I don’t have any pics…yet but I have little green tomatoes all over our many plants. Again this year some are unlabeled (the ones my husband gleaned from our starts). My husband wants to see what will happen when some tomatoes are left to their own devices so we will see.

We have Brandywine (some rogue lonely dying plant that I picked up at a store), Green Sausage, some cherry tomatoe variety I have to go read the pack again. And my favorites, Black from Tula, Amish Paste (these grew well last year) and Gold Medal.

More to come…

Well we’re going strong with the garden. We’ve been getting out there every day watering, checking, tapping our fingers, waiting.

Tomorrow we’ll put out the tomato starts. I’ve been hardening them off the last 2 weeks and now they just hang out outside waiting for me to transplant them. I’m scared. I admit it. Tomato plants are so fragile and tempermental at the beginning that I get nervous any time I touch them. Last year we didn’t pluck or trim the suckers or whatever you call that so we’re going to do that this year. If I remember correctly we let them grow wild until about July and the finally my husband convinced me to leave him alone with them for a morning. When I came back he had hacked and twisted them into submission. I was afraid they were dead but they kept giving us great tomatoes all season long.

This year I also have to be a bit more careful about blossom end rot. I had that problem with some last year. I have the lime and I have to be more diligent about checking the water reservoir early on. They (I use the Garden Patch) say you only need to water once a week but I found myself needing to water every couple of days and when it got scorching sometimes daily.

The potatoes are doing well. They took a while to get going because it was still a bit chilly outside but they’re doing well now and we will probably need to top them off with more potting mix next week.

That’s all for now!

I know I’m actually a bit late in posting this but hey! I’ve been busy.

So tomato season is over. We fluctuate in temperatures and haven’t gotten down to freezing…yet but we did already take down one tomato plant.

So where are you with your kitchen garden? Here are some tips I came across when trying to decide what to do with the tomatoes.

1. If your tomato plants still have plenty of tomatoes still on them and you just aren’t ready to give up yet even if winter is knocking at your door you can uproot your plants and hang them upside down somewhere like your garage or basement. Apparently some have gotten tomatoes well into December with this method. I was going to try it but it just seemed a tad messy for me and remember I’m the squeemish gardener.

2. You can pick all your green tomatoes and make up all kinds of green tomato salsas and my mom’s favorite fried green tomatoes. This did not ring my chime so I passed on this.

3. You can pick your big green tomatoes, clean and dry them and either put the all in a box or wrap them individually in newspaper and put them in a box in the garage or basement. Check them every other day or so and when you see some starting to ripen place them on the window sill.

We did this. We had a TON of tomatoes and handed them out with still more than enough for ourselves. We washed about half of them (before becoming exhausted) and wrapped those in newspaper. The rest we just put in a box. Funny enough the ones in the newspaper are ripening the fastest. Our windowsill is very colorful.

I’m also a freezing a few whole. Following this tip.

This week’s Dollar Stretcher Tips has a great tip for stretching your tomato growing season. I had truly wondered about this and I aim to try it. Read it here . Scroll down to Stretching Tomato Growing Season.

You’re Welcome

Okay I think it’s officially fall. The start of school and the month ‘September’ do that for me.

But my tomatoes think that NOW is the time for them to get going.

They are growing beautifully!

It’s annoying and so wonderful all at the same time.

The amish paste are doing the best. There are tons of them and the plant is just growing crazy.

One of the black tula plants, which I thought surely had given up on life revived and has a ton of tomatoes.

The golden (something or other, I’ve forgotten the name) has finally given us two tomatoes and they are the biggest the whole garden has seen.

The only thing that has happened is about two weeks ago my husband and peanut daughter went out there when I was busy elsewhere and pruned everything. Now they don’t do all the reading, analyzing, and agonizing that I do. They just cut what looked bad and IT WORKED!

Go figure…

Whew! The gardening advice never ends!

We have some very flucuating weather as of late and as a result I’ve had some misses with a few tomatoes. I allowed a couple to ripen on the vine and unfortunately this happened during a heat spell which has left them mushy. Ick! Nothing worse than a mushy tomato.

So here I’m linking you up to some good tomato picking tips

• Hyde Park Garden Fair Vegetable picking tips (scroll to the bottom for tomatoes)
• Tomato Casual. None of these were the reason for my tomatoes being mushy but just in case this might happen to you…