Hello everyone! A week went by since I took the last photos of the garden and a lot has changed since then. Mainly the grass and weeds have gotten taller. I tilled the garden a couple of weeks ago then it rained and this and that. SO, I am a little embarrassed to make this post because I normally have a fairly weed free garden. NOT… (well, at least it starts out that way).

The tomato trellising experiment is working really good, so it is doubtful I will ever go back to the old way. The above photo is of one of the 4 ‘German Johnson’ Tomatoes… That is the first one turning and I can hardly wait to taste it! It is an heirloom, so maybe it will be delicious! The tomatoes on this plant are weird shaped but the others are more normal. I just wanted to show you how strange the one on the top looked… The rest of the tomatoes are slightly ribbed.

This is the Tomato ‘Black Krim’. This will be my first ‘black’ tomato so I am very anxious to see what it tastes like. They are supposed to ripen 80 days from transplant but they seem to be growing SSSSLLLLOOOOWWWLLLYYYY… That never made any sense to me anyway. I mean, “from transplant”. What if I direct sow? Does that mean I won’t get any fruit? They are not actually black of course, more of a dark, purply brown kind of. Their flavor is said to be “smoky”. Hmmm…

This is two clusters of Tomato ‘Big Beef’. Earlier, I took a photo of me holding one of the biggest ones that was turning red. It was pretty big. I have already eaten a couple of these and the flavor was, ummm, how do I explain it? Kind of lacking that, ‘OH, WOW! THAT IS SO GOOD” experience.

Well, I don’t know why this photo is a little blurry of the Tomato ‘Celebrity’. These tomatoes are growing among the Asparagus… They are growing in the row so I just ignored them and set out the tomatoes like the Asparagus wasn’t even there. Trust me, it takes a big imagination and a lot of practice. Where was I? Oh, yeah, the ‘Celebrity’ Tomatoes… Well, as you can see, they are doing very well and the tomatoes are blemish free so far. This was the only good photo I could get because the tomatoes are hiding in what I am choosing to ignore.

Last of the tomatoes, but certainly not least are the ‘Goliath’ Tomatoes. Of all the tomato varieties I have grown (lost count) the ‘Goliath’ have been the most vigorous plants, best leaf cover, disease free, and so on. The tomatoes are good sized and rate a 6 or 7 on my flavor scale. (1-10).

When I was a kid, the tomatoes I remember rated an easy 10. That was back when dad grew ‘Rutgers’ and ‘Super Sioux’ (aka. ‘Super Lakota’)… Grandpa’s tomatoes were good, too, but even he didn’t know what kind his were because he saved his own seed for many years. I have grown several heirloom tomato varieties when I was in Mississippi, but that is another story. I will tell you this, though, before I move on. I grew ‘Caspian Pink’ from seed one year because they won the taste test OVER ‘Brandywine’. I only got 1 tomato! Even ‘Mortgage Lifter’ let me down… Several other varieties bred especially for the south couldn’t take the heat and humidity either. The problem with many heirlooms is that their disease tolerance is not as good. They get that leaf curl, rust, and so on that hybrids are resistant to.

Ummm…. This mess is the ‘Top Crop’ Green Beans. Now, folks, I realize that when most people think of a variety of green bean ‘Top Crop’ probably doesn’t even ring a bell. BUT, I was brought up with this old brown seeded variety and so every year I always plant them as my main crop. I have grown and eaten other beans but ‘Top Crop’ has always been my favorite. When I think of ‘Blue Lake’ or a white seeded green bean I think of a can. White seeded green bean varieties have been grown by the commercial growers for years and I do not like beans from a can. I prefer my brown-seeded ‘Top Crop’ fresh, frozen or in a jar. ‘Top Crop’ is an old variety, but they are pretty much stringless even when they get big.

Early last week I look inside the green beans that they were’t near ready to pick. Then Friday I looked and “HOLY CRAP!!!”

Dad always wants me to plant in the sign even if I have to wait longer than I want. SO, I always did as what he wanted to make him happy. This year, I was tired of waiting, so I planted when the almanac said the sign was barren. I KNEW if everything did poorly dad would tell me it was because I didn’t plant in the sign. BUT, we have a bumper crop… Monday-Wednesday I picked green beans… I planted four double rows of green beans about 20′ long, more or less. Monday, about 2/3 of a 5 gallon bucket from not even a whole row. Tuesday, about the same amount from where I left off and about 5 feet of the next row. Wednesday, 8 gallon from the third row. I had already canned 24 pints, and with 30 still left from last year, I decided to give the last 8 gallon away. I still have one row to pick and then……

It will be time to pick the ‘Incredible’ Sweet Corn. The raccoons have not bothered it at all. Maybe that is because of the electric fence. I remember when the neighbors cat thought she was going to get in the garden and got the shock of her life. She flew back home so fast her feet barely even touched the ground. But you know what? The darn little rooster can crawl under the wire and not even get shocked.

I planted ‘Red Russian’ and ‘Dwarf Blue’ Kale this year. The ‘Dwarf Blue’ didn’t even come up and after a few pickings of the ‘Red Russian’, the worms had taken over. I only had a few worms last year and had plenty of Kale to share with them. This year they got greedy and wanted it all. SO, today, I mowed it off so it would start growing new leaves.

This year I am growing the ‘Red Burgundy’ Okra again. It is superior to ‘Burgundy’ in my opinion. It doesn’t yield quite as well as ‘Clemson Spineless’ but that is OK. I had been watching the Okra for a while waiting for some pods…. Today I saw one about a foot long that I had already missed.

Cucumber ‘Early Spring Burpless Hybrid’….

Doing very good. Did you even know a cucumber that didn’t do good?

The Zucchini, on the other hand…. Last year I planted an entire 50′ row of Zucchini because I always had borers in Mississippi. NOT ONE plant died from borers. I had so many Zucchini’s it was NOT FUNNY! This year, I planted just a few in the same row as the Okra. I picked just a few and now the plants are already dead.

‘Henderson’s Baby Lima’ (Bush). I bought this small packet of seeds from Wal-Mart late in the season but they are going pretty good. I grew ‘Thorogreen’ in Mississippi and they did very good. I just needed more than one packet…

The ‘Mammoth’ Sunflowers are doing GREAT and are now budding. You can always tell where the sun is, even on a cloudy day, because they are always looking at it. Wonder what they will do when we have the eclipse?

‘Red Knight’ Sweet Bell Peppers. WELL, all I can say is they they are a pepper. I usually plant ‘Big Bertha’ so looking at these seems strange to me. Much smaller, but I suppose they will taste the same. They are ready to pick in the green stage.

Cabbage ‘Bravo’ full of holes. When I was adding the photos for this post I had forgot to take a photo of the cabbage, so this one is a week old. They are still basically the same with a few more holes. The heads still look good…

He had been in the garden with me for a while but then disappeared. It was was about 8:30 when I left the garden and I didn’t know where the little fart was. He wasn’t in his coop and normally he likes to play around instead of going to bed. He likes to play hard to get sometimes. BUT, it was a little later than normal for his bed time. Then I noticed him “sitting” on top of the chicken house like he was planning to spend the night there. I had to throw sticks at him to get him off.

Well, that’s it for this post. We are getting a thunderstorm right now as I am finishing up this post. Take care, stay healthy, happy and be prosperous. Most of all, GET DIRTY but don’t get to hot.