Mid-July Tomato Update

Wow, sorry I haven't posted anything in a while, the garden is keeping me busy! The tomatoes have finally started ripening, and I am already overwhelmed by the bounty we are receiving! I was lucky enough to have nice friends who contributed to this years tomato crop (thanks Bill, Nels and Angie), and my inability to say no to a free plant has gotten me in way over my head! I am pulling about 4 or 5 tomatoes a day right now, and I'm not including the various cherry types in that number (like the Jelly Bean's, Sweet 100's, and Black Cherry's pictured). I am growing a lot of heirlooms this year that I have never grown before, and not only are they really cool looking- the flavor is outstanding! The hybrids were early producers, and I already made a batch of salsa with them. I also canned my first batch of salsa verde using tomatillos (also pictured), and am almost ready to can another! There's a lot of talk about Late Blight going around, and thankfully we're not showing any signs of it yet (knock on wood). I'm almost anticipating it since the first time I tried growing heirloom tomatoes I got it, and I hadn't attempted heirlooms since! Now, I don't think I could go without heirlooms, although I admit they are a pain in the a$$ to grow organically. The Black Cherry tomato has officially made it to my Must-Have list. We will be growing it every year now as our main cherry tomato (until something better comes along). It has been a heavy producer, and the flavor of the tomatoes are to die for! Other heavy producers that I am antsy to try (they haven't ripened yet) would be the Black Krim and the Japanese Black Trifele. The black tomatoes have definetly peaked my interest this year, and I admit I didn't even wait to see how they tasted before ordering seeds for next year. The JBT (like how I just created an acronym?) has about ten medium sized tomatoes on it right now and is still blooming, and I think I counted 15 on the Black Krim which also still has blooms on it. As for tomatoes that won't be revisiting our garden again, I'll pass on the Green Zebra and Red Lightning, and the Lemon Boy is walking a fine line (but I'll keep him on the list until I find a better tasting yellow tomato). The funkiest tomato plant has been another heavy producer- the Henderson Winsall that I got from Nels. There's a possibilty the tags have been switched and that could be wrong on the name(that's the down side of gardening with a toddler, the plant tags go missing often!), but the picture below is a good example of what it's producing. The tomatoes are pretty twisted, and they are HUGE, and when they ripen they are a deep pink with yellow tones. Hope you are all starting to see success in your garden despite the odd weather-and keep an eye out for Late Blight!

July Bloom Day (sorry it's lame!)

Okay- I'm a little new to the Bloom Day thing, and I admit these pics were taken this past weekend! But I checked- and I have the same stuff blooming today! I think all of the weird weather we've had lately has put everything in a bit of shock!

If You Can't Beat Em'.....

Those of you who listen to my garden rants know that I like to complain about the pests that frequent my yard. Those pests can include my tomato-eating dog, Romie, or the gazillion aphids, whiteflies and mosquitoes that buzz around. The truth is, some of these pests have made me a better gardener and have exposed me to plants (such as California natives) and methods that I may have overlooked before. Using plants that attract beneficial insects has kept some of my pest problems under control, but there is one pest that I really struggle with, a super annoying fur ball that we so cleverly named Mr. Squirrel (very original, eh? Chip or Dale would have been too obvious).

Those of you who don’t try to grow your own food are probably saying “Oh, isn’t he cute?!” No, not really, especially if you are trying to grow your own fruits and vegetables! This guy wipes out every single sunflower I try to grow, not to mention the trail of orange and fig peels that he likes to leave all over my lawn. Don’t get me started on the headache he causes every year in spring when I try to transplant my seedlings into the garden, and then he goes in and digs them all up while I’m at work. Or there was that one time that he teased the dog and made her yank out an entire teepee of green beans as she tried to get to him. Yeah, it would appear that we weren’t on very good terms.

The truth is, as much as I complain about him, I’d hate to see him leave. We’ve been lucky enough to have the same squirrel live in an old lobbed off Italian Cypress tree for a few years now. He used to have a partner, but for the last two years it’s only been him (not sure if she left him for another squirrel, or if he’s widowed, I didn’t want to ask in case it’s a sensitive subject). I don’t know of anyone else that could say they’ve had the same squirrel living with them for a long period of time. I’m not really sure why he picked us, but I kind of feel special that he did. He chases away other squirrels because he’s pretty protective over his garden, and he provides our dog with hours of entertainment (they’re kind of like Tom and Jerry taking turns chasing each other).

Each year I would watch my Mammoth sunflowers disappear one by one. He’d steal them before they even flowered, leaving behind a stalk with a couple of leaves that were lucky enough to be spared by his claws. Last year I decided I would just plant MORE in order to get a couple for us, but that still didn’t work. This year I decided to take a different approach. I planted tons of sunflowers around his tree- Mammoth, Autumn Beauty, Velvet Queen and Lemon Queen (in case he likes variety, of course). I also added a couple strawberry and squash plants that are mingling below the sunflowers. My thought is if I give him so much food that he doesn’t even have to leave his tree, he’ll never really have a reason to venture to the raised beds and cause chaos (because he’d be too fat to move). And of course in other various areas of the yard I planted more sunflowers for US (hopefully).

Last weekend we came home to our first empty stalk. It was one that was right next to his tree, where he literally was able to yawn, roll on his side, and swipe it probably pretty effortlessly. It’s still too early to determine if this approach is going to work, for all I know thousands of other squirrels may move in if Mr. Squirrel gets too fat to chase them off. In the meantime, I’ll try to concentrate on appreciating Mr. Squirrel for who he is and try to understand that he has a place in this world; more specifically he has a place in our yard.

UPDATE: Wow, first time I've had to update a blog! So- I wrote the piece about Mr. Squirrel last night, and this morning we woke up to our first sunflower. I had to do a little happy dance first, then ran to get the camera before it disappeared. By the comments I've already received I have to confess- we have it pretty easy here. We have tons more squirrels in the front yard- that Mr. Squirrel doesn't chase away, and those guys haven't done too much damage. We do have problems with rats (thanks to the neighbors ivy and our fruit tree's), but having a 75 pound dog scares away a lot of the pests. Raccoons, possums, skunks, rabbits, chickens, ducks, and even wild turkeys- all make their way through our neighborhood, causing minimal damage to my front yard. I feel pretty fortunate that we don't have to battle it out with voles or deer- I would be heartbroken to see all of my hard work go to waste!

The Birdhouse

This weekend my daughter Alex and I decided we were going to paint a birdhouse for the yard. Since she's not even 3 years old yet, it requires a lot of planning! It was well worth it though- took us about an hour, and has given us lots of enjoyment. Even if it never attracts birds, it was a fun project for her to do that contributes to the beauty of our garden, and it makes the yard a little bit more whimsical and exciting for her.

Pre-planning: The nice thing about Alex is she takes a nice long nap every day, which gave me lots of time to get the birdhouse ready for her. If I had tried to do all of this when she was awake, her lack of patience (and mine) would have probably ended with a tantrum (from me AND her) and it would have made the whole process a lot less fun. We shopped for the supplies BEFORE her naptime, and it was an easy way to get her to take a nap ("We can't paint our birdhouse until you wake up from a nap sweetie!"). While she was napping I laid out LOTS of plastic, got all of the paints together (we used acrylic Patio Paint), and as you can see I also painted a base coat on the birdhouse. Now, if your child is older, you won't have to do that part, but as you can tell with the finished product, it's better to do that with a toddler if you want overall coverage.

It was a lot of fun to watch her concentrate on her paint job. The ENTIRE time she was talking to all of the birds saying "Here Birdie! I make pretty house for you! Come on in!". All in all, it was a great project for us to do together outdoors, and this abstract looking piece might make a bird family happy someday. Costs involved: $1.00 paintbrush set from Dollar Tree, $5.99 for the birdhouse from Michael's, and $1.75 per tube of Patio Paint, also from Michael's. The fact that you are all envious of our totally awesome one-of-a-kind birdhouse: Priceless :)