Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Big-booty tomatoes!

Hmm.  I'll repost a few of these pictures, as some do not have links to the larger version ..

I've been promising my friends that I would post some a picture or two of the tomato plants that I have been ranting on and on about.  Finally, I make good on the promise.  Taken from the tire wall just on the other side of the grapes, this panoramic shot attempts to give you some idea of scale of what is happening in the green house.  BIG growth on tomato and pepper plants alike.  The basil and other herbs seem to be enjoying themselves as well.  I know I can't wait to enjoy them!



Lillian was excited to take a picture of use standing next to the tallest.  She took a good shot, but you still can't see just how far the tomato reaches toward the sky.  There have been a few nights now where I have been derailed from whatever I was in the middle of (finishing the outside of the green house) and made to scale the inside of the dome in order to string these huge tomato plants up.  Now THAT would have been a photo, except that my cursing would not have been captured fully .. 

Getting some red ones, now.  Pretty soon we'll be up to our eyeballs in tomatoes, which we will do our best to consume, jar, freeze and dehydrate.  We just used up the last bag of frozen tomatoes from last year in my (in)famous black beans and wild rice recipe.

Hop to it!  This is a tower that I built for growing hops.  They are getting a slow start, as I had a delay in getting them in the ground.  With so much to do, I had to fight with myself to make the time needed to assemble and plant the tower.

Hops growing up one of the wires.  I may not get many buds this year, but next year I'll have established vines that ought to produce a healthy amount of hops buds.

A shot of the back garden from underneath the huge mulberry tree, from which we harvested quite a few berries.  It's a little messy with weeds, but the tomato, pepper, eggplant and herb plants are doing pretty well.  Well .. the tomato plants out there are getting blight on them, but we ought to be able to pull off many good tomatoes from the looks of it.

Advice for stringing up 'maters: metal fence posts.  The kind with little notches.  Makes stringing up 'maters very simple.  Simple is good.  So are 'maters.

In front of the garage / chicken coop we have expanded the garden.  Katie's "lasagna garden" worked beautifully last year and we expanded from that.  Out there be bush and pole beans, onions, asparagus, black eyed peas, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, a few apple trees, pear trees and currant bushes.