I picked a large batch of Roma Tomatoes today and dried and froze them. The varieties were Roma, Roma II, and Roma III. There didn’t appear to be much difference between the varieties. I probably should have picked a week ago as there were 5 or 6 tomatoes spoiled by being overripe. There should be a smaller batch in a week or so.

The Okra is producing well. It is good breaded and fried, also just pan fried and served with Teriyaki or soy sauce. They go from small to large very quickly and once they are beyond 5 inches they can get tough and stringy. Best when picked in the 3 to 4 inch stage.

The flowers are beautiful, they look like Rose of Sharon. The plants can reach 4 feet in this climate.

It has been in the low 70s since Monday which seems to have encouraged the tomatoes to finally start ripening. This morning I picked two Mortgage Lifters, a Boxcar Willie, a Lemon Boy. and a Champion. Some of the Roma tomatoes are near ripe, I need to see if it is a certain variety ripening first as I have Roma I, Roma II, Roma III from Countryside.

We will soon be inundated with produce. I have lots of Shishitos and the lemon cucumbers are starting to produce very well. We haven’t had any measurable amount of rain in well over a week, so I will need to water today. I fertilized all of the pots over the weekend.

The lemon cucumbers are doing well and are delicious. The vines really spread and I likely need a taller trellis next year.

We are well into July and time for an updated status report on this year’s garden.

In this weird “Year of the coronavirus pandemic,” one of my main goals was to extend the growing season, especially on the front end. The container garden did not disappoint. We have had a small but continuous supply of tomatoes from the two large plants that I bought. I am picking one at least every other day, usually one every day. There has been an excellent supply of jalapenos from the mature nursery plant, and the bush cucumbers were our first ones. If I had gotten those cucumbers in earlier, we would have had them a lot earlier. Cherry tomatoes have been continuous, but not extremely prolific yet, but they will likely explode in the next week or so.

I picked the first two Champion tomatoes this morning, they were the first from that patch. The rest are coming along very slowly. It looks like the “Lemon Boy” will be the next one to have ripe tomatoes, but they haven’t started to turn yet. With the amount of hot weather that we have had, it is surprising that we haven’t had more tomatoes beginning to ripen. There are a couple of large tomatillos on those plants, but they went in very late, so I don’t expect a harvest until late August. The Roma Tomatoes are doing well but are likely a few weeks away from ripening.

I picked a bunch of zucchini this past week, including one huge one. We’ve had zucchini for a couple of weeks, but there was nothing today. I haven’t had any cocozelle zucchini yet. I picked my second pattypan squash this morning, and half of that went into our frittata. I should probably plant another hill of zucchini for fall since I have space.

The cucumbers are going crazy, and I’ve had enough to give away. I got my first couple of lemon cucumbers this week, and they were as delicious as usual. The plants are loaded with blossoms, and I planted a bunch, so we will be over-supplied with those. The small jalapeno plants have started to yield very well, but just tiny peppers on the hot Hungarian pepper plant.

The shishitos are bearing prolifically, and the Lady Bells exploded, and I have many large peppers on those plants. I tied up all of the peppers last weekend. I picked a large banana pepper this morning, and there are a few melrose and other peppers out there. The small sweet red peppers are about the right size but haven’t started to turn red yet. The okra is bearing well, and I roasted some last weekend and had to throw a few away this week because they got too big, about 4 inches is ideal. The kale is looking very good, and the fennel is tall, but the bulbs are still small, I need to look up the culture of that. Swiss chard is growing okay, also.

I will probably pull up the fava beans. There are a couple of large pods and a few small ones, but they didn’t do well. I was way too hot for them, and they did not germinate well. That will give the Chinese cabbage some more room.

I think i’ll plant some green beans in the front of the cucumber patch, and save teh space in the first bed for fall greens.

The new herb garden is doing amazingly well. We’ve been using a lot of basil and that has kept the blooms off. I probably should throw some basil seed in. The oregano by the deck is dying, both the old and the new. Not sure why.

It’s the 4th of July and time for an early season evaluation of the garden. Overall I am happy with the way the garden went together this year. Almost everything got in on schedule, despite the early sell-out of plants at most of the nurseries.

The only real failure was that none of the Cucamelons germinated. The other germination issue was with the Fava Beans, where the germination was somewhat erratic. The plants that are just starting to bear are widely different in size. Pak Choi and the Arugula immediately bolted even though they went in on April 7. I guess that was too late. The lettuce from seed went in on March 8, including spinach, but the growth was stunted. The lettuce did well, but the spinach bolted early. I planted lettuce plants from Goebbert’s on April 18, and we got our first lettuce from plants and the seeds on May 17. The lettuce is bolting now, but we are still picking edible lettuce. I will probably pull it in the next couple of days as it is starting to get bitter. A cover over the spring greens bed next year might help.

We’ve been getting tomatoes for over a week from the couple of large potted tomato plants that I bought. The large cherry tomato plant I bought has had tomatoes for about a week. The other cherry and grape tomatoes are at various stages. There are a couple of plants with ripe tomatoes. The first garden tomato might be ready tomorrow and that is an Early Girl II. There are two or three tomatoes on that plant, but after I pick them there might not be any more until August. I bought larger Champion and Early GIrl plants but the other plants have caught up. The other plants were all small because of the plant shortage this year. Here are the Heirloom tomatoes that have set fruit already – Mortgage LIfter, Lemon Boy, Cherokee Purple, Early GIrl II, and the Two Champion Plants. I have three variations of Roma Tomatoes, Roma, Roma II, and Roma III, all from Countryside. They were all small plants that went in on June 8. All of the plants have set fruit.

The eggplants look stunted, but one has an eggplant on it. They probably should have been watered more.

The hot peppers are slow, and the Jalapeno plants have some tiny peppers. Of course the large Jalapeno plant I bought has been bearing well. We have had Shishitos for over a week and I’ve picked a couple of the Gypsy peppers. There are some small banana peppers but nothing on the Lady Bell plants yet. There are some nice sized Sweet Cherry Peppers, but I need to wait until those are red.

The okra have small fruits and we might have a few of those in a week or so. The kale really took off and the fennel and Swiss Chard are doing okay. They will likely take off once I clear ou the lettuce and give them more room. The Chinese Cabbage look okay also.

We will soon be inundated with cucumbers. I picked the first summer dance and a couple of bush cucumbers today and the summer dance has a lot more. There is no fruit on the Goebbert’s plants yet. The vines for the Lemon cucumbers are vigorous and just starting to flower.

The Zucchini are slow and probably could have used more water. I’ll probably have zucchini in a few days, and there are some small Peter Pan fruits on those plants. They will get watered today.

The tomatillos are still leggy, but one has a large fruit on it already. Those sat in the tray for a long time before they got planted.

I fertilized all of the potted plants and the herb garden today. The new herb garden is doing extremely well. I’ll hit most of the rest of the garden with fertilizer tomorrow and do some weeding. I’ll also need to tie up the Roma tomatoes before the fruit gets too heavy.

I picked the first tomato today from the container garden, this is at least a week earlier than last year. There are a couple of Early Girl II tomatoes in the Heirloom patch that might ripen by the 4th of July. This was from a large Red Husky plant that I got from Goebbert’s. We’ve had Jalapenos from another Goebbert’s plant for a couple of weeks and have been picking spring greens since May 17, so it’s been a successful spring.

I used the above tomato and some fresh basil from the garden to make a Bruschetta appetizer for dinner this evening.

One of my main goals is to extend the gardening season to provide food over a longer period of time. The spring greens yielded well this year and there is still usable lettuce, although most of it is starting to bolt. I made up my mind last year after a very wet spring and early summer and the Groundhog problem to have a container garden that I could get in early and easily protect from animals if necessary.

So I expanded my cherry tomato plantings this spring with 6 plants in three containers, two large patio tomato plants, a large Jalapeno plant which I’ve been harvesting for a couple of weeks, and a pot with two bush cucumbers. I am hoping this adds another month (July) to the harvesting season.

The first day of Summer and Father’s Day coincided this year, and it also marks the completion of my plantings. We were somewhat back to a normal spring schedule this year. Most of the nurseries sold out early, but I was still able to find almost all of the varieties I wanted. So here is a gallery of where the garden is at this point.

Sixteen tomato plants, four rows of four, mostly heirloom. New stepping stones between the rows.

I put the finishing touches on the garden the past couple of days. I finished fencing in the Roma tomatoes and added a removable piece of fence for a gate and did the same thing for the cucumbers.

I harvested some more lettuce as it is bolting and probably will be done this week with the hot weather. This gave me room for the Swiss Chard and Fennel. I fitted in six Chinese Cabbage plants between the Fava Beans since their germination was so erratic. The beans are starting to produce, so they will be out of there by the time the cabbage gets going. I also planted the three tomatillo plants behind the barn they are leggy and flowering, but I hope they will be OK.

I planted some flowers in front of the first bed and put a couple of stepping stones along the bed. Hidden among those flowers, I found three French Tarragon plants which I planted next to the Mexican Tarragon in the herb garden. I replaced the Pansies on the porch with new flowers and transplanted the pansies into a couple of large pots that I used to spice up the corners of the container garden.

At the end of the day I was exhausted because in addition to all the work mentioned above, I filled the yard waste container with invasive trees, grapevines and other stuff that shouldn’t be there that I removed from the blackberry patch. Major work still need to be done in there and it will take a couple of days to clean it out.

Tomorrow is Father’s day and the first day of summer, so I’ll do a status report and a bit of a gallery. All in all, I’m happy with the progress, and for the first time, there are no unplanted plants sitting on the deck.