Peas, Cherry Tomatoes and Early Girls, Oh My! Community Garden Update

The community garden plot has really  changed in the three weeks since I last posted.  I didn't take pictures of everything, but the things that are really different were captured at twilight the a few days ago.  The pictures are either a bit dark or the flash went of, which looks kind of spooky.

My Aunt made us a sign for the garden on her laser etcher:

I love it.  I hope the bees can read, because I mean it, they are very welcome. Actually, they are cordially invited for as much nectar and pollen as they can hold.  As are the lady bugs for all the aphids they can stuff in their own and their children's mouths.

Here is one of the lovely ladies, now.  Suddenly, I remember the scene from A Bug's Life when the male lady bug gets very upset about someone assuming he is a girl just because he is a lady beetle.  Sorry.  I mean handsome man.

The carrots are really growing.  We thinned them out a bit more this weekend and were pleasantly surprised to find some very tasty carrots at the end of the stalks we grabbed onto.

These are some rainbow carrots we pulled up.  Some went directly into my cousin's mouth, so this is not all of them, but you get the idea.  They are colorful and delicious.

Here are some of our plain, boring old orange carrots.  The one with three legs is not really boring.  My aunt was reminded by this carrot to tell me about a contest that happens in some small village in England where locals bring in vegetables that look like naughty bits to a church to be judged.  I can't, for the life of me, think why this carrot reminded her of this story.  Hm.  Anyway.

This is a close up of the rainbow carrot stalks. You can tell which ones are most likely to be purple without actually pulling them up.  The other ones can be orange, yellow or even white.

The cucumbers are looking very nice.  It has been very warm here over the last couple weeks.  There are actually some small cucumbers starting to grow on the largest vines already.  I planted a few more hills of cucumbers to fill in the empty space up front, however only one survived the heavy bird predation. We now have a huge open area in front where the cucumber mounds are empty and the spinach and lettuce are pulled up.  The lettuce was going to seed, so it had to come up as well.

Somehow I missed taking a picture of the potatoes that have come up and started growing very nicely, but the hilling for those will take up some of the empty space.

We have been harvesting cherry tomatoes from the garden for two weeks, almost.  They are very  sweet and delicious.

This is my Aunt's hand with some of the first young cherry tomatoes.  The first ones were the tiniest.

We have been harvesting peas everyday the last few days.  The kids can't stay out  of them, and devour them raw and crunchy before we even get them into the fridge.  This last time I picked more than Molly could eat and this is what we have:

The peppers are Anaheim chilies and there are the first two ripe early girl tomatoes in the bowl as well.  My husband ate two of these chilies and said they weren't that hot right before the tears started coming out of his eyes.  He usually has a pretty high tolerance for spicy hotness, so I didn't eat one. These peppers are off that plant that looks kind of weird and sickly and the peppers are all half black. I wonder if that is why they are so hot.

Here is a picture of the first pea harvest before we went to my aunt and uncles house for barbecue stakes.  We snacked on raw peas and cherry tomatoes that night with dinner.

Here is a small purple bush bean.  I have some bad news about these beans.  I think the community garden went two days without watering last week.  I usually check on it everyday and water if it looks like it hasn't been done, but last week when I got there after skipping a day, it looked really dry and half of the bush beans' leaves had fallen off.  They look really sad now.  I hope they pull out of it.

This is a picture from last week of the scarlet runner beans.  There is now at least one small bean developing on one of these plants.  I remember from last time I grew these that it took a while for the flowers to start setting, but once they did there were beans everywhere.  I hope that happens now.

The early girl tomato is really laden with fruits and they are just starting to turn red.  I picked the first two yesterday.  They were small, but some of these green ones are huge.

This is the super fantastic which is really getting loads of tomatoes on it.  They are not very big yet, but they are getting bigger every day.

It really is a bushy mess inside its cage, but I just haven't trimmed it back yet.

Here are a couple of the Roma tomatoes.  We are going to get a lot of these a bit later.  This plant, if you don't remember, was quite a bit smaller and a little behind the others.

In this picture you can see three small pepper plants.  The front largest one is the new garden salsa pepper I planted a couple of weeks ago the other two are Cheyenne and jalapeno that are finally recovering from being chewed on by my cat, Cooper.  The Jalapeno actually is starting to set fruit.

This is the heirloom tomato I planted at the same time as the new peppers, the Bradley pink tomato.

This tiny pepper plant is a Thai hot pepper.  It already has little peppers on it.  I am a little scared to try these.  The one is back is the jalapeno that was pilfered from earlier in the year with small new fruit showing up every day.

The coordinator of the community garden asked me last week if it was okay if he gave my number to a photographer for our local paper, The Wenatchee World, who had mentioned he might want to get our picture with our garden for a story in the paper.  We haven't heard from anyone yet, but that would be kind of cool.  I don't really like having my picture taken, unless I am wearing a costume, but I am proud of the garden my Aunt and I have been able to grow so far this year.  It looks pretty nice with the custom laser etched plant stakes and sign and the huge tomato plants.  Our tomatoes are, by far, the largest, greenest and most fruitingest tomatoes in the whole community garden, so far.  I am sure some of the other people's will catch up. There are some that look very nice.  I am not putting down any other gardeners gardens at all.  Most of the gardens are very nicely done, but our tomatoes are the best, so far.  One person actually asked me if we were sneaking in fertilizer.  I won't lie and say we never considered the idea, but we haven't added anything but seeds and water to our plot.  It was nicely composted and tilled when we got there this spring.  I think the difference has been that we have been supplimenting the automatic sprinklers with our own almost nightly waterings and keeping the weeds pulled pretty well.  Have a good week, until I have something new to post.

Ever Heard of Plummer's Tan?

Very funny story:  My husband was watching me dress after a bath last night and asked me, "what did you do today?"  I said, "I weeded the garden most of the day and went to my aunties shop along with some shopping and about four hours at work.  Why?" He just laughed and pointed at my backside.  I checked it out in the mirror. I won't post a picture, so I can keep this blog G-rated, but you can imagine where a plumber might get a tan if he worked outside.  It looks hilarious.  We both had a great laugh about it.  I did spend a long time bent over in the garden picking out weeds.

This will be a post exclusively about the community garden plot. I haven't taken any new pictures of the patio plants yet.  Soon.
Here is what the garden looked like when I got there yesterday:

You can hardly see the weeds from this far back, but the close up shots will show you what I am talking about.  I will have some after pictures at the bottom.

This is the onion rainbow that got washed out early in the season.  Things are growing okay now, but not as well as the other side:

See how big these onions are already.

The rainbow carrots are coming back nicely since the big washout, however.

These are the Danver Short carrots and a volunteer sunflower.  We have had several sprout, but this is the only one I didn't pull up.  My aunt and I both had our suspicions that some of the weeds might be sunflowers.  We were right.

Here are the lettuce and the spinach.  The spinach is going to seed already.  I guess I will have to pull it out soon.

Here is a close up of a spinach flower bud.

The cucumbers that sprouted from seeds are looking very nice.

Here is a side by side comparison between the ones we purchased as starts and the one that we planted from seed.  The starts are starting to grow, but they are still kind of yellow and weird. (This seed started cucumber died just moments after this photo was taken.  The hose dragged across it when I was watering.  RIP cucumber.   I will replant this hill.)

This areal photograph of the cucumber patch and the one above should show you the weed problem I was talking about earlier.  These weeds are creeping succulents that pull apart instead of pulling up.  It is very hard to get rid of them.

The Anaheim chili is still looking sort of yellow.  I hope it is okay.  There are a few peppers on it now.  I hope no one picks them like they did the jalapenos. Check out those weeds.  How embarrassing.

This is the large jalapeno plant.  It had a few peppers on it, but, alas, they were harvested by persons non grata.  The plant was a little traumatized, I think, by the experience.  The branches the peppers were on were ripped off.

This pretty little green fly that was on the sunflower and I just could not resist taking its picture.

The Super Fantastic tomato bush is looking super fantastic, if I do say so my self.  There are a couple small green tomatoes on it now.

The scarlet runner beans are blooming already.  They are so beautiful. This is one reason why I love this variety of pole bean.  Another is the delicious large flat green beans you get. These beautiful blooms keep coming the whole growing season long. If you look closely you can see a cute little bee and a stink bug on the flower in the middle.

This is a view down the fence.  Some of the scarlet runners have nearly reached the top of the fence with there spindly creepers.  They will fill out and cover the fence in deep green leaves and red blossoms.

The peas are still hanging in there, even though it is way to hot for them.  They are starting to bloom.  They should be harvested by the time the pumpkins need the space.  I just replanted the pumpkin hill today after the other did not sprout.

There are a few flower buds on the bush bean,s as well. They are looking pretty nice.

A closer picture. This is a yellow wax been and the one behind is a purple one.  Remember that we planted  a tricolor mixture.  Some are just plain green.

Here are some of the dozens of small green fruit on the early girl tomato bush.  I can't wait to pick these when they are ripe.

Some more beautiful tomatoes.

The cherry tomatoes are really going to town.  Check out all these green tomatoes and flowers.  I have not gotten any ripe ones yet, though.

More sungold cherry tomatoes.

This picture shows you how the small roma tomato bush has really grown and is going to catch up with the cherry tomato bush in no time.  It is flowering, but does not have any tomatoes on it yet.

Here are the two small pepper plants that my cat chewed on before they were planted out here.  They are still very stunted. 

This is the garden after I weeded.  Notice the piles of weeds on the front stones.

You can really notice a difference in this picture.

And this one.

Look, ma, no weeds!

 Well that is all about the community garden plot for now.  I am contemplating adding a few more things to fill in the large open areas in the middle front. Maybe a few more cucumbers. Definitely something will need to go in the spinach spot when I pull that out.  Maybe beets.  My aunt and I are thinking about adding a few potato plants.  I do have some seed potatoes from my mothers garden last year, both red and gold.  Also the size of the pepper plants really makes me think we could fit a few more. I will take a look at the store and see if I can find any small plants that would fit in between.  I will post next about the patio container garden.  Things are going great out there, too.

Weekly Update: Tomatoes are starting to set but the pumpkin never sprouted

First, lets talk about this community garden.  We are having a number of pest problems, including aphids and spinach leaf miners (which are maggots, actually). 

Here is a picture of a fresh spinach leaf miner mine. When they age they turn yellow and white. 

I pulled the little culprit right out of its little mine to take a picture of him.  my little salamander nymphs love to eat these guys.  They are kind of gross to rear, though.  The spinach leaves get slimy very quickly.

Here is a picture of the rearing jar I have set up.  Some of them have already pupariated (you can see the brown things with rounded ends)  These are iPhone pictures, again.  I will try to get better pictures once the flies emerge.  They are not very special looking flies, though.

Here you can see the bird peck damage that has continued through this week.  We still have not been able to harvest any lettuce due to bird competition, but the lettuce seams to be growing healthily. I have noticed that some of the birds have gotten wise about the presence of leaf miners and have started selectively pecking where they maggots are in the spinach.  I will not begrudge them these protein rich meals.  Please little birdies, take every single one.  I noticed that several other gardeners have planted spinach and they are all having similar problems, if not much worse, with these leaf miners.

Here is a wonderful picture of an old mine where a bird has removed the maggot.  Thank you, bird.  I have also harvested the spinach once, just removing the outside large leaves and leaving the inside ones to grow some more.  I selectively harvested and disposed of any leaves that showed signs of having leaf miners inside.  This is a very labor intensive way to cut down on infestations, but it would only work if everyone with spinach planted nearby did it as well.  I don't see that happening, so I will just have to cull about half my yield of spinach as I go.  We still got plenty to cook in two meals with other veggies.

These little blackish green guys are aphids on the underside of the spinach leaves.  They are causing the newer leaves to curl up severely and they are very hard to wash off when you pick these leaves.

Here, you can see light green aphids on a young carrot.  This one has not curled noticeably, but see below:

This carrot has curled severely due to aphid feeding.  I hope the carrot roots are not affected.  I have seen some lovely ladybugs around. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of any of them.  They were not to be found when I brought my aunt's camera down today.  They must be camera shy.  I hope they have laid eggs, and now we will have loads of lady bug larva running around cleaning up the aphid infestation.

Enough about the insect problems, here is the latest picture of the garden:

It is starting to fill in.  Once the cucumbers really get going and the scarlet runner beans climb the fence it will look better.

Here is the right side onion rainbow and the carrot chicken foot print (that is what we call the shape we planted the carrot seeds in).  You can see the marigolds starting to bloom strongly.  They are a little stunted.  They appeared to have some kind of fungus when we planted them and they died back a lot.

This is what the spinach and lettuce look like.  The lettuce would be as big as or bigger than the spinach if not for the birds.

Here is the onion rainbow and carrots on the other side.  These are the rainbow carrots.  You can hardly tell the washout happened earlier this spring.  The radishes have all been harvested now, and eaten.  My uncle got most of them because they are his favorite, and I just like growing them because they are so fast.

Here are the early girl and the super fantastic tomatoes in the back and the cheyene and jalapeno peppers in the front.  They are looking pretty good.

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This is an areal shot of the cucumber patch.  The red arrows indicate the cucumbers we planted form starts.  They are not doing well at all, the ones in the lower right hand corner are thoroughly dead and dried up.  The yellow arrows indicate the hills where we planted seeds.  At least one of each hill is growing and very green.

As you can see above, they are smaller, but they look much healthier. 

This is an areal photo of the bush been patch.  They are going pretty well.  You can really tell the difference between the colors.

A closer picture, notice that some are much darker, almost purplish.

These are the cherry and roma tomatoes along with the Anaheim and another jalapeno pepper.  The roma tomato started out the smallest, but it will catch up.  It is growing fast. 

The scarlet runner beans are beginning to climb up the fence.  I have grown these before.  Once the start climbing they will be up to the top of the fence in no time.

The peas are suffering in the heat.  I have half a mind to just rip them out and plant some more pole beans.  I will first have to see what my Auntie Linda thinks.  She is too nice to pull plants out.  It is always my job to thin and pull things out.  You have to be a ruthless killer, like me, to be a successful gardener.  If you don't thin things they don't thrive.

Here is a picture of a cherry tomato that has set.  It won't be long before we can pick this little guy.

This is a close up picture of the Anaheim chili pepper.  This is one that was chewed on by my cat, Cooper.  It is still very small, but has sent out lots of branches. I hope it recovers quickly.  I love peppers.

Here are the first early girl tomatoes that have set (above and below).  I am so excited.  None of the other non-cherry tomatoes have set fruit yet. The others bloom and then the flowers fall off.  Well, I guess that is why these are called early girl. 

The pumpkins have not sprouted, and now I fear they never will.  I am sad about this.  Perhaps we will buy some different seeds and try again.  They will be awfully late, but it has been so cold that they would still be very small even if they had been planted on time.

That is all there is about the community garden.  Except that we have been weeding regularly and the weeds just keep coming up everywhere as if we can't make a dent.  So far, though we have been at least keeping up with them.  The worst are these little reddish succulents that break apart when you try to pull them.

The balcony pots are growing even faster than the community garden.  I think they get more warmth and of course, I fertilize them with chemical fertilizer.  Here are a few pictures of these pots:

This is the jalapeno pepper with the nasturtiums.  Believe it or not, I trimmed back the nasturtiums last week.  they are getting bigger and bigger.

Close up Jalapeno pepper.

The eggplant has grown quite a bit this week and has two blossoms that are ready to open soon.

This cherry tomato has grown taller than its 4 foot bamboo pole.  It has several fruit set and is blooming like crazy.

This is one of the twin romas with some pole beans growing behind.  The beans are growing like weeds and the tomatoes are starting to bloom already.

The lavender is starting to bloom.  See the long stems.

I found out that my daughter has been picking sprigs of rosemary all along, so I will not make any more comments about how slow it is growing.  It is actually looking very nice.

Here is a pole been growing right up its twine.  I will have to train it to wrap around the balcony railing.

The other twin roma tomato with some more beans.

The basil is flowering already.  I quickly picked all the blossoms off, but I have experience with this which tells me it will just keep making more blossoms from here out and not more leaves.  I hope the Cinnamon basil seeds I planted last week sprout soon.  I am getting nervous about weather I will have basil to go with my tomatoes when they are ripe. 

Here is our heirloom tomato.  It continues to flower but has set no fruit that I can find.  The flowers are hidden in the dense foliage.  I wonder if it is just too cold and early for it to set or if it is not getting pollinated.  I will give it a while, then I will prune out lots of the leafy branches.

Here is the tiny bonus roma plant found between the twins, kind of a conjoined twin that I surgically separated and planted in the radish/onion tub to see if it would survive.  It is obviously doing very well.  I will buy it a pot for it this week.  The onions are doing well.  They hardly reacted at all to being dug up and replanted last week.

For some reason I only have a picture of the shabby hanging pot, even though the other is growing much larger. 

The hops have not broke through yet.  I hope they are still alive under there.

That is all for now.  I am working on a plot map for the garden at my in-laws house, but it is complicated and I have been busy.  It may be next week before I am ready to post that.