Garden Post!

How's the summer treating my garden?

The sunflowers are blooming!

Which is making the bees happy.

The zucchini is starting to pump out delicious green squashies...

... so is my favorite chocolate zucchini cake far behind?

The Sungolds are ripening...

... and are ready for pizzas, salads, or just snacking.

The basil is looking good, too!

Which means...

Uhhhh...

 what is that?

Well, it's homemade pesto.

I made it from an easy-peasy recipe found on Autostraddle;

the problem is the bright purple basil

which I THOUGHT would make a cool violet pesto

 instead ground up to a not-so-appetizing greenish-grey paste.

It tastes good, though!

So I'm just calling it an homage to a classic Disney dish.

Mystery Solved!

'Member when I potted up some mystery tomato seedlings

that had taken root in some of my pots?

Well, the mystery has been solved!

These little tomatoes have the distinctive pumpkin-y shape of a Costoluto.

And these are the bright orange of Sungolds.

These two types of tomatoes are also coincidentally 

the best performers in my garden this year.

And speaking of "best performers"...

These were NOT.

This tomato plant was a "Lincoln,"

and it got munched on by some dang grasshoppers early in the season.

Instead of rallying, like a little punk it just gave up and and died.

So what to do?

How about some FALL tomatoes?

Armstrong Nurseries has taken advantage of California gardeners

just not being ready to give up our tomato harvest,

and has designated some tomato seedlings "fall tomatoes."

This is a bit of a racket:  these aren't specially bred tomatoes or anything.

They're just tough tomatoes.  I know this because one of the tomatoes offered is

my beloved Costoluto, the volunteer tomato already planted and growing in my garden.

But I picked up three new tomatoes last weekend

-- Long Keeper, Oregon Star, and Stupice --

and planted them in the super-duper expensive high-end potting soil that Armstrong offers.

Because I never get tired of fresh tomatoes.

You Can Be Too Rich Or Too Thin, But You Can Never Have Too Many Tomatoes

Sooo...

how's the garden looking?

Sungolds are coming in...

Tangerines have several nice-sized tomatoes on the vine...

Oooo... that's a hefty Marvel Stripe!

But... what's this?

Hey there, little fella!  What are you doing in a pot with my impatiens?

I planted some annuals using a combination of recycled potting soil

and mostly-broken-down homemade compost,

and some tomato seeds must have been in the mix.

When this little guy popped up, I decided I'd give it a chance.

I had an area where some zucchini plants ("Ronde de Nice", for the record)

just toyed with me before shriveling up and dying.

I figured this tough little tomato plant couldn't do worse.

I added compost, compost, and more compost, and...

Ahh!

That's better!

But what will it be?

A cherry tomato?  An heirloom? A bland supermarket tomato? A new hybrid?

 Only time will tell!

My Desert Island Tomato

Now I realize that designating a tomato to be the
BEST TOMATO IN THE WOOOORLD!!!
is pretty presumptuous, 
especially since this is only my third year growing those tasty veggie-fruits,
and I haven't even grown more than two dozen varieties.

It's sorta like when I was in junior high, and declared Barry Manilow
the most awesome singer everrrrr....

 ....when I hadn't even HEARD Bruce Springsteen yet.

(Bruuuuuuuuce!!!)

But, hey, you can try to deny it, but if Copacabana is on when you're in the car?
You are going to sing the hell out of that song.

"At the COPA!  CopaCABANA!"

So just because I found something even more awesome,
(Bruuuuuuuce!!) 
it doesn't mean my unformed tastes were completely off base.

That said, in my limited experience, if I had to choose one tomato to grow?
It would be Sungold.

(Sungoooooold!)

Now maybe Sungolds are the Manilow of the tomato world.
(Sorry, Barry!  I really do love "Mandy"!)
But while they aren't literally as sweet as candy...

... they are delicious little tomato-y globes of sunshine.

And I would say that my success with these cherry tomatoes
despite my incompetence inexperience is a huge vote in their favor.

Even though I used cruddy soil,
and swung between overwatering and underwatering the potted plant,
and never fertilized at all,
I still managed to harvest enough of these delicious golden globes to top my salads
throughout last summer.

(That's not me.  I didn't have a photo of me and my Sungold-topped salads,
so I thought I'd link to one of those stock photos of  Smiling Women With Salads.)

And here's something else about the Sungold!
Last year's plant went around the horn, and was still producing!

When I was planting new seedlings this spring, it was still alive, although pretty scraggly.
I still hadn't fertilized it AT ALL, and was watering it in the most desultory way.

I was getting ready to tip it out of the pot,
when the Sweet Man asked what I was going to do.

I explained I was going to "shovel prune" it, because, y'know, it was time for a new plant.

Well, the Sweet Man practically flung himself between me and the plant,

like he was Fern, I was Mr. Arable, and the Sungold was tiny Wilbur the pig.

("Mama, where's Dammit Minnie going with that gardening trowel?")

"But it still has tomatoes on it!" he protested, and yes, it did.

(Extreme close-up!)

"So why do you have to get rid of it?" he asked, and I'll be damned if I had a good answer.

"It's an annual?  I think?" I told him.
But a quick Google search said that nope, tomatoes are actually tender perennials.
And that means that in sunny SoCal...

... I should be able to overwinter tomatoes.

So I gave it a haircut...

... replaced the soil with good stuff, and planted it deep.

And what do you know?

It worked!

I've already harvested a nice handful of sweet, sweet Sungolds.

So, yeah, I'm a relative amateur with tomato gardening,
but when I recommend a tomato to fellow newbie?
I tell 'em to go for the 'Gold try Sungold.