Tomato Watch

All of my tomatoes were transplanted 6 weeks ago. At that time, they all looked exactly the same. Here's where they are today.

Brandywine and Juliet.  These are clearly the biggest and healthiest looking, though I don't have much in the way of tomatoes on them yet.

I've got tons of flowers, though, and I'm hoping they start polinating and producing:

The brandywines have a few green tomatoes showing up at the bottom of the plant, but the bulk have yet to show up:

Same goes with the Juliets.  I've harvested a couple here and there that polinated early when I first transplanted.  Then the plants went into "grow" mode and didn't start flowering until recently.

 

My early tomatoes that looked very pathetic a few weeks have perked up and are showing promise.  They've got a couple small tomatoes, but like the others, most of my plants are just really starting to flower right now.

 

Ironically, my first production is coming from the beefsteak I planted in the wine barrels.  They had produced some tomatoes early which are now turning red.  But unlike my other tomato plants, these aren't showing much promise.  My plan is to pull both of these plants soon to make room for bok choi or maybe peas.  I definitely need to see if more cool-season veggies do better in this shadier spot:

What a difference a day makes

Or 2 1/2 weeks, to be more exact. This picture was taken on June 21st.

Less than 3 weeks later, here's what I've got now:

All of this was either direct seeded or transplanted 6 weeks ago.  Boy what a little warm weather will do.

Carrots:

Cucumber, dotted with what looks like rust but I can't be sure.  I'm not losing sleep over it.

This is the butternut squash I'm giving a try.  I've never grown it before.  We'll see what I get.

Pole beans are just starting to flower. 

I've got a bunch of Anaheim peppers now, in various stages of maturity:

And my regular bells are producing like crazy too. Though the plants aren't as big aw my anaheims, I've got lots of peppers.

Both my zucchini and Costa Romanesco are flowering and starting to produce.

The only thing that isn't really doing well are these pots.  Not enough heat and sun in this spot.  I won't be moving them, but I will reconsider what I plant in them going forward:

I'm also not terribly happy with the production from these snow peas.  They didn't grow as prolifically as I'd hoped.  I'm not sure if it was the time of year or the couple of heat waves we've had recently, but they will get pulled tomorrow, probably.  I've got succession plantings of zucchini and pole beans I'd rather put there.

And I've also started broccoli and cabbage.  I planted these seeds a week ago then we promptly had a heat wave.  I'm hoping now that temps have cooled down, I'll start seeing some seedlings.

I WAY over-planted the morning glory and discovered that too many seeds in one spot does stunt the growth.  I'm sure the roots are all fighting for space, but I don't really plan to do anything about it.  I'll just note that for next time.  I did get my first flower today, though I don't see many more on the horizon.

Ruth Bancroft 17th Annual Sculpture In The Garden Exhibit

A huge shout out to Maggie and her awesome blog for turning me on to the Ruth Bancroft gardens and their annual Sculpture in the Garden Exhibit.  We went today and had an awesome time.  If you're in the bay area, you love art and you love gardens (especially succulents) this is a must see.

My only problem with the day was that the battery died on my camera about 1/3 of the way through.  Grrrr.  There were so many more sculptures and beautiful succulents to photograph.  But in a way it forced me to put the camera away and just enjoy the garden.  Honestly, if I didn't live over an hour away, I would visit this exhibit often.

Here are just a few of the things you would see if you went (click on the photographs to enlarge):

Here is a link to the Ruth Bancroft Garden website:  Ruth Bancroft Website  The art exhibit only goes on for a couple months during the summer, so go soon if you're giving it thought!