Thursday, July 24, 2008

Freaky Weather

We have been having freaky storms recently. Huge thunderstorms are going through and beating the ground with sheeting rain and heavy winds. Then it clears up for a while and repeats. The lightning has been intense. I have one friend who lost her internet and one that lost his tv and wii. I've been turning the computer off and unplugging it a lot. Everything we own is on surge protectors, but they aren't always enough.

The garden is having its own issues. We have had about three inches of rain in the last few days. My newly germinated carrots are getting beat into the ground. I'm hoping the poor little things survive. I do have time to reseed if necessary, but I'd rather not. My dill and coriander are heavy with their seeds. The wind is knocking them around. I'm surprised most of the dill is not on the ground yet. A little has had to be propped up but most is just leaning over and still standing. These plants have been blooming for about a month and I wish they would set their seed already so I can pull them up and get some light into my other plants. It is the problem with collecting your own seed. They take so much time to do it. I really should limit how many plants I let go to seed. It would open so much more space up. My coriander crop will be huge.

I picked my first jalapeño today to eat with lunch. I had a quesadilla with garden fare thrown on the top: jalapeño, green onion, cucumber, tons of Sungold tomatoes and lettuce. Yum.

I'm still anticipating my first non-cherry tomato. The Aussie tomato is pictured above. It has a nice red blush to it. There is only one full size one right now. I have a few setting that are a couple of inches across, but they have a long way to go before they get their full size. This is a really big tomato. The Orange Blossom tomatoes are pictured below. They are much smaller and more numerous, but they are a determinate plant. I think they have set all the fruit that they are going to, 7 tomatoes. The plant is tiny - probably about 16" tall and not getting any bigger. It only set two clusters. So it hasn't been very prolific. It is supposed to be an early tomato. At 60 days I should have started picking them a week ago. My Sungolds were two days early. My Aussie is probably running early. At 75 days it has eight more days to get ripe. I know that tomatoes vary in time, but I'm guessing my early tomato will be at least two weeks late. Though you can see that one has a slight blush on it, so it is on its way. My basil can't wait and keeps trying to blossom. I have to restrain it.

4 comments:

  1. Your tomatoes look great! I hope the weather stops being freaky so that everything has a chance to straighten up. I love rain, but not the kind that beats your plants to death.

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  2. WOw, look at those tomatoes!! Coming along very nicely. Makes me wish I had planted more larger varieties. Sorry about your weather!

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  3. Thanks all. I actually only have the two plants of large tomatoes (and two cherries). I've always planted seven every year, but this year I wanted to try eggplant, so had to give space in the rotation in this bed. I also ended up pulling one diseased plant out. So now it is just four. But that is ok. I have a great place to buy cheap and tasty tomatoes in August. I have a local farm that sells huge baskets of them for $10 each year. They are tasty vine ripened, non-shippable type of tomatoes. I'll just have to wait a little longer for them. Of course mine will be better :> but these are close.

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