Simple Garden Made Easy

Harvest August 10

This week was the peak for my tomatoes - I think it's the biggest harvest I've had this year and going forward it will start to decline in numbers, as there aren't that many green tomatoes left on the vines. Though comparing to last year this is nothing. So far the winner of the size this year is German Johnson tomato.

It came in as 1lb 5 oz in weight. Black Giant and Bull's Heart were just few ounces behind it. Many varieties struggled with the heat and humidity, many have been cracking. I don't think I'll be planting that many orange or yellow tomatoes as they really don't keep that long.

Here are the breakdowns in weight for this week.

How's your garden doing this week? Visit Daphne's page and to see others and share your harvest.

Few tomato varieties preview

I often get questions about varieties of tomatoes I grow at home. So here are some to preview from left to right far back row -- red Brandywine, Striped German, Anna Russian, beefsteak;
Next row - black giant, chocolate stripes, big mama (sauce type), Aunt Ruby German green, black Brandywine; next two mixed: Azoychka, purple heart, black from Tula, green zebra, black cherry, Kellogg's breakfast (orange), plum, Caspian pink, black plum, black prince, mortgage lifter.

Purples really are my favorite with Black Brandywine just a hair ahead, though chocolate stripes are really great tasting and definitely a keeper! Azoychka is refreshing and not too sweet; Kellogg's breakfast is the sweetest. Anna Russian is a solid ball with almost no seeds (far back). Black cherry and zebras are great for snacking and in salads. Mortage Lifter is for cooking or sandwiches.

There are other varieties that haven't ripened yet so as they come in I'll take more pictures.

Harvest August 4th

It's been somewhat of a good week mostly, until weekend when I noticed that half of my tomato plants are turned yellow and started dying off. That's pretty much does it for this year - might as well toss in the towel and walk away. It's been really bad year all around and it just got that much worse. I doubt that will get even a 100 lbs of tomatoes this year - last year I got just over 425. So far this year the only thing that was good are alliums (onions and garlic) and cucurbits. Garlic total for this year was close to 7 lbs; onions are pretty good size but yet to be totaled.

These onions were pulled today but need time to cure and dry out before I will measure them. There are more in the beds that I didn't get to yet.

End of July Harvest

This week was finally cool enough to do some work in the garden and keep picking. Not much, but plenty to eat for us, including one of my larger onions - coming at 11.8oz. Loved how it felt in my hand. Also picked were zucchini, soybeans, tomatoes, potatoes and peppers.