Have picked about 4 cups of Chocolate Cherry Tomatoes in the last few days. That’s on top of the 8? cups picked before this week. More are on the way, in varying stages of maturing and ripeness.
So good simply popped in my mouth – not all make it inside – in salads, baked in a little olive oil with garlic, rosemary, and pepper.
Yum.
We grow a few of many things in our small garden.
Todays’ harvest: jalapenos, ‘ugly’ tomatoes (which are volunteers from last years’ effort), Chocolate Cherry tomatoes, tomatillos (also volunteers), beans, a cayenne pepper, ground cherries. Also growing: rosemary, spearmint and peppermint, basil and Thai basil, sage.
July 2022. The haskap has grown considerably and shares space with asparagus, strawberries, and sunflowers. Partly or completely obscured by the haskap and asparagus are Chocolate Cherry tomatoes, garlic, beans, tomatillos, broccoli, Chicago figs in pots.
Up against the foundation are ferns, more sunflowers, columbines, Purple Coneflowers, and more stuff I do not remember right now.
Some might call this untidy. Weedy. Even messy.
I say, less lawn to mow. More diverse. More welcoming to birds as well as pollinators and insects.
It is a little hard to see the seven asparagus spears in our small ‘spare grass’ patch. We have already enjoyed several fresh spears. The strawberries are starting to flower (though you cannot see the flowers in this image). The haskap bush in the background has flowered and should set fruit soon.
The three Chocolate Cherry Tomatoes we planted have been more successful than we anticipated. We have picked more than a dozen pints’ worth so far and have many more pints’ worth on the way.
WordPress is not allowing me to upload the photo. Imagine a jungle of three plants, six feet tall by six feet wide. Imagine crawling on elbows and knees into the jungle, looking for ripe tomatoes. This is the happy problem we have.
A very hard freeze is predicted so Faye cleaned up the vegetable garden today. Clockwise from upper left: Tomatoes; tomatillos; honey (not ours – locally sourced); home canned applesauce (not our apples though locally sourced); not quite ripe Chocolate Cherry tomatoes; little bitty poblanos; and jalapenos.
Our garlic is in, forty five bulbs worth. That is enough to plant this fall and have plenty to use in cooking well into, if not all the way through, winter. While probably not enough to be completely self sufficient, it is enough to reduce our dependence on store bought garlic.
Spring will be here soon and our seed order arrived today. Radishes, several different lettuce varieties, snow peas. Buckwheat to sow in the half of the vegetable garden that will lay fallow this year. Flowers including many natives to sow this fall, replacing a good good portion of the turfgrass in the front yard.
A few of our vegetable seedlings, brought outside to begin hardening them off. We look forward to planting, tending, harvesting.
previouslytexan 