Harvest Monday - September 11, 2017

Tomato harvests are picking up. The first of the big beefsteak types were ready to harvest this week. It's a variety that I've been growing for a few years now, Chianti Rose is a cross between Brandywine and an unnamed Italian variety. It's well adapted to the climate here and reliably sets a good number of tomatoes through the cool summer nights. It also very tasty!

Chianti Rose

The rodents have been raiding the tomatoes so when the first Chianti Rose fruits started to develop some color I took a piece of some old row cover fabric and tied it around the ripening fruits. The rats could chew through the fabric if they wanted to, they certainly have done so elsewhere in the garden, but they seem to prefer easier targets so I was really relieved when I uncovered this bunch and found them to be unmolested.

Here's what the Damn Rodents will do to unprotected ripe tomatoes. I went through the tomato patch on Sunday and covered up all the large fruited tomatoes that were starting to ripen. It's not practical to swaddle the cherry tomatoes so my strategy with them is to pick them a bit under ripe since the Damn Rodents seem to prefer perfectly ripe tomatoes.

As you can see there was quite a parade of tomatoes, especially cherry tomatoes.

Jaune Flamme, Marzano Fire, Chianti Rose, Mavritanskite

Marzano Fire

Some sweet peppers have been trickling in too.

Marzano Fire & Jaune Flamme Tomatoes
Petit Marseillais & Violet Sparkle Peppers

Violet Sparkle

I harvested the first Shepherd's Ramshorn pepper fairly green because the tip of the pepper was resting on the soil and had started to spoil. I'm harvesting all of the peppers before they fully ripen to try to beat the rodents to the harvest.

Shepherd's Ramshorn, Petit Marseillais, Gogosar

And then there were more of the usual suspects. The Romanesco zucchini is quickly winding down though because the plant is fast being overcome by powdery mildew.

Romanesco Zucchini, Green Fingers & Chelsea Prize Cucumbers

The Tromba D'Albenga vines put out one big flush of squash and now are taking a rest, probably a prolonged one since I cut the vines back quite severely because they were spreading across the ground and providing cover for burrowing rodents. The burrowing seems to have let up for now because I've deprived the Damn Critters of the cozy vine coverage.

Tromba D'Albenga 

That's the latest from my garden. I'll end with a shot of one of my favorite critters that hangs out in the garden, a Western Fence Lizard. I call this particular one "Mr. Funky Tail" for an obvious reason.

Mr. Funky Tail

Mr. Funky Tail very obligingly gave me a lesson in what lizard poop looks like just before he posed for this shot. I always thought those little doo doos were either bird or rodent poop, but now I know better. I learn something new all the time! (I'll spare you a photo of the specimen.)

Harvest Monday is hosted by Dave on his blog Our Happy Acres, head on over there to see what other garden bloggers have been harvesting lately.