Well I have tomatoes. Tons of them. And I also have tomato end blossom rot.

Having followed the manufactures instructions of introducing 2 cups of lime per pot I can only assume that the heavy rains we had in May and early June might be contributing factors.

Sigh!

I picked up some Tomato Bloom Spray and I’ve been using that to see if I can abate the problem.

It is very irritating to see a beautiful tomato growing and then go out the next day and find the ends brown.

I’m trying not to be too bent out of shape and just keep notes for next year. There are some lovely tomatoes besides the unsightly ones but…Ugh!

Anyway here is my tomato collage, before I noticed all the ROT! for your viewing pleasure.

Tomato Collage

I’ve been traumatized lately. When I would go to get the mail at these new dandy one stop fits all mailboxes I kind of noticed that a few bees, wasps, I never really got a good look, would drift in and out of the one behind me. I kind of thought to tell the mailman because we’ve had a TON of wasps in the neighborhood. They really like our house too. They were starting to build in the front posts by the door when I decided I had enough. They dive bomb me as I go to the car. I’m sorry I’m squeemish. I know they are supposed to be good and all for the garden but I was not handling it well.

So a few days later our neighbors tell us they saw the mailman get attacked while trying to deliver the mail. Then he disappeared for a couple of days. No mail.

Now I did not blame him and told my husband I had no intention of getting the mail until November.

But being the follow through man that he is my husband went to the post office to let them know about the situation…just in case. Turns out they knew and we’re coming to take care of it. (Yes I did thank God profusely for this. Over and over and still every day).

Also being the curious man that he is my husband went and took a video of the offending creatures. He also got a few still photos and here is one below.

Bees? Nest

My sister says it looks like some sort of animal mouth and well she’s right!

Tomatoes, Black Tula

I didn’t realize it has been since the middle of June since I posted a blog update. I’ve been busy. Who hasn’t? But most importantly (at least as far as the blog is concerned) where are we in gardening?

Well after weeks of agonizing because I wasn’t seeing any bees I discovered little green tomatoes on my tomato plants.

Now about that. We know that the tomato flowers need to be pollinated for tomatoes to appear and we rely on bees to pollinate them. Apparently the pollination of tomato flowers is so easy that a good breeze can accomplish it. There are also the toothbrush and paintbrush methods which I was headed towards but I did not realize that the heavy winds we get at times could be taking care of this for me. I also did eventually see some nice big bees. I guess they visited when I wasn’t looking. By the way I learned all of this couresty of my master gardener friend.

Also our corn is incredibly tall. I’ve got to read a little bit more about what to expect there but they do drink a TON of water. In this heavy duty self-watering container I need to water daily.

The strawberries seem spent. It probably didn’t help that my daughter plucked all the green ones off in the effor to ‘help’. Bless her heart I couldn’t stop laughing.

The lettuce is still hanging in there. I harvested a bunch of leaves last week for salads and really need to go sow more seeds.

The onions have all been pulled. I need to work on them. I do have one going to seed so he is left out there so I can harvest the seeds.

The potatoes are growing away. The green stuff seems to be dying back a bit so I expect to harvest them before long.

The carrots??? A joke on my porch.

I have one rogue cucumber plant. He looks so unhealthy but he’s growing really well. His leaves have spots etc.

Oh I got the garlic bug repellent juice. I spray all the time.