Category: Tomatoes

Early August Cleanup

SabineLeave a Reply
Black Strawberry tomato

We are starting our next heat wave here in Boston, but I still went to the garden this morning to weed for two and a half hours. Long overdue. I had bought field hay to mulch two years ago, and the hay had seed heads. Now I have grass everywhere.

The summer garden has been somewhat disappointing this year so far. Other than tomatoes, not much is thriving. Zucchini died. Eggplants are a now-show. Cucumbers are a total fail; I got three “globes” and one decent-size one from six plants. I do think the heat is to blame, at least for the cucumbers. The kale and chard are very short for some reason. The winter squash is looking okay, I see many flowers but no fruit yet. But then again, I started the garden very late this year.

Yesterday, we had our first real rain in weeks. There was a big and beautiful thunderstorm moving through the area and everyone was celebrating. It is really scary how dry it has been.

My first Black Strawberry tomatoes are ripening. They are so beautiful. And very tasty.

Late July Update

SabineLeave a Reply

I harvested some more tomatoes and some forgotten beets and baby carrots. I need to replant the spot in the garden where I pulled the garlic a couple of weeks ago. I will direct-sow lettuces, carrots and beets and some basil. I also need to stake the beans and do a thorough weeding. There is so much grass in my plot. I think it came from the field hay that I used to mulch last year or the year before.

The cucumbers do not look great. The plants are not thriving, and the fruit is small and round. I know they suffered from the heat. Cucumbers do not like temperatures above 90, and we just had a 8 day-heat wave with temperatures in the mid- to upper 90s. The zucchini is dying. Not sure what is happening. It is just shriveling up, including the one single fruit, which stopped growing and is deformed and starting to yellow. The eggplant plants are tiny. The three winter squash plants have very few flowers. I am hoping things will improve.

Tomatoes are looking great. Tons of fruit, but the plants themselves are not very tall this year. I need to amend the soil this fall. Beans, corn and flowers are looking great.

Porch Update Early June

SabineLeave a Reply

The porch looks great. I have a nice mix of flowers, herbs and vegetables. Despite my vow to not grow tomatoes on the porch this year, I have two cherry tomato plants: one Black Strawberry (grown from seed) and one Super Sweet 100 (given to me by a friend). I also have three pepper plants: Thai, Jalapeno and Sweet Pickle, one big container of basil and numerous other herbs (rosemary, sage, mint, thyme, chives, Thai basil, cilantro, parsley). Plus a big pot with Swiss Chard, which I have been harvesting and eating (for example sauteed with garlic over pan-fried lemon garlic flounder) over the past few days. A couple of days ago, I reseeded salad greens in two of the pepper containers (May Queen with the Jalapeno and Salanova Mix with the Sweet Pickle). The third pepper container (Thai) contains the Thai basil.

Almost all of my porch plantings. On the other end of the porch are my potted palm, a (tiny) bitter orange tree, lemon grass, calendula and cilantro.

Planting Tomatoes

SabineLeave a Reply

I finally got to spend a few hours in the garden to weed and plant. COVID had basically knocked me out the entire month of April, and life, work and the weather got in the way until today. While weeding, I discovered that the cilantro and the beets I sowed earlier this spring germinated. They are tiny because of all the weeds but are looking strong. Yay! So I excavated them plus the sole kale plant and the couple of carrots that survived. I have had all my seedlings ready for weeks, but now finally got to plant the first batch: tomatoes (12 plants, 10 varieties total, I doubled Ananas Noire and Stupice), four basil plants and four marigolds. All grown from seed except the marigolds, which came from Neighborhood Farm. The peas and the garlic are looking good. Next, I will plant all the cucumbers and squash, eggplant, lettuce, leeks etc. waiting so patiently on my back porch.

Repotting

SabineLeave a Reply

I repotted my seedlings today. 43 seedlings overall (7 cells did not have any germination): tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, basil. That included five kale plants that were repotted as well and are currently hardening off on the back porch. I also bought some rosemary, thyme, parsley and calendula seedlings yesterday for the back porch. The radishes, lettuces and arugula I direct-sowed in containers a couple of weeks ago are looking really good.

Reseeding Tomatoes

SabineLeave a Reply
One of my absolute favorite tomatoes, Dr. Wyche’s Yellow, July 28, 2020

Some of my older (and newly acquired) tomato seeds did not germinate, so I reseeded them today: two cells each of Dr. Wyche’s Yellow , Green Zebra, Scotia (but I doubled them up, just in case). I also reseeded Break O’Day and Ananas Noire, of which only one of the two seedlings had sprouted. Hopefully, the seeds will germinate this time.

Starting Tomatoes

SabineLeave a Reply
Tomato harvest October 8, 2020

Today, I started my tomatoes under the grow lights. I sowed two each of Black Strawberry (E), Scotia (E), Stupice (E), Black Prince (M), Striped German (M), Dr. Wyche Yellow (M/L), Green Zebra (M/L), Ananas Noire (L), Break O’ Day (L), Bakers Family Heirloom (L). A nice mix of early, mid-season and late-season tomatoes, of colors (4 red, 1 yellow, 3 black/purplish, 1 yellow/red, 1 green/yellow) and of sizes. While most of the seeds are from this year, the seeds for some of the varieties are a few years old, some are from 2019. Here’s to hoping they all will germinate.