Buena Mulata peppers:
They started as these spindly little plants that could barely hold themselves up and turned into this! And covered in peppers too. For anyone else growing these my husband says that if they’re less than fully ripe they taste very “green” (and not in a good way), but as long as they’re fully ripe they’re both very hot and very tasty.
The Chocolate Habaneros are happy this year too:
Usually these plants get barely a foot high for me (if that tall, often they’re less than a foot), but this year, they’re huge, the tallest are pushing two feet! I assume thanks to the heat, since hot peppers are considered a hot climate plant. They’re covered in very large habaneros too.
Some more pictures of the Blue Berries tomatoes:
Their final color is determined by how much sunlight they get, so that red one is mostly shaded while the darker ones in the bottom photo are mostly in the sun. What I find amusing is that a not insignificant number of them are coming in yellow and blue instead of red and blue:
The farm that produces this particular hybrid also has a Golden Berries tomato, and clearly they’re related!
I brought some of the Black Plum tomatoes into work with me to share with a couple co-workers. I might have converted them. One asked me to tell him when I’m starting my seedlings in the spring, he’ll pay me the same fee he pays to buy his usual plants at the store. The other asked me where I get my seeds from.
The Black Plums are still our favorite of all the tomatoes. As cool as the White Cherrys and the Blue Berries are I don’t know that I’ll bother to grow them again next year. The Black Icicles I might though. The flavor is similar to the Black Plums, though higher acid, and as a paste tomato they’ll help thicken the tomato sauce up with less simmering.
BTW, I’ve weighed a few of the gallon ziplocks and so far they’re all coming in at over 4lbs each. I’ve lost track of how many are in the freezer. Tomatoes aren’t halfway done yet. I’ve cooked up 4.5 ziplocks worth of tomatoes so far…..
I picked three watermelons last weekend, and took one, and a bunch of mixed tomatoes, over to my north side neighbor (the one who’s husband died), since I remembered that she liked watermelon. She was delighted, and came over Wednesday to admire my garden and tell me that the watermelon was one of the better ones she’s ever had (there’s a reason I grow them!).
I picked another cantaloupe Wednesday, and will hopefully be picking two more today (if not I’ll have to see if I can chicken wire those tires for the night).
I treated all the peppers for caterpillars again. Though the worst by far is the paprika peppers. I’m not actually sure I’m getting any paprikas this year, every time I check the plants I end up pitching more peppers for ‘pillar damage!
Last weekend I spooked an itsy bitsy (barely big enough to be out of the nest) bunny out from under the cantaloupe vines (sigh). Gosh they’re adorable at that stage. Especially when they’re so spooked that they trip themselves and literally end up tumbling ass over ears in their panic. I so wished I could have caught it on video. Then I went back inside and got my bottle of repellent and re-treated the entire garden…..
One of my hibiscus is blooming.
This is the one next to the rain barrels, and so it gets more water than my other ones. The others do have buds on them though, so they’ll be along eventually!
Sunflowers are also going strong:
I am, overall, quite happy with my garden this year!
