Summer in the Garden - Part IV

Our weather has been unseasonably cool this year. Most mornings are grey and overcast for several hours before the sun finally breaks through. And, the highs in our area have only been in the low to mid 80s. Normally, it would be in the high 80s or 90s. I guess this is part of climate change. We have a mild summer while the East Coast has one heat wave after another. 

Regardless, of the the lack of heat, our tomatoes are ripening up. These are Yellow Grapes. I am hoping to harvest these in the next day or two. We already have a bunch of the Isis Candy and a few Sungolds that have been picked. They have been really sweet and delicious. The verdict is still out on our Romas though. A couple of the plants have a few fruits  on them but then the other plants have flowers and no fruit. Yet, they have been getting taller. Not sure if we'll be getting much from those. And, here I was hoping for enough Romas to can a batch of tomatoes. Something tells me that I may have to buy them at the farmer's market if I want to do that.

This is just one of several Japanese eggplants that have emerged in the last week or so. There is even one that is almost large enough to harvest. May be by next weekend, there will be a few to grill.

Our first Jalapeno pepper has finally emerged. Might be able to harvest it this week if the weather gets warmer and this little guy has a growth spurt. We have one very small Red Bell pepper that is to pick. And, there are more on that plant that are starting to ripen and the plant is getting top-heavy so I need stake it.

The Sante Fe lettuce is finally getting big enough to almost eat. We have a couple of heads that might make for nice little salad later this week. Though I am a bit disappointed that so few of the seeds that I planted germinated. I usually have better luck with lettuce but not this time. Time to plant some more seeds and see what happens.

Spring in the Garden - Part III

It's still spring but just barely. In just a couple of more weeks, the solstice will bring us the beginning of summer. But, for now, we are still enjoying the spring weather. We have June gloom. It's overcast and cool in the morning and then gets sunny and warm in the afternoon. And, this weekend we are even experiencing a bit of heat wave with temps in this part of Los Angeles up into the high 80s and low 90s. The veggies are loving it. We have harvested our first little bunch of bush beans. It wasn't that many so we combined them some from the farmer's market to make a full side dish for last night's dinner.

Oh, that's not a bush bean. It's a shelling bean. Or we hope it will be shelling beans. They are Jacob's Gold. They are supposed to taste similar to Pinto Beans. We are cautiously optimistic that the plants will produce enough so that we can actually use them for chili at the end of the summer.

Our Dwarf Meyer Lemon has started producing fruit again. I've counted 10 of them so far. And, we are hoping for a few more. Unfortunately, they won't be ready to harvest till late fall or early winter but it is fun watching them grow.

And, last but not least, we are trying to grow at least 9 tomato plants this year. We did end up ordering seedlings since the ones that we have been trying to start from seed were not doing so well. So, this is a photo of an Isis Candy plant that I picked up at the farmer's market. Isis Candy is a yellow-gold cherry tomato with red marbling. They are supposed to be rich tasting and sweet. They are an indeterminate variety, so we are hoping it will produce well all season long.

And, I have good news about some our little starter seedlings, a few of them look like they are going to survive. I may even be able to start transplanting them next week. The more tomatoes the better! I dream of being able to can some my own homegrown ones.