Getting away is great - Sue and I love road trips. But a road trip in gardening season - especially then things are ripening, crosses are taking, weather is hot and the garden gets dry quickly - causes a bit of angst. But, our daughter Caitlin and our neighbor Ray kept everything healthy and happy, and I just came in from a morning of observing, photographing and harvesting. Things are cooking out there!
First, for the side straw bale garden, most of the action is in the front right greens bales (collards, kale, chard), and the rear squash bales. In fact, miracle of miracles, I picked our first zucchini today, as well as a nice white patty pan. I am fine with that - there are plenty of bales ready for later planted potatoes, radishes, and garlic - and the rabbit is still about. Plus, the pots of bush beans that I planted in the driveway are up and growing well. Most impressive may be the various hibiscus blooming in the rear!
First, for the side straw bale garden, most of the action is in the front right greens bales (collards, kale, chard), and the rear squash bales. In fact, miracle of miracles, I picked our first zucchini today, as well as a nice white patty pan. I am fine with that - there are plenty of bales ready for later planted potatoes, radishes, and garlic - and the rabbit is still about. Plus, the pots of bush beans that I planted in the driveway are up and growing well. Most impressive may be the various hibiscus blooming in the rear!
And now on to the rest of the driveway - especially the Dwarfs in straw bales. The news is mostly great; ripe fruit is showing up everywhere. Newly ripened varieties are Summertime Gold (which indeed looks very much like Mr Snow, but the inside is different - it is something distinctive, for sure), Dwarf Kelly Green, Sleeping Lady, Dwarf Emerald Giant, Dwarf Blazing Beauty, and Sweet Scarlet Dwarf - which, alas, is orange (it is really hard to stabilize red fruited dwarfs - the dominant trait is harder to get stable!). A few other dwarfs - grown in 5 gallon grow bags - ripened; an unexpected dwarf from the purple fruited selection of Burgundy Traveler - which is a nice smooth medium sized purple - and a real shocker! When I planted Ferris Wheel for seedlings, some dwarfs emerged - I have a potato leaf and regular leaf examples both growing. The regular leaf dwarf ended up producing the whitest dwarf tomato I've seen - 6 ounces, oblate, and nice and smooth in shape. We shall see how it tastes!
Disease-wise, I've already reported on the demise of Dwarf Wild Fred and Dwarf Pink Passion. Others showing significant struggles now are Dwarf Blazing Beauty, Summer Sunrise, Sweet Adelaide, and Dwarf Purple Heart - but, still, I am delighted that so many are thriving - it's been pretty challenging heat this summer.
Lots of indeterminate tomatoes are ripening - my own hybrids, Chocky (from Cherokee Chocolate X Dwarf Mr. Snow) and Morty (from Summer Sunrise X Mullens Mortgage Lifter) are impressive - the former is a smooth 8 ounce red, and latter a near pound oblate pink. We are eating plenty of deck-growing Sun Gold, and Tiger Tom is blushing. I picked the first purple fruited selection from Burgundy Traveler (smooth and purple and round), Arkansas Traveler (round and pink and medium sized), Rosso Sicilian, Yellow White and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye.
There are peppers, peppers everywhere, but they are essentially all at the unripe color (except for Red Belgium...and there are blushing patches on Feherezon, Alma and Lydia). Padron is a machine - there is a bag of about 50 of them in the fridge. Finally, it was a monster eggplant harvest - 20 or so beauties, all sorts of shapes and sizes.
Disease-wise, I've already reported on the demise of Dwarf Wild Fred and Dwarf Pink Passion. Others showing significant struggles now are Dwarf Blazing Beauty, Summer Sunrise, Sweet Adelaide, and Dwarf Purple Heart - but, still, I am delighted that so many are thriving - it's been pretty challenging heat this summer.
Lots of indeterminate tomatoes are ripening - my own hybrids, Chocky (from Cherokee Chocolate X Dwarf Mr. Snow) and Morty (from Summer Sunrise X Mullens Mortgage Lifter) are impressive - the former is a smooth 8 ounce red, and latter a near pound oblate pink. We are eating plenty of deck-growing Sun Gold, and Tiger Tom is blushing. I picked the first purple fruited selection from Burgundy Traveler (smooth and purple and round), Arkansas Traveler (round and pink and medium sized), Rosso Sicilian, Yellow White and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye.
There are peppers, peppers everywhere, but they are essentially all at the unripe color (except for Red Belgium...and there are blushing patches on Feherezon, Alma and Lydia). Padron is a machine - there is a bag of about 50 of them in the fridge. Finally, it was a monster eggplant harvest - 20 or so beauties, all sorts of shapes and sizes.
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