Ending the Garden Season on a High Note

Although it is not the end of the season and I would say that it will not end until the real cold weather arrives I wanted to get a good last harvest from my Roma tomatoes.  I had plenty of them on the plants that I was just waiting for them to ripen fully.  Today I think I picked the most I have ever in just one day.

It just happened that many of them were ripe on the same day.  Since most of them grew at the same time it makes sense that they would also ripen at a similar time.  I did leave some of them on the plant because they were just not quite ready and some of them still had green tomatoes on them as well.

Only a couple were continuing to produce tomatoes, but for the most part production of tomatoes is pretty much over for all the types of tomatoes that I grew this season.  The rest of them will be picked at a later date sometime in the near future.  There was 70 pounds worth of Roma tomatoes which will be turned into thick red sauce.

On a side not some cantaloupes were picked this week.  This makes two types of fruits that were picked this week.  This is usually the time when I start to pick my melons and watermelons are always last to be harvested.  Just four more cantaloupes to enjoy for as long as possible until other melons are ready to be picked.









 I also have one honeydew plant which is the only one to survive during the cooler month of May and it has one fruit on it that is hopefully going to ripen this season.  I hope that it ripens soon before the cool weather harms the vine and it won’t be able to fully ripen.  It has finished growing so right now it is working on the ripening phase of the fruit.

Roma Tomatoes Ripened Over the Past Few Days

Today I had checked out my Roma tomato plants and noticed that there were many that were ready for harvesting.  I had looked at them recently and many of them were not quite ripe enough.  With all the sun we have been having it looks like my Roma tomatoes had turned red quite faster than I thought they would.  This is good for me and I harvested 23 of them today which means I need to start making sauce out of them.

Most of them were a good size and lived up to its reputation of an average weight of a little under a pound per tomato.  Some of them actually weighed one pound and that is the beauty of these super sauce tomatoes.  I still have many more on the plants and they should be ripening very soon for more harvests to come.






Now my cherry tomatoes are just as bountiful and large for the type that they are.  Cherry tomatoes are usually the smallest of the three types of tomatoes, but can be real large.  I have been picking plenty of these tomatoes and today I scored the largest harvest so far with 154 cherry tomatoes!

I thought I had collected the most the other day when I got a little bit more than 100.  Today I was surprised to pick as much as I did and there are still many more out there to pick.

You can see from the picture on the left that there are still many cherry tomatoes that are almost ripe or still green.  This will lead to many more harvests and plenty of cherry tomatoes for salads and other delicious meals.








The last thing I wanted to discuss are my onions which I had left outside to dry them out before bringing them in and using them.  Now that the hot weather has dried them completely it is time to start using them.  I believe that they can last for the rest of the year, but will not extend into next year like the previous harvest did.  I think I will have to use more totes in order to get more onions to last the entire Winter season.  I got a little bit less, but they were still a good size.

Peppers, Corn, Tomatoes, and Cucumbers

This week was very busy with lots of harvesting of many of my vegetables.  Some of the vegetables that I was able to pick included the first of the peppers, corn, cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, zucchini, and even more cucumbers.  I have many more vegetables on the way including my eggplants which look almost ready to pick.

My peppers were picked about a couple of days ago and it was the very first harvest of these sweet delicious vegetables.  I wasn't sure if I was going to pick any more, but there are still many more on the plants which means I will be harvesting many more in the near future.

Today I picked the first corn of the season which I wasn't sure was going to be ready today.  I had been looking at them throughout the week and thought that sometime this week I would begin picking them.  Today was that day that they finally were ripe enough to pick.  I don't want to pick them too early and I don't want to pick them too late.  I like to pick them when they are just right.

I also have been picking Roma tomatoes this week as well.  My cherry tomatoes are doing very well and I was able to get 52 today and some more a couple days ago.  Once the cherry tomatoes are done or most of them have been picked that is usually when I start getting large Roma tomato harvests.

A few days ago I picked some more cucumbers which I didn't want to leave outside for too much longer.  Most of my plants look exhausted, but some of them are still growing vines and producing flowers along with vegetables.  I am not sure how much longer they will be producing, but hopefully it will be for as long as possible as long as the weather holds up.