Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes

UPDATE 10/25/2023:

So, that's the end of the season then!  See you next spring.  

ORIGINAL 10/21 POST:

Now that we're at the end of the gardening season, my tomatoes are still coming on and ripening. And they will until it freezes.  If that happens soon, no problem this year, because I've had tomatoes out my ears, which is what I wanted so I could put up juice and sauce to last me through the winter months. The plants grew out over the tops of the cages and back down to the ground. So, hurray for tomato weather, even if it was hard on other things. 

Some daily harvests...

'German Johnson' and 'Speckled Roman'

'German Johnson' and 'Speckled Roman'

'German Johnson'

'German Johnson', 'Speckled Roman', and 'Supersweet 100' cherry tomatoes

This year's planting of 'Brunswick' cabbage is now being harvested.  The heads are huge, and the taste is very peppery.  I probably won't plant them again.  (Although I have a fall planting of a mix from Pinetree, and I don't know what varieties they actually are.)

I'm trying to make some sauerkraut with a very simple recipe from Pioneer Woman.  So far (about two and a half weeks), it's really salty and not peppery like the raw cabbage.  I have to admit I did forget the part about screwing on a plastic lid and instead used my metal canning rings.  I don't know if that has caused any problems.  If so, I haven't noticed.  Next time I'll use plastic to compare.

I made some cabbage, kielbasa, and potato soup, and the peppery taste mellowed out.

A volunteer dill plant has become quite large in my cut flower plot.

And a parsleyworm caterpillar has taken up lodging on - of all things - the parsley.  If it holds out and forms a chrysalis over winter, it should emerge as a black swallowtail butterfly next spring.

A couple of volunteer basil plants are showing their different flowers.  The thai basil has a greenish-white spike, and the cardinal basil has lovely dark purple pompons.

I had some seeds fall out of one of my packets, but I don't know which and didn't recognize them.  I planted them recently and am looking forward to discovering what they are.  Hopefully it doesn't freeze before I find out. *

For four years, I've been trying to get some Korean angelica going and have had absolutely zero luck.  This year, I finally got one seedling up, and I'm trying my best to keep it alive.  It's very slow growing, and very sensitive to changes in soil moisture, which has been a problem since I've been gone on dog-sitting jobs so much of the growing season.

Korean angelica

The roses are still performing. I managed to keep them from being destroyed by both Japanese beetles (not a big population this year) and aphids.  I'm attributing it to using a systemic insecticide and being home at the right time to spray aphids with Sevin (sigh) before they could get a good hold.

'Razzle Dazzle'

'Shazam!'

'Shazam!' underbellies

I'm guessing there might be one more post before the season ends, but if we don't get a freeze before Christmas (hahahaha), there may be two.

UPDATE :  Dang.  There may be none!  The 10-day forecast:

*UPDATE 11/08/2023: 

That, I believe, is 'Seaside' spinach.

It survived the 4-day freeze (no snow), as did the celery, both of which I covered.  At last look (November 8), it looks like this (surrounded by poppy seedlings that fell from a field poppy plot earlier in the year):

I hate that late October freeze that seems to happen every year before the temperatures rise again.  If not for that, I'd have tomatoes and roses at Thanksgiving this year.  Such is the gardening life.

What a waste.

I did find patches of new bright green grass after the freeze.  Going with the definition of a weed as a plant in a place where it's not wanted, this qualified.  It was growing in gravel, and I pulled up bunches like sod and laid them in the paths where I'm about to succeed finally in getting rid of weeds and growing grass.

I also scattered some seed in the bare spots, so I'm looking forward to next spring to see what I've got.  Fingers crossed.

Biding time, waiting for melons

My blackberries are suffering from a condition called white druplet (the little individual units are called druplets).

You can eat them, but the more white druplets, the more it tastes like cardboard instead of blackberry.

From a University of Arkansas extension page:

White druplet is associated with a drop in humidity and an increase in temperature. As this happens there is less moisture in the air to deflect solar radiation from directly contacting the berries. This increased solar radiation is blamed on individual or groups of druplets turning first white and then later brown in color. [...] ‘Apache’ is a variety that is more prone to this disorder.

I have 'Navajo', which sounds like it could be a related variety, and we have certainly had decreased humidity and increased temps this year.  Both my blackberries and raspberries (which produced absolutely nothing) would have benefited from watering.

'German Johnson' tomatoes are ripening.  It's suggested that they be picked early when they are just starting to soften and then let them ripen indoors the rest of the way, so that's what I do.  It helps me get them before the raccoons do.  But not always.

Pink celery:

The melons growing up tomato cages aren't producing anything.  They get more shade than the ones on the compost hill, which have several full sized fruits already, so that could be an issue.  However, I haven't grown them sprawling on the ground before, so maybe they just do better that way.  

I have no doubt the raccoons will be after them before they're fully ripe, so I've put several in wire baskets in hopes that will allow me to get some ripe ones.  I've read that, while melons will continue to ripen after being picked, they stop the sugar production process at that point.

I'll wait.

Hotter and hotter

The roses are flushing out again.  They're quite happy with the heat and lack of rain.

But I've had to start watering again for everyone else.

Thankfully, the 'German Johnson' slicing tomatoes did set some fruit.  I've gotten a few ripe ones, but now they're taking their time ripening due to the blistering heat.  It barely cools off enough in the middle of the night to reach the 50-80 degree temps required for ripening. 

The 'Speckled Roman' sauce tomatoes have been ripening all along, however, and have set lots of fruit.  Raccoons leave evidence daily.

I made a pint of sauce from the romas and 'Supersweet 100' cherry tomatoes (which haven't produced as much fruit as they normally do).

'Speckled Roman' and 'Supersweet 100' tomatoes

The recipe called for some sugar, and it's too sweet for my taste.  I'll have to add some lemon juice when I use it.  Neither variety has enough acidity to warrant adding sugar.  Next batch, I'll delete the sugar and add some basil.

I'm finally seeing some fruit develop on the small Persian cantaloupe vines.

In my attempts to keep melons safe from raccoons, I ordered these screen barriers for roots and bulbs to protect underground.  I got the idea from a video online.

Perhaps in an unnecessarily early stage, I wrapped a 'Sugar Baby' watermelon in one as a test.

The melons on the compost hill have grown over the potato plants that I hadn't yet harvested.  I thought I had more than one still in the ground, but could only find this 'All Blue' plant.

I won't be planting them again.  The spuds are small and turn gray when cooked.

I was disappointed when I thought I wasn't going to get many jalapeños this year, and then I found out I had simply forgotten which plants were which varieties.  There aren't many, but at least there should be enough for a batch of jalapeño jelly.

Now to go dance for rain.

Hot and humid - only moreso

'Razzle Dazzle' rose

I've been eating from my garden for a couple of weeks now.  The cabbages I planted this spring haven't yet started forming heads, but the 'Primo Vantage' plants that overwintered have harvestable heads that have been making good cole slaw.

'Primo Vantage' 

While I was away for a week, the 'Ruby Perfection' (planted this spring) that has grown the largest was ferociously attacked because it got no Bt spray when it needed it.

'Calima' bush beans are producing massive amounts of beans per plant.  

Even tomatoes are producing in this heat, and a few are beginning to ripen.

'German Johnson'

I had bagged a few flowers on the 'German Johnson' plants to prevent cross-polination with the 'Speckled Roman' plants, thinking I'll try to save seed this year, but I removed the bags when all the flowers seemed to be dying from the heat.  

I missed one...

'Supersweet 100' cherry tomatoes are producing well, but I don't think they're as sweet as last year's crop.

I'm going to combine them with the 'Speckled Roman' roma style fruits to make tomato sauce.  This is the first year I've grown sauce tomatoes.

'Speckled Roman'

They're so pretty, but not the right taste for a sandwich or salad tomato.  The foliage is shrivelly and curly - finely lobed - and not very attractive, but I guess it puts all its beauty in the fruit.

The 'Navajo' thornless blackberry plants are finally maturing enough to produce a small bowl full of berries every few days, which is a thrill for me, sprinkled with raw sugar and left to sit for a while before gobbling them down.  

'Calima' beans, 'Supersweet 100' cherry tomatoes, 

and 'Navajo' blackberries

None of my raspberry plants were able to set fruit in the dry heat.

I don't see any fruit forming on the melons I have growing in cages, but they're mostly hidden by the African marigolds I planted all around them to mask the smell of ripening melons hoping to discourage raccoons.

But over on the compost pile, the small Persian cantaloupe plants and one 'Sugar Baby' watermelon are lush and forming fruit.

'Sugar Baby' watermelon

Small Persian cantaloupe

Meanwhile, perennials and roses are showing off, and I'm loving it.

Russian sage (Perovskia)

'Shazam!'

My rose cuttings survived and seem to be thriving.  I caged them to keep raccoons from digging them up while they're small.

'South Africa'

'Mother of Pearl'

I was so happy that the 'Mother of Pearl' cutting took root, because the mother of 'Mother of Pearl' died over winter.  I hope the baby is hardier.

'Passionate Shock' daylily

'Scarlet Marie' double petal daylily

My lilies have not performed well this year.  It could be the lack of rain, the heat, or maybe they're too crowded.  I'll spread them out this fall.  'Casa Blanca' has done the best.  I never noticed before this big of a difference in the size of anthers on the blooms of a single stalk. Interesting.

Enjoy the heat.  It's only going to get hotter.

'Luna' hibiscus