Tomato Garden August 2022

 I realized that I've yet to do a post that is solely about my tomato garden area. This was the first year that I've grown tomato from seed. If you haven't done that, I highly encourage people to try it out. It's not as hard as I had made it out to be. They are rather forgiving. Anyhow, I seeded them all in on April 1st and I got them all potted out in mid-June due to wacky weather. We had a super wet June here and most of my warm weather crops are a month behind. No matter. This is the most tomatoes that I've ever grown in a summer and we're already figuring out how to double this amount next year.

These are the tomatoes that are in the first row. I give 1 foot of space for each variety and I have them planted out in 5 gallon grow bags. We have 2 10-foot long, 6-foot high chain length fence panels secured on t-posts and I use plastic clips to secure the plants to the fence.

My first tomatoes are starting to blush. These are Isis Candy Cherry.

Yes, my plants are in various stages of yellow. Due to growing in fabric bags, we have to water more often. Since I have beds/gardens spread out all over the place, it would take hours to walk around to everything and water it. We opted to use sprinklers. It's not the most conducive way to get water to tomato plants as they don't like to have their leaves wet. We have found out that if we water at night, we get less burned leaves. So that's what we do. We put the sprinkler on them for about 30 minutes nightly.

These are Purple Russian tomatoes. They are a plum shaped black variety. The black tomato flavor profile has always been my favorite.

These are the Black Krims and the Red Dumplin Winner Pinks. 
Black Krims are, hands down, my favorite tomato as far as taste goes. I've yet to find another tomato that can beat the taste of a Krim.

Here's a closer look at the Red Dumplin Winner Pink tomatoes. This variety came from Tomato Jim Wyant.

Here's another shot of those Purple Russian tomatoes. They will sure look pretty once they start to blush.

These are baby Orange Jazz tomatoes. I have a particular fondness for orange tomato varieties. I love the flavor of them. Not the yellows so much, but the oranges.

Here's another variety that falls into the orange category that I'm anxious to try. This a Thorburn's Terra Cotta.

This is my group of the 5 tomatoes that I did not grow from seed. The Isis Candy Cherry is one that I bought and the 2 Black Krims, the Purple Russian and the Bonny Best are from my friend, Jean.

Here is Bob's hand for size perspective on these Isis Candy Cherry tomatoes. Like I explained, I know exactly why we have such yellow leaves on there.

Bob's hand for perspective on one of the Black Krims.

Another pair of Black Krims. One can never have too many Black Krim tomatoes to enjoy.

This looking down the middle aisle of the tomato garden from the side that I'm growing Sart Roloise on. Those bigger ones are Bulls Heart Red.

I believe that every single plant has set fruit now. This is a baby Dark Galaxy.

Here's a cluster of Cream Sausage. These are a determinate white paste variety. I'm very anxious to try them and see what a white tomato tastes like. I've never had one.

Everywhere I turn the camera in there, I'm finding more and more tomatoes. These are Cascade Lava.

Here are some of the Opalkas. I have 5 Opalka plants. I'm happy that I was able to get that many! These are for processing.

These are Prairie Fire tomatoes. I purchased the seed for these from Baker Creek. I planted these out to can up. The description said that they are very sweet, so I'm hoping that when I make sauce, I won't need to add very much sugar by adding these in.

Another shot of an Opalka tomato. Opalkas, due to their sheer production, will always have a place in my garden from now on.

No tomato garden would be complete without a picture of our volunteer er...tomato. I had Bob stand in front of it to show how big it's gotten. I don't think it will produce squat but, it's a determined little bugger, so who am I to pull it up? I'll let it go and see what it does.

These Opalkas are odd shaped tomatoes and that's what makes them so easy to identify especially when the names have washed off the tags. Next time, I'll use a pencil.

These are Pink Fang. The seeds came from Baker Creek. These are another paste variety that I planted to grow out for canning up.

Here's my tomato garden oddity. This is a Reisetomate. I've been wanting to grow this particular variety for the past 10 years. I cannot wait to see this ripe. If I like it, I'll grow it again next year to save seeds from. These are also called "Traveler's Tomato".
They are cool to look at because they look like a deformed tomato.

This is my garden beauty this year. This is a Sart Roloise. Once fully ripe, these are white and blue. I can't wait to see this fully ripe. I have 2 of these plants out there on the fence.

Here's another shot of the Reisetomate. It's just really cool and I can't quit looking at it!

Another Sart Roloise. I'm beyond happy that I was able to get these to produce.

This is a Bulls  Heart Red. This is another variety that I planted out for canning.

Baby Prairie Fire tomatoes. I'm pretty pleased with their production. I can't wait to taste these guys.

Here's another shot of the Cascade Lava tomatoes. These are a Brad Gates variety. I grew these out because of the name. I live in the Cascade Mountain foothills and I live very near Mt. St. Helens, so the name means something to me.

And yet more baby Opalkas. What can I say? I have 32 tomato plants and 5 of those are Opalka.

I am also growing 4 tomatillo plants. I planted 2 of them from seed and 2 I bought from our local farmers market because I wasn't sure if I would get the tomatillos that I planted to maturity or not. As it stands right now, I couldn't tell which are the ones that I grew or which are the ones that I bought.

This is a shot from the center aisle of my tomato garden looking out toward our cat pen. It's amazing to me that everywhere I point the camera, there are tomatoes!

Everywhere I look, I've got these small, stunted, sturdy tomato plants producing. It's a marvel to me!

One of my last parting shots of the Sart Roloise. It's just a stunning looking tomato, no matter how you look at it. That's why I put these right at the end of the row, closest to my deck. I want to sit here and look out my dining room window, while I type out this blog post, and look at them.

I did the same thing with the Reisetomate. I put them right at the end of the row, right in my line of sight.

If anyone is curious as to just how big Opalkas get, there's Bob's hand for perspective. Bob is 6'1" and has some catcher's mitts for hands.

 
Here's a more clear shot of my tomatillos. Again, I don't know if I grew this one or not. I just know that all four bushes are producing and they love the hot weather.
I will hopefully not have to purchase supplemental tomatillos for green salsa and enchilada sauce, but if I do, I know that next year, I need to double the amount I grow and I'll put them in the greenhouse.

Oh, yes, before I forget. We ordered another greenhouse like the one we have up, but it's a 20 foot long one.

Tomatillo blossoms. We still need to put a few things in place, such as our fifth wheel hitch.

Here's my tomato garden. I will always grow them up using a chain length fence as a trellis. It's super easy to throw a tarp over the top to protect them if we're looking at getting a deluge of rain.
I also like how neat and tidy this looks. My plan is to get another 2-3 fence panels put up to grow tomatoes on. I just need to figure out where to put them.

I could possibly just continue off the back of these and have rows of 20 instead of 10. We'll have to wait and see.

By garden time next year, that pile of metal will be gone. That's for our canopy that goes over our trailer. As soon as Bob gets a free few days, he's going to pay someone to come up and help him get that thing up over the trailer. I told him he can do it whenever just as long as it's done by this winter.

A parting look at my tomato garden this morning. I love these foggy, overcast mornings, when the sun just starts to push the fog out and then the fog fights back and covers the sun again. It's soothing to me as I sit and look at my tomato garden out of my dining room window, drinking my coffee and writing this blog post.

Thanks for taking the tour with me.

SW Washington State Gardening In August

 I imagine that you guys are getting rather sick and tired of garden posts, but I keep posting them because, having moved up here to this property in January, this is my learning year as far as gardening goes.
I've learned that I can buy the most highly recommended soil out there but if it's deficient, it's not going to work for my garden.
I've learned that daily watering is making my bush beans' leaves turn yellow and I have to give them some epsom salts in hopes of having them green up.
I've learned that I am very capable of growing tomatoes from seed and it really isn't that hard. They are thriving and I can post photos that I take from back in my garden area. I refuse to walk over there without Bob going through first to scare off the snakes. He put some of the metal components to our canopy (the one that goes over the trailer) by there and the snakes hang out and absorb the heat. Nasty. Yuck. I do not like snakes. Where there are snakes, I'm not going there. Period. LOL.
Sue me.

I've learned that I love to grow in a greenhouse! I'm on the hunt for a used high tunnel.

Here are some harvest photos as of late.

This is some Persian basil. It's one of my three heaviest producers out of the nine basil varieties that I planted this year.

I'm going to order some pine nuts from Amazon in the next few days because I really need to make some basil. I'm also going to dehydrate a whole bunch of it to use through the winter.

This was part of today's meager harvest. We're phasing out of the greens/lettuces and peas. They are at the end of their production. I pulled the last few green leaf lettuce plants out and tossed them out where the deer and rabbits could snack on them. Next, I'll be getting the spent pea vines cut out and gone. I do plan on a fall crop of peas, for sure.

I didn't plant all that many beets this year. I just tucked them into my Pride & Joy bed here and there and let them grow. They liked being neighbors with the onions, broccoli, peas, lettuce and cabbage. I'll be planting some cauliflower, kale and different cabbages into that bed this fall. I may seed in some carrots just to see what they will do because they didn't work out too hot where I initially wanted to plant them. I think I'll put in some celery.

We went ahead and harvested our biggest cabbage. It weighs between 7-10 pounds. I have 3 other good sized ones out there still. I'm going to give one to my sister and I'll turn the other 2 into more sauerkraut.

Beans and peas. These beans were from those packs of Dollar Tree beans that I picked up. They were 4 for $1.

The livestock came around yesterday. We will not harm these guys. They can come up here and have a safe place to stay during hunting season. We will not allow hunting on our property. Anyhow, Bob tossed some carrots and old lettuce leaves out for the rabbits and these guys thought they would get in on the snack, too.
I want to make it abundantly clear that neither Bob or I are fans of venison.

This is the view of the greenhouse as you pull into the driveway up here. I, realistically, would like to get 2 more of these if I'm not able to find a used high tunnel somewhere.

This is our strawberry bed. We pulled a few gallons of berries out of there this year. We are going to revamp how we net it next year.

The blackberries that grow wild all over this property are starting to turn ripe. I'd like to get 5 gallons put into the freezer. That would be plenty for jam, pies, BBQ sauce and syrup for the next year.

These are the remaining cabbages in my largest raised bed. One is for my sister and the other 2 are for sauerkraut.

Cabbages in the front and broccoli behind them. Behind the broccoli is a mixture of different things.

Some of the Walla Walla Sweet onions are going to seed, which is fine with me because, that way, I won't have to buy any.

I put these 3 cabbages into pots. I'm going plant them where the peas are growing in a few weeks.

The broccoli is still sending out little side shoots. I catch some of them in time to eat them and others go to flower and I toss them out for the deer and rabbits.

This is one of the beets that I picked today. It's a Golden beet and the seeds came from Baker Creek.

The guy that lived up here before us grew tomatoes in this raised bed. We have some volunteers coming up. I doubt we get anything off of them, but it's still cool to watch them grow. I'll leave them be. They aren't hurting anything. If push comes to shove, I'll carefully dig them out and put them into the greenhouse. 

The view of that largest bed from the back. All that greenery will be coming out within the next couple of weeks.

My cucurbits are growing by leaps and bounds. I'm pretty impressed with these. We've left the doors on the greenhouse rolled up so that there is a breeze that goes through. I think we should open the screen doors, too, so that we can get pollinator insects in there, as well.

Every day, I go in there and I keep winding the vines around their respective stakes. They want to reach out and touch their neighbors. I don't really want them to do that, however.

This my Loofah gourd vine. It's so healthy looking!
Again, I don't know if I will have enough time to get it to produce anything, but I'm certainly going to try!

In this pot, I have a Okinawa Pink okra in the back (I was wrong in my last blog post about having 7 okra plants. I don't. I have 9.) I have a Minnesota Midget cantaloupe in the front of it. 

I've never seen okra grow before. This process is utterly fascinating to me. 

Each bloom turns into an okra pod. I've gotten 6 so far.

They aren't very tall but they are producing. I can't ask for more than that.

This is the Siamese bitter melon plant. I'm crossing my fingers that it will produce a fruit!

The cantaloupe is starting to crawl out of the pot.

This is the Kajari and Tigger melon pot. They are thriving.

I have baby cucamelons! I would love to have a bumper crop of these! I bought a starter plant last year and I only was able to harvest 4 off of it. I have several blooms on this one. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be able to put a pint of cucamelon pickles up this year. That would be awesome!

Thanks for touring the garden with me. Tonight, we're harvesting the grow bags of potatoes. I can't wait to see what we get.
I'm off to clean up beans for dinner.