In other Vegetable News...

Wait, you mean there are other vegetables? From reading this blog, you would probably think there was nothing but tomatoes...

But, no, we do have other vegetables. Lettuce is going strong at the moment, but a few are showing signs of bolting. This is one set of lettuce. Also a few late broccoli (which I think are ready to flower even though they are barely an inch in diameter) and some soramame (big beans?) which are being attacked by aphids (I have a close up photo of the aphid problems I will post soon, isn't it nice to have something to look forward to?) Our compost bin is on the left and the small mini tomato patch from yesterday's post behind.

These are other other lettuces and behind them, baby okra. And my husband is thinning! No really! Stop presses! It is a rare event indeed. I was watch a Desperate Housewives episode where Lynette and Tom go to a marriage counselor and she is upset that he is always good cop, forcing her to be bad cop. Well, that's what I sometimes feel like in the garden. When infanticide is called for, I'm the one who has to do the deed. Anyway, here he is, I made him thin his okra and cucumbers himself. These were okra seedlings from the garden store. Salad okra, green and red. I also have some seedlings I started, but haven't planted out yet.
Zucchini is going strong. I planted Black Beauty and Lebanese varieties, and so far the BB seems to be growing faster than the L.

These are the pumpkin seedlings my students planted. Jack o'Lantern on the left and Howden on the right.

Kabocha on the left, then Jack be Little, and Cinderella pumpkins. A few artichokes at the top and bottom. I planted two artichokes near the big tomatoes yesterday, and big pumpkins at the bottom of the embankment this morning. Jack Be Little mini-pumpkins are going to be on a trellis in front of my classroom.

And here are mystery pumpkins which were growing out of the mini-tomato plot. They are the most healthy of all our pumpkins, but we have no idea what kind they are. Last year we had Howden, Cinderella, standard kabocha, and a oval shaped gourd that didn't look or taste very good, but was strong enough to beat back weeds on the embankment. If these are any of the first three, we want to keep them, but if they are the steam roller gourd, we don't. Hmmmm....

Here are baby corn at the bottom of the embankment. We are going to try three sisters this year with corn, vine beans, and pumpkin.We had lovely spinach, but Mr. Must-sow-all-the-seeds-in-the-packs planted them all at the same time and despite my most valiant efforts (spinach for every meal, including breakfast) most of it ended up going to seed.
Cucumbers... Mr-I-won't-kill-a-baby-seedling has an undisclosed number of these hoarded up in curious places around the garden. Oh well, when they are at their peak, we won't be here. If he wants to give himself the cucumber crud again, it is is his choice.
Carrots. He planted them in rows at least this time, but see what I mean about the thinning? I think I will have to give in and be designated murderer again.
Beans...

Onions, peas and potatoes. Just a few potatoes, because M hates potatoes and L is allergic. Well, I said, "Just a few potatoes, okay, honey?" See how he listens to me... I love potatoes, but cooking anything with potatoes means cooking an alternative for the girls. I don't love cooking. But I see a lot of potato cooking in my future. Maybe we should consider a third child. Pregnancy gives me major potato cravings.

The girls check out the potatoes. Do you think Daddy is going try to make us eat all of these??? You're lucky, you're allergic!

pumpkins

We picked our first kabocha ever!
And our second kabocha ever! We must have two of everything in this household!
We took a peek under the upside down cinderella pumpkin and found that ants were nesting on the bottom. Yucko!
So we flipped it over, though we had to pull out some roots it had put down.
And now we have two right side up cinderella pumpkins. The stems still are not woody, so I guess they are not ready to harvest yet. It is really hard to tell. Speaking of harvest...
Here is this afternoon's harvest. Including our first two second generation cucumbers. The large tomatoes are evergreen, that's as red as they get.

the tomatoes are always redder...a neighborhood stroll

Our kabocha had its first flower this morning. A baby girl! Unfortunately, we have no boys yet. There was a bee, I hope it was a far flying bee that had visited the male kabocha flowers a block away. We tried hand-pollinating it with a male American pumpkin flower too, just in case.
I can't remember if these are the Sugar Lump or Chadwick's Cherry, but they are cherry tomatoes, have been this size for about a week, but aren't getting red yet.
Marmande Super. I decided to take the dog and the camera for a walk and see how the neighbors' tomatoes are coming along.
Here is our embankment from a distance. We are on the right in front of the bridge.
It is said that tomatoes do better if protected from direct rainfall. Some people have clear plastic awnings. Some make do with what is at hand. And some (like myself) don't bother. I went up close and it looked like the one with no umbrella was doing just as well as the other two, so I'm not convinced it makes a difference.
I checked lots of gardens, in the last one (the local tomato experts, imo) some cherry tomatoes were starting to redden. These people moved in last year. I've never seen them, but I check their tomatoes almost daily (they live across from the park). They were way ahead of the rest of the neighborhood and some day I hope to run into them to learn their secrets. No umbrellas or other coverings here.
This is a random photo of mums....just because I can't help but wonder why one family could possibly need so many chrysanthemums. He hasn't even finished planting them all yet. This man has tons of plots of land all around. Maybe he just wants to fill up space. I know he doesn't sell any of his produce...
Here is another of his plots. Look at all that space! Wow! We are not as rural as our photos may appear. Most people have houses on 50 tsubo (1/25 acre?) lots. I was feeling rather jealous and almost stole one of his male kabocha flowers (not shown here) to bring home to pollinate our female. But decided that it was bad enough being known as the crazy foreigner (with a crazier dog) who wants to photograph people's tomatoes without being known as a kabocha flower-napper as well.