We did have ripe tomatoes when we got home. They are from a Rumi Banjan plant, and I showed photos of them previously on the plant. We ate about half of what was on the plant, then yesterday I picked this handful to take for sharing with Frank & Kathy Calta.
Piper and the bunny are enjoying each others company immensely. Whenever the bunny is digging Piper is pretty sure that the bunny is hunting mice and chipmunks. Who knows? Maybe she is, or maybe her digging rousts out rodents so Piper is at the ready.
A squirrel ran across the back fence while these two were cuddled up on the deck, and Piper leaped up and ran for the back gate to watch. Bunny was right on her heels, not sure what all the excitement was, but damn if she was going to be left out.
Bumblebees, some with bodies the size nearly of a hummingbird, are enjoying the monarda around the pond.
Volunteer borage are now flowering as well. The flowers themselves taste like sugar, and the leaves like cucumbers.
The color of the purple coneflowers is an unearthly purple which the digital camera does not really do justice too. Or maybe it is my computer screen. Oh well. In either case, they are a wonder to gaze upon in person.
I know I photographed the muskmelons earlier, but their profusion still stuns me. Lots of little ones under the leaves and bumblebees making their way from flower to flower.
I thinned one row of Bok Choi cabbage, leaving me with a huge handfull of seedlings. I am seeing how well they transplant. Shown above is an area behind my dill and under one of the apple trees I turned over and put three short rows in. I have some room in the front garden as well where I took out a row of garlic, and will shortly when I pull some other greens that have bolted and I have no need to save for seed.
These improvised 10′ trellises of dry shelling beans are happily wending their way skywards. This is on the north side of the area fenced in for Piper and the bunny.
Christmas Lima beans have encased their trellis and are still setting pods in great profusion. Last year I had Rattlesnake pole beans here, and there are a few volunteer Rattlesnake plants intermingled along with them.
I have 6 Joe Lauere/Terhune tomato crosses and of those 3 , plants 2, 3 and 4 are larger, earlier, and apparently more prolific than the others. Above is plant #2 showing the hoped for beefsteak fruit type.
Plant #3, showing an even wider fruit than plant #2.
Plant #4, showing more of a plum shape in nice clusters.
Right before we left on vacation I picked the Rattlesnake beans clean. They are loaded up again with many pods getting perhaps more mature than is ideal for fresh eating already.
Up against the back fence I planted a few hills of watermelons right at the beginning of July. They are vining and flowering happily, though no where near the extent the muskmelons have grown that were planted at the same time.
This wall of plants are all Manitoba, which I thought, for some reason, would not reach the heights they are already. At 6′ tall they show no signs of slowing down and are loaded with green fruits. In front of them are a few volunteer squash I did not have the heart to pull. This bed is in the pet run area so the squash may get trampled. Oh well.
The apple tree I grew from seed dropped most of its apples at golf ball size. I cut those open to see if there was a problem, and they all had worms in their cores. There are still some though still in the tree, larger than baseballs already, and I am hoping that these do not have the same issue, and that the tree simply aborted those infested with worms.
Claire and I made a quick run to the Minnetonka garden to see how it fared while we were gone. There were some positive, and some negative things we found. From here, at first glance, things looked great. Photo is from the southeast corner looking northwest.
This shot I took immediately after the first, from the southwest corner looking northeast.
Me in the middle of the tomatoes, between rows of Nell’s Sweathearts, and Chrstopher Columbus paste tomatoes.
Jimmy Nardello peppers look good, with tons of peppers set on the plants and more on the way.
But this is the bed which held 30+ Tug Hill Paprika peppers, all of which were growing happily and flowering before we left. Something ate them all down to stubs, leaving not a single one standing, but ignoring corn seedling volunteers.
I assume whatever ate the peppers, also made their way down the row of pole beans, eating the lower parts that were not twined up, leaving the vines dead and dry above.
The lower plants are mostly still alive, but being as late in the season as it is, I do not know if they will be able to vine, flower, set pods, and dry down before frosts. We will see. Saddens me a bit as these were grow outs of the Hidatsa Shield/Dragon Tongue cross I have been working on and of the ones I planted, I put in every seed saved except for one so I could identify what variations I had put in the ground. Oh well.
So, overall for these two gardens, things are going fairly well, but we seem to have a predation problem we will have to eliminate before it gets to the Jimmy Nardello peppers, and the Kale. One does what one must do.
