I just have a brief note.

Don't plant grapes and raspberries together or very near each other.

The neighbor at one of my gardens did that sometime before we got there in the '00's. It's a jungle! His wife went in one time and cut every raspberry down to the ground. Grapes were pruned. Posts and trellis for the grapes improved. The raspberries came right back, of course. Access deteriorated again to zero ... it's a home for wildlife.

digit

Not a lot of activity yet, Got a couple of microscopic Sungold tomatoes. Zukes are leafing out nicely, but no blooms. Chester dwarf blackberry isn't doing much so far.

Tomatoes have a few blooms. My patty pan plants are getting big but no blooms yet.

In the Aurora garden the grapes, peppers and basil are doing great. Been harvesting peppers for several weeks already. Cucumbers and okra are looking okay. They took the worst of the hail storms. Potatoes have already grown huge and fallen over. Letting a number of things go to seed including dill, arugula, cilantro, chard and lettuce. The flowers attract a lot of beneficials and I want the volunteers. Tomatoes look okay but rarely thrive in the sandy soil.

In the Westminster vegetable garden, the summer and winter squash are taking off in size as well as the melons. Garlic and shallots are almost ready to harvest. Onions and leeks look good. Peppers are struggling a bit in the new bed. The struggle with rabbits continue. This neighborhood has on average about five rabbits per household! Grrr. We have one section fenced in and up here I tend to grow things that they ignore.

Hi Jerry,

Yes the cucumber did pass away but the patty pan and the yellow zucchini seem to be making it. Thanks again for the starts.

The tomatoes we got at the swap all seem to be doing well. The only thing that didn't make it is the spinach area. I think the seeds weren't viable as none came up. The red onion starts we put in seemed to get pretty big but haven't pulled any up yet to look at the size.

Our veggie beds are typically a mess. My husband doesn't like to weed them and we don't hire anyone in often enough to keep them in good order. But we love them all the same because we have such fun picking stuff to eat out of them. So far we have gotten strawberries, chives and dill. We expect a good crop of patty pan, zucchini, some pumpkin, tomatoes, and red onions. On the other side of the house we have raspberries.

Things have picked up since I posted this 4 days ago.

The tomatoes are all blooming and all but 2 have small fruits.

The Trionfo Violetta pole beans are to the top of the 6' tower and two other varieties 18" away, but NO blossoms yet.

Squash and cukes are blooming, but mostly just male flowers so far. We found the first female flowers on the Patti Pan today. They will probably bloom tomorrow.

Just a little to the right and up from center:

In the center:

The peppers in the new bed still look pretty sad. I topped of the plants in the first row and they are showing good lower growth, so there is hope.

All of the sudden, daylilys went wild. Here are some that I FINALLY will divide and bring to the fall swap. The first two are smaller with foliage 18-19" and blooms 20-22".

Moonlit Masquerade below is larger.

Jerry, I do see your little patty pan baby! I think mine finally has some buds on it. I will be watching closely for the females.

Your daylilies are really beautiful. I love that pink one! Mine are all ready to pop as well.

Jerry,

As you can see your yellow zucchini is doing really well! Thanks again.

Looks like food!

The first of the tomatoes ... except I ate 2! Probably Sungold and not Sun Sugar. These are from the garden, where I am already having trouble finding plant tags and have to rely more on appearance.

Corn is "knee-high by the 4th of July."

Cucumbers and melons are barely growing but pumpkins and squash are looking good and beginning to flower.

Temperatures in the 40’s this morning and yesterday! I think that we are finished with that nonsense for awhile ... Happy 4th of July!

Steve

Today it became food. :-)

Jerry,

These yellow zucchini are amazing. We just finished the first one and a second is now ready so I picked it. There is a third on the way for when we finish this one.

This one plant is perfect for us! Thanks again!

Edit: This is what became of it. Strawberry zucchini cinnamon almond flower pancakes.

DW will have the one on the right with dinner, tonight.

We already "negotiated" the use for the other: In about another week, we will turn it into zucchini bread ت . By then, there should be several more.

Steve

Very nice! I think our next one will go on the grill.

The first one was chopped up and used as topping on cheese nachos (mostly).

I have some baby tomatoes and two, count them two, patty pans! I'm going to feed the world....Hahaha

I've got to more closely inspect my patty pan. Haven't seen anything from it yet.

Not sure what to think with this metal recycling plant fire. Will the veggies absorb the toxins? We're trying to stay indoors.

mmmm12, your yellow squash are ahead of mine, but I do have on up to about 7 inches now. I cannot claim any great skill in picking the variety - I just buy yellow ones so I can find them!

We have picked one patti pan, one more will be ready in teh next few days and about 6-7 little ones started.

ONE Sungold has been eaten.

A few little beans have set.

We aren't discussing the peppers.

Ok, not blossoms or fruit, but look at the leaves on this Emerite bean plant. First time I have grown these.

These aren’t fruit and they did bloom but I don’t think that is what Jerry had in mind.

DW wanted purple potatoes - Majesty. I find the color a little off-putting. But, then again, I had trouble with Yukon Gold because it only looked like it was loaded with butter.

Not many of the tubers but the plants flowered and even dropped their petals ... I really haven't looked to see if fruit formed. Removing 2 plants made room for a zucchini plant so all those late-planted things didn't all have to crowd in with the onions.

I'm looking forward to the other spuds ... notably, Yukon Gold.

Steve

Hardly believe that 1 vine has this Passport melon:

Quite a way from harvest but still!

digit!

I'm still having quite a lot of issues with tomatoes setting fruit in this heat. If we hit 90F today it'll be #34. We should hit 40 days by the end of the weekend.. ridiculous. I don't know if the early heat plays a role or not (my guess is yes), but I am having major issues with BER. I've never had so many different varieties get it, but I do know it's not always simply a calcium deficiency. Weather stress and uneven watering can also cause it. Calcium shouldn't be an issue because I add dolomite to the soil every March so it has time to break down. I also add calcium nitrate to the water to supplement the calcium. Watering also shouldn't be an issue because they're being grown in Earthboxes and get their consistent supply of water from reservoirs in the containers. I think the heat is to blame. Hopefully, once we get some consistently cooler weather in the 80s, they'll set like mad men.

On another spectrum, I have removed 5 tomato plants due to disease and am babying along two additional ones with some organic fungicide. I've never had more than two plants get anything before, and it's never been bad enough for me to actually remove an entire plant, so it's been a bit concerning. I do know that stress makes them more vulnerable, so that's what I'm going with. I still have 28 active and healthy plants.

Now, with that said, most of the tomato plants, particularly the determinate varieties, and the peppers are thriving. I am getting 5" long jalapenos for the first time ever. They're amazing. And hot. :) The eggplant and cucumber are also doing very well.

I plan to start some greens (chard, lettuce, etc.) for fall soon. I should've started some this past Sunday when it was in the 70s. I usually don't even think about it until mid-August and that is often too late.

Here's to some cooler weather and better blossom set going forward!!

Winter and summer squash are growing in leaps and bounds.Peppers are recovering here in Westminster from the rabbit attacks. Tomatoes are looking okay sort of on the smaller size for mid July but seeing some fruit. No signs of disease yet in Aurora or Westminster.

We had a great garlic harvest. About a hundred large heads of Music garlic. Onions are starting to bulb up.

I'll be starting lettuce and other greens indoors soon for planting out in August

Squash are doing very well for us also. Tomato fruit set seems to be way behind. did get one nice Black From Tula but that was an outlier. A few Sungolds. Beans also very lush but limited beans so far.

I was just thinking yesterday that I should have lots of tomatoes. That's if what is mostly on the plants now don't stifle growth and that will be all there is. Still, it will be some ...

We haven't had such extreme weather, however. The temperature was 99°f again, yesterday for the 2nd time. A 68° morning must be the warmest low this year. We have had wind ... that can be a real problem and I need to run the sprinklers tomorrow and wonder how that may turn out.

Nick, I think that you are right about the heat and fruit set. BER is about fluid movement through plant tissue, as I understand it. That has to be about a number of factors but I don't know of any more bases you should need to touch to get things set right. Patience is probably all that is required now.

Interesting how different plants respond in different ways to the conditions. It's a good argument for diversity in the garden. We can promote that because it's fun and to hedge our bets. Weather is such a wild card.

Steve

A tale of two patty pans. This is the big harvest today. I have two patty pans from the plants I grew from seeds recommended by Jerry. One small and one large. A lemon for scale.

I ate the little one already.

Picked a whole bunch of green beans today.

Pulled the peas outta the way and planted ... bean seed!

I once thought that I could plant beans anytime during July but learned that this isn't always true. Settled on a July 15 date but here it is, the 23rd. The peas were late. Blame the tractor guy! They had a very short season with the hot sunny weather. Did okay. Had plenty - snap, snow and shell.

Jade, our standard bush beans is the variety producing and most of the new seed sown. Velour, a purple French type, is my new try for 2018. The Rattlesnake pole beans are climbing just fine..

Steve

I thought my tomatoes were the only ones with great plants and very few fruit! I see lots of empty spaces where flowers failed to stay. This is not a good tomato year for me. Hot peppers are losing lots of flowers, too, but I know they will recover. I'm growing a new-to-me Rezha Macedonian Jalapeño that has corking circling the fruit instead of up and down. Very different.

The broccoli is almost ready to pick, the Emerald Crown is a deep green, the Gypsy is a lighter green. First time growing Gypsy.

Good garlic harvest, still hanging under the deck. I'd love to trade a few of my Estonian Red for Greg's Music.

I'm open to a trade. My work takes me all over the metro area so message me and we'll work something out.

Had a poor year with tomatoes too. Ate one nice Anasazi tomato yesterday. And some small yellow cherry tomatoes.

My watermelons are blooming and setting fruits like crazy now.

Planted some squash late last week and they are huge already. Planted some fall peas some are already up.

The cherry tomatoes from the swap are just coming in.

I have had 2 patty pans but the yellow zucchini is providing at least one per week which works our great for incorporating in our diet.

I want to put the link here so I can find this plant next year. This is the best zucchini plant I've ever had. Thanks Jerry!

https://www.rareseeds.com/zucchini-golden-squas-1-oz/

I checked the tomato plants in Aurora the other day and not a single fruit has been set. I'm wondering if it's getting too late and I should remove them. Finally a break from the heat for a bit so maybe the blossoms will stop dropping.

We mostly planted tomatoes, Black Krim. Pitiful this year, despite our efforts. But starting to see some new blossoms, so hopeful we'll at least get some fruit before end of season. Krim's being indeterminate, might be possible.

The two pumpkins I planted still only have male blossoms. Jalapeno, cucumber, and the Thai pepper I got from gjcore are finally showing some signs of tiny fruit developing, and some more flowering. Potatoes and parsley are growing well, the lemon basil I got from gjcore is small but have been harvesting some leaves - it has been flowering, so I keep pinching off the buds to encourage more leaf growth.

The Red LaSoda potatoes are looking good as I slowly work my way through the spud patch.

Then, there are a few of these tomatoes:

There was one of more of a beefsteak size but, you know, we ate it. I feel like the bigger tomatoes will begin to unload any minute. I’m happy at this time of year that there is a steady supply of cherries and a few of more medium size.

Those are probably just Early Girls and the smaller yellow one was a Woodle Orange but crossed with something. We call it a woodle witz and it is my DW’a favorite.

Steve

Tomatoes are starting to come in here in Westminster and finally fruit is setting in Aurora. Otherwise most plants are doing really well. Cucumbers and beans are coming in heavy. The Japanese cucumbers are very tasty. Basil plants are getting huge and I need to get busy making and freezing pesto. Butternuts are going crazy good thing I left them a large area. The butternuts are very large and a few are beginning to blush. The grapevine in Aurora is bearing heavy and I need to prune it some and get the nets over it before the tree rats start feasting.

Overall it's looking like it's going to be a good year.

Just got back from 11 days out of town. My wonderful neighbor Sara watched over the garden and harvested while we were gone.

The beans finally took off - she must have picked over a hundred, Patti Pan and Rugosa Friulana (warted) squash produced 8-10 each. She had about 20-30 smaller tomatoes (Sungold and Garden Gem) but I didn't notice any larger ones. There are more green tomatoes on the plants now. Dragon's Egg cucumbers produced quite a few.

The Somerset grapes achieved veraison while we were gone - expecting ripe grapes in a couple of weeks or so.

I lost 3 of ten tomato plants to disease or herbicide drift this year.

There were several small melons hiding in there! I believe that I referred to these Galia melons as Passport. They are Diplomat ...

Truth be known, I can't really see a difference between the Diplomat that I'm now growing and the Passport that were in my garden several years ago.

Which ever Galia melon was a big find for me in this melon-challenged area. I'm pleased that the horticulturalists came up with them!

Steve

Looking good Steve. I'm guessing you don't grow too many carrots in that soil unless you have some deep raised beds.

Absolutely right, Greg!

At one time I had a garden with sandy soil. It was okay for carrots. I had a garden with mostly pea gravel. It was okay but only with about 4" carrots, anything longer could have problems. There were few long ones that were perfect even though the ground might be cultivated to the 11" depth of my spading fork.

I'm not too pleased with any root crops in the big veggie garden. Beets are pretty much okay. Celeriac didn't do so well in 2017 and I think that the gravel causes a potato variety to split! Viking Purple was the best producer in the pea gravel soil but they almost consistently split in the heavier gravel. They did not do that at all in the pea gravel ... fortunately, they are the only variety to suffer splits but I suffer, too. Good production and I liked their waxy texture. Two seasons and I'm convinced that Viking Purple doesn't belong in that soil!

Steve

Melons!

A primary reason for me to be a gardener. (However, there were early years when I relied on my enthusiasm for green beans and sweet corn. ;o)

For some reason, the first galia melon and cantaloupe are the smallest on the vines. But, they were welcome at the table. Distinguished guests, Diplomat and Goddess ... altho Goddess may be a muskmelon and not a cantaloupe ... never could get those distinctions clear ...

Waiting a little longer for new-to-me Halona. Which is a cantaloupe, maybe "eastern" or "western" or it's a muskmelon! Who knows??

Steve

I just HAD to share this bright colorful photo of a Solanum peruvianum wild tomato plant that is in my garden this year! It is so showy it's awesome!! The bees really like these bright flowered wild tomato species! Would look awesome in a flower garden as well!

Very cool, keen101!

Is anyone growing the tiny tomatoes that are the size of peas? I saw them in someone's garden a couple of weeks ago and I am now fascinated!

opmama, we had few early that I picked off. Tomatoes are finally coming in, but will probably down 60% on harvest for the season. Meanwhile, the Sungold has hundreds of tomatoes now.

I have Coyote again this year, Popmama.

It's a very small cherry, not quite pea-size.

It has an unusual flavor but I like it.

Steve

I assume you mean currant tomatoes (Solanum pimpinellifolium) of which Coyote is one I've heard of. I did last year, i grew pure S. pimpinellifolium from the TGRC and/or Peace Seeds. They tasted bland to me so i stopped growing them, but they could have reseeded naturally. I am however growing S. Cheesmaniae and S. Galapagense which are both close to currant tomatoes. I am also growing one from Terrior seeds that they CLAIM is a pure S. Cheesmaniae, but is actually some sort of hybrid with domestic tomatoes. It is AWESOME! It had the wild sprawling habit of S. Cheesmaniae or S. pimpinellifolium but with larger tomatoes and better flavor. Kind of tangy. Very productive.

My tomatoes were easily 2-3 weeks later than normal this year and my plants have "struggled" more than usual. The indeterminates are still mostly 6' tall or more, but I am really battling issues with disease. I have lost 7 plants completely and almost every one of the remaining 28 plants has something going on to a varying degree. I've never had that happen before. I very rarely spray anything unless I feel it's necessary, and now that it's almost September, there's really no point. I shouldn't complain because I am getting sizeable harvests and many of the fruit are HUGE, but production is much lower than this time last season. I blame the early heat and then quick transition to cool and extremely stormy (we've had 13 hailstorms at our house this summer, including one evening in late June where we had 6 or 7 in sequence). The determinates seem to already be shutting down, which I know is what they're supposed to do, but our season is usually short enough that I can get multiple large harvests and the frosts kill them off before age does.

The peppers and basil have done beautifully this season, so that's good. For the first time in 5 years I have jalapenos large enough to stuff (some over 5" long).

I am actually kind of looking forward to putting the garden to bed for the season and begin planning for next. It's been sort of stressful with the bad weather and disease issues. I plan to fortify my shade cloth next year so everything is well covered for the entire season.

Some harvest photos below.

1884 weighing 1 pound, 12¼ ounces (taken 08/13/18):

Further harvest from 08/13/18 (includes Cream Sausage, 1884, Amana Orange, Paragon, Bush Early Girl, Golden Girl, Yaqui, Barnes Mountain, Big Beef and tons of jalepenos):

Harvest from 08/20/18 (got a small cucumber from a severely hail-damaged plant, so that's fun - might even get a few more!):

Beautiful harvest photos, nbm! Makes me want to make BLTs in the worst way! I grew Amana Orange this year as well and I have two fairly large tomatoes ready to come off. I'm not even in your league!

Thanks, popmama! I really like orange varieties in general and Amana Orange is amazing. I think I've harvested 6 and all have been right around a pound (few ounces under, few ounces over). Really nice tomato, I'll probably grow it again next season.

I grow in Earthboxes and they just produce beautiful and productive plants. Can't say enough good things about them. :)

We've got a big pumpkin! Fall is coming.

And another one of the zucchinis has gotten away from me and grown very large. I've just got to figure out how to get it out of there without breaking off the up and coming ones.