Looks like a tomato plot....photos - Page 2

Ruth_10 · July 6, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by dice

So, what, the deluge stopped at the border?

Huh?

This morning I found a Druzba and an Arkansas Traveler turning color. I think one of the Prues is about to turn, as well. I'm ready.

dice · July 7, 2007

I was thinking of the big rainstorms reported in Kansas,
Oklahoma, etc. It does look nice, and I was a little
surprised that you didn't get drenched like so many
other places in the midwest.

Ruth_10 · July 7, 2007

Ah, yes, that deluge. Yeah, it did stop on the other side of the state. That was part of a large system, but it is not that uncommon for weather cells to pop up here and there and dump rain on one spot but be bone dry a mile or so away. We've learned to never measure our rain until we're at home--not close to home, but home.

dice · July 8, 2007

The people in the flooded and deluged areas
should get their drinking water checked (abstract
from a study of groundwater and aquifers in the
Sheyenne basin after heavy rain and a flood in 1993,
for example):

http://mn.water.usgs.gov/redn/abs/mls7.html

TomatoDon · July 9, 2007

Nice set up Ruth. How long have you used contractors paper for the primary "mulch?" I just started this year and it is working like a charm for me.

Don

Ruth_10 · July 9, 2007

Don, I considered contractor's paper after your earlier thread on how you prepared your beds, but I'm not using it--this year I used newspapers and before that I used packing paper that we recycled from our move. I'm pretty much out of packing paper, so that's why the newspaper.

The contractor's paper sounds attractive to me, but would get kinda pricey for the square footage I need (I am "frugal"). One of these days I'm going to call the local newpaper and find out if they have end-of-the-roll newsprint for a reasonable price (free would be nice!).

Ruth_10 · July 31, 2007

Here are some recent photos from the garden. This one is a harvest basket from about a week ago. Lipstick peppers and Sungolds; the beans are Fortex on the top (the lighter, long ones) and Kentucky Blue underneath.
DSC_7254 Lipstick, Sungold, Fortex, KB.jpg
Also from last week is this 1 lb 15 oz Neves Azorean Red. They've all been huge and very tasty.
DSC_7259 NAR tomato 1 lb 15 oz.jpg
From a few days ago: upper left, Prue, Arkansas Traveler, Marianna's Peace; the beans are Brown Speckled Greasy beans.
DSC_7260 Prue, AT, MP, Brown speckled greasy beans.jpg
We canned our first batch of tomatoes on Sunday. Looking back at my records, we've done the first canning on July 30 or 31 for the last three years. Tomatoes must keep calendars. In front of the jars are two German Red Strawberry tomatoes. The one on the left is 1lb 12 oz. GRS is turning out to be one of my favorites.
DSC_7268 canned tomatoes first of 2007, GRS in front.jpg
And then yesterday I went out and picked again--41 lbs worth:
DSC_7269 30July2007 tomato harvest 41lbs.jpg

Someone commented earlier that they wanted to see what tomatoes looked like when they were planted with wide spacing (I use 5-6 ft on center). Well, the answer is that tomatoes grow to fill the amount of space they have available.

I also found a second bird's nest in the plot. The first one has four eggs in it. Hmm, eggs, tomatoes, now all I need is some bacon and I have a pretty good breakfast.

dokutaaguriin · July 31, 2007

41 lbs....amazing- congrats!
I picked 4.1 lbs the other day when added to my first major haul....7 lbs in total.
Jeff

Ruth_10 · August 3, 2007

Forty-one pounds of tomatoes is a lot, but then again I have a lot of plants.

From the looks of things, I need to go out and pick again tonight and there will be more than forty pounds. I say "tonight" because it might be a tad cooler than the 95 F it is this afternoon (and the humidity is high

). I was just out harvesting some sweet corn and may have overdone it--my face was the color of a good, ripe tomato--phew! AND it is supposed to get to 100 F in a few days. We need rain badly.

But the tomatoes are tasting good. The first ones off the vine are the most precious, but the later ones taste the best. We had BLTs for dinner last night. The bread slices were too big for the toaster (it was homemade bread) but even so the German Red Strawberry I sliced was big enough to cover the slice of bread. Wish I'd taken the time to take a photo, but I was too hungry and thought my sister, who was visiting, might think I was a little strange to be photographing a BLT.

Worth1 · August 4, 2007

Ruth I am in Alaska now and very tired from long hours and work, so I will keep it short. I want to tell you that I think your garden is just grand.

Great job.

Worth

squibT · August 4, 2007

Hey Ruth...fantastic garden.

Any newer pics? Sure would like to see how big everything is now.

squibT

Ruth_10 · August 5, 2007

August is a blessing and a curse here--everything is ready for harvest at once, but the days are just so long. Long as late into the night taking care of garden harvest. But, oh, I munch my way through that stuff like nobody's business.

Yesterday I harvested 90 lbs. of tomatoes. Yikes. Most of the varieties contributed. German Head still hasn't given a ripe fruit and I've stopped harvesting Orangeheart because its taste is so insipid. Kimberly is on her own now, too, just because all the other stuff has taken over. Below is the tomato plot. The plants have grown up and over the cages, been beaten down by wind, and are growing up again. I can still get to everything one way or another. The white stuff hanging from the cage in the front is a shade cloth (I want my BW Sudduths unscalded!). The bucket is an old kitty litter bucket that gets used for this and that.
DSC_7287 Tomato plot 4-Aug-2007.jpg
Here are the ninety pounds of tomatoes spread out on the kitchen floor. The green ones in the center are Cherokee Green (all from one plant--it's been pumping them out).
DSC_7274 tomato harvest 90 lbs 4-Aug-2007.jpg
Next is the sauce cooking down. About two-thirds of the tomatoes went to sauce. Would have done up all of them, but ran out of time and energy.
DSC_7282 Cooking down the tomatoes.jpg
And finally, the finished product. The tomatoes in front are (l to r) CG, AGG, and BW Sudduth).
DSC_7294 canned tomatoes (CG, AGG, BWSudduth).jpg

I also picked a bunch (would that be a "mess"?) of Blue Lake pole beans yesterday before the heat drove me inside. About 9 lbs in the basket. These have no strings to deal with (unlike the Kentucky Blue beans) so I like that labor-saving feature.

DSC_7280 Blue Lake pole beans 9 lbs.jpg
The first Orangeglo watermelon made it into the house yesterday as well (Mr. Woodchuck helped himself to one earlier). This one is 27 lbs. and is currently cooling in the fridge. We ate a Blacktail Mountain watermelon yesterday and it was delicious. The cantaloupe are Ambrosia. Picked 10 of them yesterday and this morning. Most of those will go to neighbors and coworkers.
DSC_7278 Orangeglo watermelon (27 lbs) and Ambrosia cantaloupe.jpg

Did I say we're having BLTs for dinner tonight?

July 7, 2007	#17
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	I was thinking of the big rainstorms reported in Kansas, Oklahoma, etc. It does look nice, and I was a little surprised that you didn't get drenched like so many other places in the midwest. __________________ -- alias

July 7, 2007	#18
Ruth_10 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: MO z6a near St. Louis Posts: 1,349	Ah, yes, that deluge. Yeah, it did stop on the other side of the state. That was part of a large system, but it is not that uncommon for weather cells to pop up here and there and dump rain on one spot but be bone dry a mile or so away. We've learned to never measure our rain until we're at home--not close to home, but home. __________________ --Ruth Some say the glass half-full. Others say the glass is half-empty. To an engineer, it’s twice as big as it needs to be.

July 8, 2007	#19
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	The people in the flooded and deluged areas should get their drinking water checked (abstract from a study of groundwater and aquifers in the Sheyenne basin after heavy rain and a flood in 1993, for example): http://mn.water.usgs.gov/redn/abs/mls7.html __________________ -- alias

July 9, 2007	#20
TomatoDon Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: MS Posts: 1,523	Nice set up Ruth. How long have you used contractors paper for the primary "mulch?" I just started this year and it is working like a charm for me. Don __________________ Zone 7B, N. MS

July 9, 2007	#21
Ruth_10 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: MO z6a near St. Louis Posts: 1,349	Don, I considered contractor's paper after your earlier thread on how you prepared your beds, but I'm not using it--this year I used newspapers and before that I used packing paper that we recycled from our move. I'm pretty much out of packing paper, so that's why the newspaper. The contractor's paper sounds attractive to me, but would get kinda pricey for the square footage I need (I am "frugal"). One of these days I'm going to call the local newpaper and find out if they have end-of-the-roll newsprint for a reasonable price (free would be nice!). __________________ --Ruth Some say the glass half-full. Others say the glass is half-empty. To an engineer, it’s twice as big as it needs to be.

July 31, 2007	#22
Ruth_10 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: MO z6a near St. Louis Posts: 1,349	Here are some recent photos from the garden. This one is a harvest basket from about a week ago. Lipstick peppers and Sungolds; the beans are Fortex on the top (the lighter, long ones) and Kentucky Blue underneath. DSC_7254 Lipstick, Sungold, Fortex, KB.jpg Also from last week is this 1 lb 15 oz Neves Azorean Red. They've all been huge and very tasty. DSC_7259 NAR tomato 1 lb 15 oz.jpg From a few days ago: upper left, Prue, Arkansas Traveler, Marianna's Peace; the beans are Brown Speckled Greasy beans. DSC_7260 Prue, AT, MP, Brown speckled greasy beans.jpg We canned our first batch of tomatoes on Sunday. Looking back at my records, we've done the first canning on July 30 or 31 for the last three years. Tomatoes must keep calendars. In front of the jars are two German Red Strawberry tomatoes. The one on the left is 1lb 12 oz. GRS is turning out to be one of my favorites. DSC_7268 canned tomatoes first of 2007, GRS in front.jpg And then yesterday I went out and picked again--41 lbs worth: DSC_7269 30July2007 tomato harvest 41lbs.jpg Someone commented earlier that they wanted to see what tomatoes looked like when they were planted with wide spacing (I use 5-6 ft on center). Well, the answer is that tomatoes grow to fill the amount of space they have available. I also found a second bird's nest in the plot. The first one has four eggs in it. Hmm, eggs, tomatoes, now all I need is some bacon and I have a pretty good breakfast. __________________ --Ruth Some say the glass half-full. Others say the glass is half-empty. To an engineer, it’s twice as big as it needs to be.

July 31, 2007	#23
dokutaaguriin Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Alberta, Canada Z3a Posts: 905	41 lbs....amazing- congrats! I picked 4.1 lbs the other day when added to my first major haul....7 lbs in total. Jeff

August 3, 2007	#24
Ruth_10 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: MO z6a near St. Louis Posts: 1,349	Forty-one pounds of tomatoes is a lot, but then again I have a lot of plants. From the looks of things, I need to go out and pick again tonight and there will be more than forty pounds. I say "tonight" because it might be a tad cooler than the 95 F it is this afternoon (and the humidity is high). I was just out harvesting some sweet corn and may have overdone it--my face was the color of a good, ripe tomato--phew! AND it is supposed to get to 100 F in a few days. We need rain badly. But the tomatoes are tasting good. The first ones off the vine are the most precious, but the later ones taste the best. We had BLTs for dinner last night. The bread slices were too big for the toaster (it was homemade bread) but even so the German Red Strawberry I sliced was big enough to cover the slice of bread. Wish I'd taken the time to take a photo, but I was too hungry and thought my sister, who was visiting, might think I was a little strange to be photographing a BLT. __________________ --Ruth Some say the glass half-full. Others say the glass is half-empty. To an engineer, it’s twice as big as it needs to be.

August 4, 2007	#25
Worth1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Den of Drunken Fools Posts: 38,539	Ruth I am in Alaska now and very tired from long hours and work, so I will keep it short. I want to tell you that I think your garden is just grand. Great job. Worth

August 4, 2007	#26
squibT Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2007 Location: Nanaimo, BC (7b) Posts: 89	Hey Ruth...fantastic garden. Any newer pics? Sure would like to see how big everything is now. squibT

August 5, 2007	#27
Ruth_10 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: MO z6a near St. Louis Posts: 1,349	August is a blessing and a curse here--everything is ready for harvest at once, but the days are just so long. Long as late into the night taking care of garden harvest. But, oh, I munch my way through that stuff like nobody's business. Yesterday I harvested 90 lbs. of tomatoes. Yikes. Most of the varieties contributed. German Head still hasn't given a ripe fruit and I've stopped harvesting Orangeheart because its taste is so insipid. Kimberly is on her own now, too, just because all the other stuff has taken over. Below is the tomato plot. The plants have grown up and over the cages, been beaten down by wind, and are growing up again. I can still get to everything one way or another. The white stuff hanging from the cage in the front is a shade cloth (I want my BW Sudduths unscalded!). The bucket is an old kitty litter bucket that gets used for this and that. DSC_7287 Tomato plot 4-Aug-2007.jpg Here are the ninety pounds of tomatoes spread out on the kitchen floor. The green ones in the center are Cherokee Green (all from one plant--it's been pumping them out). DSC_7274 tomato harvest 90 lbs 4-Aug-2007.jpg Next is the sauce cooking down. About two-thirds of the tomatoes went to sauce. Would have done up all of them, but ran out of time and energy. DSC_7282 Cooking down the tomatoes.jpg And finally, the finished product. The tomatoes in front are (l to r) CG, AGG, and BW Sudduth). DSC_7294 canned tomatoes (CG, AGG, BWSudduth).jpg I also picked a bunch (would that be a "mess"?) of Blue Lake pole beans yesterday before the heat drove me inside. About 9 lbs in the basket. These have no strings to deal with (unlike the Kentucky Blue beans) so I like that labor-saving feature. DSC_7280 Blue Lake pole beans 9 lbs.jpg The first Orangeglo watermelon made it into the house yesterday as well (Mr. Woodchuck helped himself to one earlier). This one is 27 lbs. and is currently cooling in the fridge. We ate a Blacktail Mountain watermelon yesterday and it was delicious. The cantaloupe are Ambrosia. Picked 10 of them yesterday and this morning. Most of those will go to neighbors and coworkers. DSC_7278 Orangeglo watermelon (27 lbs) and Ambrosia cantaloupe.jpg Did I say we're having BLTs for dinner tonight? __________________ --Ruth Some say the glass half-full. Others say the glass is half-empty. To an engineer, it’s twice as big as it needs to be.