most ended up with blossom end rot.  I have planted two more plants in different locations in the hopes that we will have a long summer and they will produce the wonderful plum tomato I like to use for roasting for sauce.  If not I will just use the tomatoes we are so lucky to have now.

This year the Ponderosa, a new variety for me, is really doing well.  The plant is loaded and for the last week I have been picking daily.

Mortgage Lifter is another heavy producer but these are salad size tomatoes and take a lot of time to fill a jar for canning.  I don't think I will bother with this one next year. If you are looking for a good salad tomato, this would be the right one to choose.

Gold Medal is a large yellow tomato with red stripes, a beefsteak tomato.  We have two or three of these plants and they are all producing huge fruit, I picked one a couple of days ago and it weighed in at 1.5 pounds.

Big White Pink Stripe is not a white tomato at all but a yellow with red stripes.  Huge fruit and very meaty like a beefsteak.  I like this one and it is visually pleasing on the plate.  It is very similar to Gold Medal.

Also doing well is Green Zebra and Black Krim. Black Krim is another beauty when sliced.  I have canned all but the Green Zebra as it is just ripening now.  The Black Krim, Cherokee Purple and Annas Russian Pink look beautiful in the jars. Black Krim of course is gorgeous with the dark purple color and green seeds.  Probably the prettiest canned tomatoes I have ever made.

Paul Robeson Black did not produce well for me but what I did get was good and very pretty.  All of the tomatoes I planted this year have had wonderful flavor.

Persimmon, a yellow/orange tomato is not ripe yet but should be coming in soon.  The plants are sparse with fruit; not sure what happened but last year I had a lot of this variety.  German Queen is ripening now and will be a good one to can. 

Purple Russian is one I will repeat next year. It is a dark purple egg shaped fruit and is very meaty.  I made some sauce with this one and it was very tasty and the color was fantastic.

Southern Night is another dark purple tomato.  The plants are loaded with fruit, I am picking over 12 a day.

I also managed to make some Peach Jam and Jalapeno Peach Jam.  

I Bought A Pet Tomato

I bought a pet tomato
and I tried to teach him tricks,
but he wasn't any good at
catching balls or fetching sticks.

He could never catch a Frisbee,
and he wouldn't sit or speak,
though we practiced every afternoon
and evening for a week.

He refused to shake or wave or crawl
or beg or take a bow,
and I tried, but couldn't make him bark
or get him to meow.

He was excellent at playing dead.
However, he couldn't jump a rope.
When he wouldn't do a single trick
I simply gave up hope.

Though I liked my pet tomato,
I returned him with regret.
Boy, I sure do hope this watermelon
makes a better pet.
 -Devang Gandhi

Potatoes, Tomatoes and Onions OH MY! A Gardener's Breakfast

Lots of photos today to keep my garden journal up to date.

My tomatoes have almost doubled in size since my last post.  The summer squash is growing incredibly fast this year; I have already picked three squash.  We had Calabacitas con maiz for dinner last night. YUM, thanks to my friend Sylvia for the recipe!

 Swiss Chard, Ponderosa Tomato, Yellow Crookneck Squash

 Southern Night Tomato in 2 cages, Gold Medal Tomato, Cocozelle Stripe Zucchini

 All Three Beds

Better view of Bed 1 here: 2 San Marzano's, Purple Russian, Paul Robeson black, Persimmon Orange

 Bed 1: San Marzano 2 plants, Ruby Red Swiss Chard along bricks in front.

San Marzano Reaching for the Sky! At 6 feet here.

 Bed 2: Green Zebra, Cherokee Purple, Big White Pink, Gold Medal, German Queen and Anna Russian Pink

Bed 3: Gold Medal, Crimson Carmello, Mortgage Lifter, Black Krim, Big White Pink Stripe, Garlic on this end. This cage is 7 feet tall, you can see the tomatoes are at about 5-6 feet now.

 Volunteer tomato I replanted in bed 4.  I think this is a San Marzano Plum tomato that came up on the front bank. 1 Eggplant and more potatoes, I think these are Yukon Golds.

 Newly planted tomatoes with bunny guards. I also made pots out of this chicken wire and buried to plant the seedlings in, all of our beds are first lined with chicken wire to keep the gophers out., 2 Ponderosa and 1 Cherokee Purple planted here. Still have about 20 more seedlings but I am pretty much out of space to plant. Loquat tree in background that we planted last October.

Miniature corn that Tony planted. We only have 6 plants but this one stalk has 5 cobs on it! At least we will have a few meals with our own organic non GM Corn!!

Another view of the summer squash on the front bank. These are over 3 feet already, if they grow as good as last year they will cover this entire area.

 Onions from last years seed.

More onion on the front bank just behind the summer squash and tomatoes. I also have hidden, two Eggplants that I need to relocate, I thought I would harvest the onions when they were small but they are getting huge here so I will leave them for drying in the fall.  No doubt the squash to the right will cover these but I don't think it will bother them too much but I do need to find the Eggplants before too long and move those.

 Adirondack Blue Potatoes under a Valencia orange tree.

 La Ratte Fingerling Potato under a Grapefruit tree.

 Purple Peruvian Potato under a Tangerine tree.

 Sangre Potato under a Navel orange tree. All of my seed potatoes were purchased from Ronniger PotatoFarm

 Scallop squash and a mystery squash. (see photo below) growing under a Tangerine tree.

My morning harvest.  Rocket Arugula, Easter Egg blend radishes, a mystery summer squash that came up on its own, an Heirloom Scallop squash, Ruby Red and Fordhook Swiss Chard, all from Botanical Interests Seeds (see the link on the side). Cilantro, Dill and Chives did not make the picture.

My Gardener's Breakfast this morning. Easter Egg and Black Spanish Radishes with a farmer's market cucumber (mine are still in the growing stages) Rocket Arugula, toast with Greek yogurt blended with fresh herbs from the herb garden. Your day can't begin any better than this!

My gardens sweet, enclosed with walles strong, embarked with benches to sytt and take my rest. The Knotts so enknotted, it cannot be exprest. With arbours and alys so pleasant and so dulce, the pestylant ayers with flavours to repulse.

Thomas Cavendish, 1532.