Terry Coombs wrote:

Â* Has started . A cucumber here , there a pepper , a couple of tomatoes
... The pepper plants are so loaded I had to stake them and we've
already made a batch of pickles .

we just picked another five gallon bucket full of
cucumbers this morning so that will be my project for
the day getting those scrubbed and put up.


The white greasy beans are easily 18"
over the top of the 5' trellis and loaded .

have you eaten any yet?

most of the beans here are behind, but some are
finally starting to get some flowers.


Tomato plants are nearly all
a foot or more taller than the 5 foot cages , and loaded with fruit .
And still blooming their happy little butts off .



I'm totally amazed at
the difference over last year . I was considering thinning the tomatoes
, but my go-to-girl at the co-op said that if the tomatoes are getting
good sized I'd just be throwing away part of my crop .

i've never bothered to thin or remove suckers or
whatever some people go on about. my brother did
all of that before, but we've not ever done it and
always have plenty.


Most of the
credit goes to the county extension service , but I think part of the
reason for this success is because I'm watering more this year .

we've had no rain since we had the 5+" downpour a
few weeks ago. from feast to famine... i get out
every two or three days to water, in this heat with
the clay it's better to keep it regularly watered
so it can get down to the roots of the plants. that
helps to avoid the worst of the BER, we may get a
few early tomatoes with that but after they seem to
do ok.


On
another note , my peppers are not what I thought I planted - well some
of them . What were supposed to be serranos are mostly , except for a
couple that look suspiciously like jalapenos ... and one of the orange
bells ain't either orange or bell , but looks like a small tomato that's
been squeezed a little flat . Ain't open pollination awesome ?

it's interesting what may come up. after a while
you may get more odd things than you can ever evaluate.


songbird