The weather is much more civilized today. Yesterday the temperature peaked at 100+F. This morning the valley was blanketed in cooling fog - yeah! The fog cleared out early and now the temperatures are in the mid 70'sF. Aaaah, relief. So, on with the garden update based on the photos I took on the 28th. Here's the view down the center path.
Looking down on the garden from the hillside.
Another angle of the garden from the hill. You can see a pall of smoke on the horizon. That's from wild fires burning in the county. Later in the day the smoke worked its way up the valley.
The (mostly) pepper bed.
The eggplant is coming along. The plants in the foreground had all their lower leaves munched by rabbits. And, yes, that is a rat trap in front of the stump from the rat-tail radishes in the lower right. I cut all the rat-tail radishes down last week because they were shading the peppers and eggplant too much.
The mild chinense peppers are doing well, so far, under their covers. They were getting sunburned earlier so I covered all of them. I don't generally start harvesting chinense peppers until October or later. These plants are just starting to bloom.
The "Palace King" Japanese cucumbers are starting to climb their trellis.
And there's little baby cucumbers developing. Unfortunately, two days of triple digit temperatures have turned a number of the leaf edges crisp. I haven't checked on the baby cukes yet.
The end of the pepper bed is home to a couple of "Magdalena Big Cheese" winter squash. Under the water bottles (rat protection) are some frisee seedlings.
And one small Berrettina Piacentina winter squash.
In the morning I've noticed that the soil at the base of the upright leaves on the Magdalena Big Cheese is moist. The dew condenses on the leaves and trickles down the leaf stems and wets the soil. You can just barely see the root that develops on the stem at the leaf node, it goes straight down into the soil.
The remains of my current attempt to grow beets. The rats and the heat have been doing them in.
The bed across the path is home to tomatoes and tomatillos. Looking down the center of the tomato jungle...
The plants have topped their cages and are leaning over the path on this side.
Tomatillos and basil at one end of the bed.
Lots of lovely green tomatoes, this one is pretty. Can't wait for some ripe ones...
And this one is "Chocolate Stripes". Still waiting...
These "Giantesque" tomatoes look promising.
But no, they all have blossom end rot.
The "Blue Beech" paste tomatoes are starting to ripen. The tomatoes look good in spite of the plants looking bad.
Look at that mess. I think I may be responsible for that... a bit too strong of a sulfur solution perhaps.
Purple Tomatillos, aren't they lovely!
The foliage on the "Plaza Latina Giant" tomatillo seems to be developing some fungal problems though.
Looking down on the garden from the hillside.
Another angle of the garden from the hill. You can see a pall of smoke on the horizon. That's from wild fires burning in the county. Later in the day the smoke worked its way up the valley.
The (mostly) pepper bed.
The eggplant is coming along. The plants in the foreground had all their lower leaves munched by rabbits. And, yes, that is a rat trap in front of the stump from the rat-tail radishes in the lower right. I cut all the rat-tail radishes down last week because they were shading the peppers and eggplant too much.
The mild chinense peppers are doing well, so far, under their covers. They were getting sunburned earlier so I covered all of them. I don't generally start harvesting chinense peppers until October or later. These plants are just starting to bloom.
The "Palace King" Japanese cucumbers are starting to climb their trellis.
And there's little baby cucumbers developing. Unfortunately, two days of triple digit temperatures have turned a number of the leaf edges crisp. I haven't checked on the baby cukes yet.
The end of the pepper bed is home to a couple of "Magdalena Big Cheese" winter squash. Under the water bottles (rat protection) are some frisee seedlings.
And one small Berrettina Piacentina winter squash.
In the morning I've noticed that the soil at the base of the upright leaves on the Magdalena Big Cheese is moist. The dew condenses on the leaves and trickles down the leaf stems and wets the soil. You can just barely see the root that develops on the stem at the leaf node, it goes straight down into the soil.
The remains of my current attempt to grow beets. The rats and the heat have been doing them in.
The bed across the path is home to tomatoes and tomatillos. Looking down the center of the tomato jungle...
The plants have topped their cages and are leaning over the path on this side.
Tomatillos and basil at one end of the bed.
Lots of lovely green tomatoes, this one is pretty. Can't wait for some ripe ones...
And this one is "Chocolate Stripes". Still waiting...
These "Giantesque" tomatoes look promising.
But no, they all have blossom end rot.
The "Blue Beech" paste tomatoes are starting to ripen. The tomatoes look good in spite of the plants looking bad.
Look at that mess. I think I may be responsible for that... a bit too strong of a sulfur solution perhaps.
Purple Tomatillos, aren't they lovely!
The foliage on the "Plaza Latina Giant" tomatillo seems to be developing some fungal problems though.
Sad to see the blossom end rot on the tomatoes. The rest all looks good, though. especially the purple tomatoes which I haven't seen before. The temperatures are a bit more civilised here, too, although we never get fog here - it's too dry. Your fires have made the news over here too. I hope they don't get closer to you and that they're extinquished soon.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you're right – I was a bit too hasty to pull out my really seriously bad looking tomato plants last summer. The fruit did still look good... I'll never know, but next year I'll try to be more patient.
ReplyDeleteIs Zeke the Rodenator earning his keep?
Those fires look terrible on the news! Ah, blossom end rot, a few of mine had that and now I know what it's called.
ReplyDeleteChaiselongue, hmm, that was a bit misleading about the Giantesque tomatoes, only the ones in the photo have BER, there are others on the plant that look very good. I guess tomatillos are unusual in Europe? The fires are far enough away to not be a menace but close enough to make it smokey on occasion. The worst ones are far to the south in the L.A. area.
ReplyDeleteJamie, I find it very difficult to be patient with tomatoes. The Rodenator has been doing a good job, he took care of the rabbit problem and is working on the rats. I don't let him into the veggie garden though, so that slows him down a bit.
Jan, I remember hearing about the fires in your part of the world a while back, now it's our turn here. It's the season... It seems like there are only a few of the tomato plants that have BER on some fruits, they must be susceptible varieties.
ReplyDeleteThose chocolate stripes tomatoes look so pretty. I hope you show us a photo when they ripen. I like the purple tomatillos too.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, Should any of them ever ripen and get into the harvest basket I'll show them on a Monday. But I'm starting to wonder if what's making my tomato plants ugly is my fault or something else....
ReplyDelete