Check Out My Ripe Cherry Tomatoes

This is going to be a short post because all I did today was pick some cherry tomatoes and a pepper which I thought you needed to know.  They were ready probably a couple days ago, but I wanted to give them a little bit more time for more of them to ripen before I started harvesting them.

You can see that this Roma tomato is now starting to turn to its proper color.

Steakhouse tomato almost ready to be harvested in a couple of days at most.

Many Corn Plants are Beginning to Produce Silks and Tassels

Today was interesting because I saw my corn stalks and noticed that the hairy part of the corn or silks are being produced by some of the plants.  This is where the corn will reside until it is mature and ready for consumption.  Once it gets pollinated correctly then it will start growing and you will notice that it gets bigger each day.

I don't know if it has been pollinated until the ear begins to grow.  Most corn stalks are able to get as many as three per plant.  I am looking for quality rather than quantity when it comes to corn and any other type of gardening. 

This is the silk and if you have ever peeled corn before then you know exactly what this is.  What you don't know is that this is where the pollen needs to go in order to produce the corn that you and I consume. 

This is where the pollen comes from.  The tassels.

Like everything else in gardening time is what goes against these plants and with only a couple of months left I am confident that I will get plenty of delicious corn to enjoy for the rest of the season.

A Quick Update and Progress of My Plants as of July 28

I have been taking many pictures of my plants especially my pumpkins and melons when they begin to grow so that I can easily see their growth from the first day until I harvest them.  It is very interesting to watch them during the growth phase because they get bigger every day.

My pole beans are what is very interesting to me because they are starting to grow all over the place and attaching themselves to anything that is near them.  Luckily I fixed this by attaching them to ropes that are hanging from the posts that I set up earlier in the season.

They should be getting flowers soon because they are producing the small buds where flowers will start growing.  Once the flower is pollinated it should begin growing beans.  I have a feeling that they will peak in a few weeks and I will be outside for about an hour picking them.

You can see that the pole beans are already starting to grow way past the poles.  All I need to do is make sure that they start growing downward.  I have about twelve feet to work with which is perfect for these beans.

My pumpkins are doing quite well and I now have at least four with another one on the way that flowered this morning.  It was kind of cloudy and there might not have been many bees around.  Once the sun came out then they were buzzing around annoying the heck out of me, but that is there job if you get in their way.  Just watch the sunflowers and you will see them very clearly.  When they open you will definitely see them.

Third pollinated pumpkin.

Fourth pollinated pumpkin

Find out more on my garden progress and you can easily compare my garden crops to your very own and see where you should be at right now.

A New Harvest of Cherry Tomatoes Started Today

I just found out that I had a couple of cherry tomatoes that were ready to pick today.  After looking at all of my cherry tomato plants I was able to pick just five of them for now.  They always ripen before any other type of tomato.  I was just surprised that they had turned red this quickly.  Once they start turning it is only a matter of time before you have too many tomatoes in hand and you don't know what to do with them all.

On the other hand I had a cucumber that came a little bit earlier than all the rest and it was time to pick it because it wasn't going to grow any more.  Picking them before they become tough is something that I like to do in order to savor their sweet flavor.

I also took some snapshots of the latest on my two growing pumpkins.  Take a look at how big they have become.

Noticed Some Pumpkins and Cucumbers Now Available

Checked up on the garden yesterday and have found that cucumbers and pumpkins are now beginning to grow in the garden.  It can be difficult to find them when there are so many leaves covering them especially if you are not using a fence of some kind to let the vines grow.

I just make sure that the vines do not get in the way of other plants and force them to go where I want them to go.  It is a very simple process that you can easily use with short sticks that you have lying around.

As of yesterday I took these pictures of two pumpkins and one cucumber.

These are two vegetables that are very significant in the garden that I thought you would like to know.  I have others including peppers and beans as well which I will talk about later.

Putting My Bean Poles to Good Use

My bean poles were installed about the same time that I happened to till the garden so that I wouldn't have to deal with the hassle of putting them in with my plants in the way.  This would have been a nightmare if I had done this while my plants were growing.

Once my beans started growing runners or the part that continues to grow all season long and hangs on to everything, then it was time to finish the setup.  Hanging ropes from my poles is where they will climb and they can climb to the other side if they get too long.  This should be able to hold the weight of all my plants even if they all have beans on them.

Bush Bean Harvesting and More Blueberries are On The Way

Green beans are my favorite vegetables and I always have to grow them in the garden every year.  It wouldn't be a garden if I didn't have my favorite food in it.  As you know bush beans were planted before I started my pole beans.  Although the pole ones take longer to produce fruit anyways, this just adds to the fact that I will be harvesting the bush beans first.

This is what I did today because there might be some rain coming tomorrow that I would like to avoid if I am able to.  I always try to harvest anything before a rain if I can.  I always find that this is a great way to help out my plants and keep them producing flowers throughout the season.

Check out the beans that I collected this afternoon.

I also noticed that there were plenty of more blueberries that needed to be harvested as well.  Some of the older ones turned to a dark color which means that they will taste much sweeter than any of the normal ones that I picked.  They should all be sweet for the most part, but these dark ones will have an extra something that I will notice when I eat them.

Here are the dark ones so you know what I mean.

Three pounds of blueberries can be found right here.

There are many more vegetables that are starting to begin producing in the garden and the season will get really busy soon.  I might have to start writing more posts during the week.  Come find out what other vegetables are growing in my garden.

The Latest Harvests of Zucchini and Blueberries

Today was a great day for picking blueberries and it has been quite some time since I last picked them a few days ago.  It can take some time for blueberries to ripen and with so many of them on each bush it is a great idea to wait at least three days before going back out there and picking some more.

Some of the larger bushes that I have are producing some of the larger berries which happens every single year.  Feeding all your plants every year will help yield larger and juicier fruits that you can enjoy through the whole season.  Here is what I collected today.

After picking as many ripe berries as I could I went on to check on my zucchinis.  I had quite a few today and I ended up picking three of them.  One of them actually weighed five and a half pounds!  This was the largest one that I have ever grown in the garden.  The other two were about three pounds each which is still very good.

In the next post I will let you how my entire garden is going and what vegetables or fruits I should expect next to harvest.

Tying Tomatoes to Wooden Posts

One of the most important steps in growing tomatoes is to make certain that you have them staked in a way that they will not fall.  When they are on the ground they are susceptible to many pests, insects, and diseases that might be on the soil.  The fruit can easily rot when it is sitting on the ground and it has rained recently. 

This is why I started staking and tying my tomatoes early today.  Getting this part done is one of the most time consuming of most gardening tasks.  Once you get this completed then all you need to do is some basic maintenance with your tomato plants.

I wanted you to see properly tied tomato plants so I took some picture of what my plants look like right after I had tied them to tall wooden poles.

Cherry tomato plants have more leaves and are a little bit shorter than most other tomatoes and that is why tying them together and then to the post is the best course of action which you can see from the last picture.

Harvested The First Set of Blueberries

One of my favorite fruits blueberries are great to have and I always try to enjoy them throughout the summer and save them for days when they are not around.  This week we received much rain which helped them out and the first batch that I picked came two days ago.

I didn't get much because this is only the first of many that will come throughout the entire summer.  One pound is all I got, but there are many more blueberries that I can see that have not yet ripened.  Basically I am hoping that these other bushes will have many more that I will pick in the near future.

Zucchinis are just as great and I had a couple more that needed to be picked before they started to go bad.  I love picking them when they are very large because you cannot find this size in any store.  Although there is only one good meal that you can make out of these large vegetables.

Harvested First Zucchini Today

I just harvested my first zucchini of the year only about 12 hours ago when I first woke up today.  I wasn't sure if it was going to be ready because I have never picked one of these vegetables this early in the season before.  I was a little leery on picking it, but once I felt how strong it was and the sound it made when I tapped on it I knew that it was time to pick it.

It ended up being a good choice because then I used it for dinner today and it was well worth the wait and all the work that I put into getting them.  I hope to pick many more this season, but this is just the beginning and I have more that are growing.  I just need to keep an eye on them and watch for any squash borers that might take up residence in the stems.

Other than picking this zucchini I have been weeding the entire garden for the past week.  This process is always a pain, but it is something that I have to do in order to get vegetables and fruit like the one I just picked today.  This is why weeding is very important for all plants. 

Just some pictures I took of the garden when I was finished weeding it for the most part.