Fall Garden and Summer Fruit

This has been one of the warmest summers on record. The tomato bushes are all in bloom and full of fruit. I have picked nearly a kilogram of cherry tomatoes and the larger tomatoes have green fruit that should produce in the next few weeks. The plants look great to be nearly 6 months old and to have been producing for 4 months now. With the heat there has been drought although we have have had about an inch of rain this weekend.
Some of the seedlings I put out have grown well and I served arugula to guest over the weekend and have plenty to pick for another salad this week.
I have brought in to share at work several huge gallon bags of basil for the last two weeks and have a lot more to harvest. All in about 1.5 KG.  That is a lot of basil and it makes the whole office smell wonderful with the perfume. With the basil and tomatoes I need to get some good mozzarella for a delicious salad.
Cos Romaine and butter head lettuce can be harvested in the next two weeks.
The heat has meant that some of the winter greens like the kale and collards have been nearly eaten to a stub by the caterpillar of the white cabbage moth. I go out and turn the leaves over and pick them off. interestingly they leave some plants in other part of the garden alone. It is ironic that the bunny fence is working only to have the bugs. I see new growth and I think that even with the setback with some diligence and cooler weather and maybe some new pots the plants will deliver a goodly harvest .
I am going to try to post more but with the three harvests since the last post I have 3.599 KG of produce to report. A KG of that is in tomatoes.

This brings the total up to 162.489KG of weight.

Peppers and Beans: The Farmer Returns

This photo of peppers on the black cook top of the stove is artistic looking. The pepper plant is really coming in know. I had planted it back in the spring and it was only 1 of several I started. I think that for some plants like this I need to let them grow to a larger size in the pot before they are transplanted. On the other hand you can see that only for a few weeks or months do you have fresh peppers even in this more temperate clime. This is a tropical plant and chilies  and peppers are often dried when they are abundant or ground up in things like paprika that in a small amount of space can store a lot of punch.


I am amazed that this tomato plant is which is probably 10 feet around came from a tiny tomato seed. This is the wonder and miracle of planting a tiny seed and getting this mighty plant. Usually the weather will stay warm for at least 6 more weeks and I think that the many flowers and small fruits will have a chance to bear. I think this plant is behaving like a semi-determinate variety in that it flowered and fruited and now has put out a whole new set of flowers and fruit
Old pole bean plants now nearly 5 months old have produce a kilogram of beans in the last few weeks. I love the meat texture and tastes. I do my best to string them but the Farmer's Wife seems to have bad look with the strings. We saw a little gadget to better remove the strings and I would pick one up if I saw one.
Of the new plants lettuce and arugula are looking pretty good. I can start to harvest arugula now and I love that bitter peppery taste in my salad. It is really good on a sandwich with thinly slice apples, cheese  and arugula.

The Farmer has had a long road trip which is why the break in reporting.

Still 2.866 Kilograms of new produce which brings us up to 158.84 KG total

For those still stuck in the English system this 350 lbs!!!!!!!

Baby Fig Trees and Univited Guest(Pest)

This is a picture of my beautiful fig tree. It is pretty amazing that I gave it quite a buzz cut last year and it has grown and filled out so well. I think that figs must be a pretty hardy plant since I do not baby this tree and it gives me a few figs every day now that are so sweet and to the point of being over-ripe.
Some of my friends had said that they wanted a fig tree and so this spring I just poured a bag of manure over some sucker branches and hoped that they would send roots down. Well I was checking this out and it looks like they have rooted and so I will try to pot some of these to give to friends. I will need to check it out but I think I can just cut off the sucker from the tree and put the seedling with the roots into a container. I am going to need some big pots for this project and some soil.  More news as the project progresses.
I have found a few more horned caterpillars and I squished them. One can eat the top out of a plant quickly, so need to look for them often. However the latest pest is some sort of infestation, I think aphids on some of the okra plants. An Okra plant is a pretty tough item to eat. I also see some ants and I know some ants and aphids are symbiotic. The aphids suck from the plant and then they excrete the equivalent of honey poop which apparently the ants love.

The good news is that lady bugs love aphids and they  have shown up as well and so I will watch the battle unfold.
Finally the baby plants are doing pretty well protected from the rabbit I think that you can see that this one will grow into a Romaine lettuce plant in a few weeks.
1.823 KG of produce to report since the last entry. This brings us to 155. 97 KG

The New Farmer is back in town. The Farmer's Daughter is working in an organic garden out west during school for the fall. The Farmer's Wife's parents called to inquire on the progress and so in the spirit of understanding I will report to them that we have only 95 lbs to go to meet the plan of 200kG for the year.