Wednesday, August 27, 2008

waiting for some sunshine. . . .

slowly ripening black Nyagous, mmmmm......
this is a tomato called Purple Calabash, er, not the most attractive tomato! its very tasty, I had some last year.
not ripe yet but just to show the lovely heart shape of the Oregon Cherry tomato, the seeds for these were a gift from Wildside. they are very tasty, I have harvested and eaten quite a few of these, none lasting long enough to get their picture taken.....
this gladioli has been coming up for a couple of years now, the original corm handed in from a neighbor.
and one of three surviving sunflowers, I think I planted about forty seeds, and none of them have reached over two feet high, this flower is about two inches across, thats because we have had no sun.
whoopeee! pumpkin stew!! one of these is Small Sugar and one is Invincible, labels lost so not sure which is which!
and the other green one, this is as close as I could get through the tangle of plant.

23 comments:

Gary said...

LOve the calabash! The name alone...

Anonymous said...

Nice photos! Are you practicing permaculture yet? The Campsies are an old haunt of mine. Now I live very far away on the edge of the Great Plains in the USA. The weather is warm enough here for tomato growing outside, but I've just not had much success with them so far. My latest adventure is planting fall vegetables. I put seeds in on Tuesday and I'm hoping for fresh greens right up to November. I use raised beds, which work really well.

Lowa said...

Very nice!

I love glads, they are one of my fave flowers.

Them pumpkins make me excited for fall!

clairesgarden said...

Gary, not something you'ld find in your average supermarket!!
Alsio, permaculture principles cross the whole spectrum of life, not just the garden. there is a book by Elit Coleman called Four-Season Harvest that should help out with the all year round stuff. I have had lettuce in the greenhouse till Nov/Dec and had chard outside with sprouts, leeks, spinnach throughout winter, not very much but a nice treat through the gloomy winter.

clairesgarden said...

Lowa, I'm not sure the galds like it at mine, the neighbor who gifted me this one(and probably all the ones I have)has a garden full of them blooming in all colours, I just get the odd one or so.

Anonymous said...

Hi Claire,
Coming over to your garden, I want a bite of that "Purple Calabash" -- looks yummy -- all those wrinkles! Perhaps might try to grow it sometime(another Summer), if & when I see the seeds -- as well as the Oregon cherry -- thanks for the photos to show! :-)

Kerri said...

Claire, our sunflowers are short this year too, due to lots of rain, and not as much sun and warmth as we'd like. It feels like fall here already. Too soon!!
Your tomatoes look great. The black one is lovely, and the calabash..well, not so lovely, but I believe you about the taste :)
I noticed one stalk of flowers coming on a glad yesterday. They've done poorly this year too, after being so prolific the past 2 years.
We've had a sweet corn year to beat the band..giving it away right, left and center. We've frozen quite a lot ourselves this week, and others have taken some to freeze as well. There's even enough for the raccoons! :) The field corn is looking fabulous too.
Our grape tomatoes began ripening a few weeks ago, but are taking ages to sweeten up, and I just picked the first few ripe Jet Stars (full size toms) yesterday.
We've been eating plenty of yellow squash, zucchini and beans, among other things. Fresh veggies are grrreat!!
There seems very little time for blogging this summer!

Anonymous said...

Oh i love the looks of those tomatos!
I couldn't grow any this year, it was too cool.
Maybe next year.

Matron said...

I'm also having terrible trouble ripening tomatoes this year, we just haven't had enough sunshine. Suppose I will have to go find my recipe for green tomato chutney!

clairesgarden said...

Becky, its bit cool here too, looks like they are starting to ripen okay in the greenhouse now but the outside ones rotted completley.
Matron, love green tomato chutney!!

tlchang said...

Oh! Green tomato chutney is a good idea. Our also sunless summer has left my tomatoes in statis... I've picked a few ripe cherry tomatoes, but that is all.

bonnie said...

The calabash tomato is amazing!

I planted some heirlooms - what I got was a bunch of volunteer cherry tomatoes & some pretty yellow ones!

Gave up on squash after last year's trauma with the kabocha & the squash borers, but somebody else's plot (which started as a funny little miniature formal garden, with a tiny rock garden with a buddha, and nicely arranged flowers) sprouted a volunteer butternut squash that thrived (throve?) and so I have a beautiful butternut sitting in the cabinet waiting for me to get inspired.

Come check out my praying mantis (ignore the gloomy stuff, it was just a blue day but the mantis picture made me happy)!

clairesgarden said...

Tara, my cherry tomatoes ripened much sooner too. still waiting on most of the big ones to turn.
Bonnie, well done on getting a butternut, they have never worked here and this year I'm glad I didn't even try! even colder than the last two years!

Pat said...

Hello,

You have one tomato I don't think my husband has grown yet.
Stop by and visit.
I started a blog for him and his tomatoes. Lots of tomatoes.

Anyway, I'll be back to visit again.

Patsi

clairesgarden said...

Patsi, nice blog!! love your tomato picture!!

Jim said...

Your Purple Calabash is tomato lovely to my eye, and the gladiola is just stunning!

clairesgarden said...

Jim, the tomatoes that ripened have been very tasty, but its getting cold here now and theres a few still very green. haven't had many flowers this summer as the weather is truly bad.

clairesgarden said...

Jim, the tomatoes that ripened have been very tasty, but its getting cold here now and theres a few still very green. haven't had many flowers this summer as the weather is truly bad.

clairesgarden said...

Jim, the tomatoes that ripened have been very tasty, but its getting cold here now and theres a few still very green. haven't had many flowers this summer as the weather is truly bad.

clairesgarden said...

Jim, the tomatoes that ripened have been very tasty, but its getting cold here now and theres a few still very green. haven't had many flowers this summer as the weather is truly bad.

clairesgarden said...

Jim, the tomatoes that ripened have been very tasty, but its getting cold here now and theres a few still very green. haven't had many flowers this summer as the weather is truly bad.

clairesgarden said...

Jim, the tomatoes that ripened have been very tasty, but its getting cold here now and theres a few still very green. haven't had many flowers this summer as the weather is truly bad.

clairesgarden said...

Jim, the tomatoes that ripened have been very tasty, but its getting cold here now and theres a few still very green. haven't had many flowers this summer as the weather is truly bad.